Izbucul Tăuzului

Izbucul Tăuzului (Izbucul Tăuz) is a natural monument in the Bihor Mountains, on the territory of Arieșeni commune, Alba County, east of the village of Hodobana, in the Gârda Seacă valley. At the foot of an almost vertical limestone wall lies a small green pool, through which the waters that go underground about 2.5 km upstream, at the portal of the Coiba Mare cave, return to daylight. After about 100 m, the resulting stream flows into the Gârda Seacă, a tributary of the Arieșul Mare. Beneath the surface lies a system of flooded passages (sumps), explored by cave divers since 1982. In 2014 a Romanian-Finnish team passed the second sump and reached the fourth. Diving here is very dangerous: in 2002 the Polish diver Rafał Garski lost his life in the spring, and a memorial plaque stands by the water. Access is from the centre of Gârda de Sus commune, following the road up the Gârda Seacă valley to the spring. Izbucul Tăuzului is a protected area of national interest (natural monument, 1 ha), declared under Law no. 5 of 2000, and part of Parcul Natural Apuseni. Did you know that in 2001 the Polish diver Wiktor Bolek reached a depth of 85 m in the spring's sump, a few months after setting a national depth record of 79.4 m here?