Posted by on January 12, 2005 at 22:46:26:
The body of an Australian cave diver has been unexpectedly recovered in South Africa, where he disappeared over the weekend while attempting to recover the body of a fellow diver.
Police divers retrieving ropes used in Saturday's failed attempt have achieved Australian Dave Shaw's aim - to bring up the body of Deon Dreyer, who disappeared at the bottom of Bushman's Cave 10 years ago.
But with Dreyer's body was Shaw's.
The two were linked together and buoyant with the Australian's dive gear and had risen from the cave's 270-metre bottom to 35 metres.
Shaw tried to recover 20-year-old Dreyer's body for the diver's family on Saturday but was claimed by the the world's third deepest freshwater cave himself.
He had asked that no attempt be made to find him should something go wrong.