In 2010 exploration efforts in Bosnia & Herzegovina have continued. The Karst Odyssey team members spent two weeks exploring and mapping existing project locations as well as visiting new locations. We were especially excited by the new team additions. Two Bosnian GUE C1 divers, Emir Memic and Dusan Milosevic trained by Christophe Le Maillot, joined this year’s effort and provided invaluable logistical support and diving assistance. It was a great pleasure to see the local GUE community, attached to the local project, grow year on year.

































In the first week team spent first 3 days visiting already explored caves to ensure that we collect the outstanding data from 2008. Due to poor cave conditions and some permit complications we were unable to complete the exploration of the source of Zdena, Oko and Dabar back in 2009. However this year we were ready to explore the final leads and obtain the much needed video and photographic footage.

For the second week the team moved to the Herzegovina region. The region is characterized by dry treeless massifs and the abundance of karst objects. Like with the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina it was essential to connect with local guides as the danger of rogue land mines is too great to ignore. Our host for the second week was adventure club Neretva from Mostar run by Esad Humo, local cave explorer and adventurer. More updates in the Exploration section.

Karst Odyssey Team is a non-profit group dedicated to underwater cave exploration. The team's research and exploration focuses at the area of Dinaric Karst belt streching through the Balkans peninsula. The team consists of explorers from all around the world, with team members participating from as far as Mexico and UK.

The extended team consists of:

Boris Trninic - Project Director, Surface Video
Renato Raseta - Project Coordinator, Exploration Diver, Underwater Video, UW Photography, Survey
Christophe Le Maillot - Exploration Diver, Survey
Hugh Reid - Exploration Diver, Survey
Bob Cooper - Exploration Diver, Survey
Dusan Milosevic - Project Photographer and Support Diver
Dr Jeremy Kent - Exploration Diver, Underwater Photography, Survey
Richard Walker - Exploration Diver, Underwater Video
Branislav Radevic - Support Diver, Logistics
Drago Teinovic - Safety Officer, Support Diver
Sasa Borjanovic - Webmaster and Support Diver
Momir Majkic - Suface Manager
Anes Halkic - Logistics
Fred Devos - Exploration Diver, Survey, Cave Cartography
Emir Memic - Support Diver
Esad Humo - Logistics
Andrea Marassich - Exploration Diver, Survey

The team's efforts in the last four years have been focused on the karst region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) is a small country (51 129 km2) in the mid-western Balkans. Most of the country is mountainous with over 40% of the area in the karst regions of Dinaride mountain range which is stretching in general direction Northwest-Southeast in the southern part of the country, mostly in Herzegovina. As a result rather complicated underground connections are found there. Many creaks, small streams and even rivers are disappearing in sinkholes and reappearing with another name in the springs on a lower altitude. The rivers of B&H belong to either Black Sea (Danube) catchment or Adriatic Sea catchment. Most of the rivers in the karstic region drain towards Adriatic Sea.

Two types of aquifers are found in B&H, namely:

- alluvial and
- karstic

In the first category alluviums of the rivers Sava, Una and Drina are most interesting in international
terms, while in the second category karstic catchments of Cetina (Croatian river), Neretva and mainly
Trebišnjica are most important ones. Since country’s independence, practically all of the bigger catchments became
internationally shared and most of them have parts in other countries, namely Croatia and Serbia and
Montenegro. Since Dayton peace agreement in 1995 B&H is divided into 2 entities (Bosnian Federation
and “Republic of Srpska”) and one district.

Many of the underground systems have seen extensive exploration in the last 40 years, however, these connections were mainly accomplished by means of colouring water by tracers.