The Full Circle Expedition
31 May 2002 updated 1 August 2002 and 11 October 2002
The Belize Academy of Diving has stepped
in to save the day for the Full Circle Expedition because
the dive center originally planned for Belize was forced to
drop out.
The Full Circle Expedition is the diving trip of a lifetime covering five continents and four oceans in three months. The expedition is visiting the top ten dive sites on Earth between September and November 2002. Such a trip would not be complete without a visit to the Blue Hole in Belize.
The Blue Hole was made famous by Jacques Cousteau in his 1970 Calypso expedition. It was formed in an ice age about 15,000 years ago, when the sea level dropped by hundreds of feet as sea water froze. Fresh water flowed through the exposed limestone to form huge caverns. Much later, when the ice age was over, the roof collapsed to form a sinkhole.
The Blue Hole has a diameter of 1000 feet at the rim, and drops to a maximum depth of 412 feet. At a depth between 90 - 100 feet the sheer wall recedes at about a 55o angle and this overhang environment is where the famous stalactites start. At around 150 feet these grow to be about 3 feet in diameter and 20 feet in length.
The stalactites are the main attraction of diving the Blue Hole. There is relatively little marine life there and although sharks are sometimes seen, their appearance is unpredictable. Stunning coral and sea life are abundant in the surrounding coral reefs that are dived after visiting the Blue Hole to make up a full daytrip.
The Full Circle Expedition was conceived
by British dive journalist Monty Halls. An ex Royal
Marines Officer, Monty has been leading diving projects
around the world for many years, working for conservation
groups, scientific organizations, and the media. His
travels as a dive journalist have also taken him to Africa,
Central America, South East Asia, and recently India, where
his team discovered the ruins of a sunken city off the coast
of Tamil Nadu.
The expedition is being run in conjunction with the 10 host dive centers, the Shark Trust and UK's Diver magazine, which will record the whole journey in its pages. Diver is also sponsoring one lucky competition winner to join Monty and 12 others, who will pay £10,800 each, which is a fraction of the cost of visiting each site separately,
As well as the Blue Hole, the expedition is visiting:
- Great white sharks, South Africa
- Aliwal Shoal, Natal, South Africa
- Palau Archipelago, Micronesia
- Manta Bay, Yap
- Great Barrier Reef, Australia
- Poor Knights Islands, New Zealand
- Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
- Little Bahamas Bank, Bahamas
If you would like to experience the excitement of diving the Blue Hole too, then contact us by email or phone +501 226 3170