Ginnie Springs is way from Florida's popular attractions, nestled inside a beautiful, lush setting among centuries-old cypress trees within the rolling hills of Northern Florida near the Georgia border. Among hundreds of natural springs in this region of the state -- they're area of the massive, intricate Florida Aquifer that supplies the majority of the state's h2o -- it features probably the most amazing Underwater Cave and cavern diving with in the world.
My guide for my expedition for "Good Morning America Weekend" was Wes Skiles, popular underwater photographer and videographer who was raised near High Springs, Fla., the nearest town to Ginnie Springs. Skiles first dived the spring 40 years ago when he only agreed to be a teenager.
In those times, he had to hike with the woods to get at the spring. Today, Ginnie Springs is definitely accessible by car. It's found on private property, and there is a supply store where one can rent dividing gear and purchase the permit.
In the beginning sight, it does not look like much, only a pretty pond with crystalline waters opening to the darker-hued Santa Fe River. Three ladders descend towards the shallow spring. It's only about one yard deep. But peering in to the middle, you can observe the darker form of a gaping hole. It's what's down that hole that draws scuba divers from round the world: two "rooms" carved through the subterranean flow of water for an incredible number of years.
"This may be the last unexplored frontier on the planet," Skiles says from the allure of cave diving. "Only people can penetrate underwater to those virgin places where no light has ever shined, and you are in a place nobody has have you been in, completely unexplored."
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