Southwest Madagascar
Malazamanga
- Max depth50 m
- CertificationFull cave
- SpecialSidemount
Diving and fills
Dive here with
What it looks like
All 1 videos and posts
Videos and posts
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Other people's footage, not advice: how someone else dives here says nothing about what suits your team. Dive within your training.
The dive
Beyond a muddy pool at the bottom of a sinkhole and a tight restriction, a series of huge chambers opens up; what looked like walls under ordinary lights turned out, with tens of thousands of lumens, to be rock columns in a single chamber over 200 m wide.
Profile and sections
Beyond a muddy pool at the bottom of a sinkhole and a tight restriction, a series of huge chambers opens up; what looked like walls under ordinary lights turned out, with tens of thousands of lumens, to be rock columns in a single chamber over 200 m wide. According to the MCDA some passages are over 100 m wide.
Phillip Lehman, Patrick Widmann and Ryan Dart's team found the cave in 2013, three days before leaving, and laid over a kilometre of line on the last day. In 2016 Hans Kaspersetz and Patrick Widmann took the cave from 2.7 to over 4.5 km; that made it the largest submerged cave in Africa at the time. The name means 'famous blue' in the local dialect.
Practical: only with an organised expedition and park fees for Madagascar National Parks.
- Depth and profile
- Average ~20 m, max 50 m (going that deep is optional with Axolot); the cave carries on beyond 50 m · explored: over 4.5 km (2016).
- Configuration
- Sidemount: the chambers are separated by restrictions that require partial removal of your gear. The explorers moved to CCR; Axolot dives with one, sometimes two stages.
Who can dive where
- At least Full cave
- Configurations: Sidemount / CCR
- Goes down to 50 m (trimix or deco may be needed)
- Experienced divers only
This is how the planner decides who in your team may dive this cave. Rules your own trip adds (organizer, a mail, the AI) show with your trip.
How to get there
In Tsimanampetsotsa National Park, ~1.5 hours' drive through villages from Anakao. At the bottom of a large sinkhole lies a muddy pool a metre across; the team descended to the water on a rope.
Around Malazamanga
FillsNo fill station known nearby
Caves nearby4
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