Little River state parkToday, we visited Little River, a beautiful system that has come under the umbrella of the Florida State Parks system. Once a crumbling river bank that would get washed out in floods, it is now quite manicured and highly accessible. Oddly enough, though, no tables or benches are provided for divers. Why that would be, I have no idea.

The Little River system is known for being highly variable in its flow rates. Today, as at Ginnie yesterday, we encountered low water and a correspondingly gentle flow. At other times, the flow can absolutely howl. Because of that, it is often the system with the best visibility.

Jehannine briefs Team 2The entrance to Little River is a slanting tunnel that drops steadily down to 60' or so, where you tie off your reel to the main line. Soon after that, you encounter a corkscrewing drop, the "Chimney", which takes you to approx. 90'. You stay at roughly this depth for the rest of the dive.

This cave is quite different from Peacock and Ginnie. The rock is carved into much smoother formations with interesting shapes. Very cool indeed.

Team 2 penetrated approximately 900 ft into the cave, just shy of the T that marks the circuit known as "Merry-go-round". Team 1 continued further.

On exiting, the main thing to be aware of is how disorienting the Chimney can be. You need to keep an eye on your buoyancy, take it slow, and try not to get hung up on the line, which can easily end up out of sight above you if you're not careful.

On exiting, Chris declared this his favourite cave so far, including those in Mexico, and I can see what he means. A very cool dive that I look forward to repeating.

After two dives at Little River, Chris and Kim called it a day; Jeremy, Sonia and Jehannine got their tanks filled at the Dive Outpost and quickly booted over to Peacock for a last dive of the day.

There, we went down the Peanut tunnel about 1,700' in - much further than I had gone on our first day. At that point, Jehannine turned the dive due to hunger (!) and we made a leisurely exit for a total dive time of 64 minutes.

A good day.