Explore a Cave

“I have already drank all the water in my backpack, and I fill it with two spare bottles left on the previous day by the exploratory team. Now we are going uphill, and the fatigue of the last hours seems to accumulate at once in my muscles and lungs. Everything becomes a major effort; every breath requires commitment and concentration. When it’s time to climb the 10-meter well, I put on my harness and look up, I measure the challenge that awaits me: three years have passed since the last time I used this equipment, and my technique is rusty. I hang my backpack below me, trying to be as straight as possible to avoid oscillating. I start climbing, and I feel the sweat running down my forehead and my back. The heat is hell, and my heart seems to have gone mad in the vain attempt to cool my body: but there is no heat exchange, and it is completely useless. I stop after every push, and gradually, slowly, in a time that seems to dilate in the dark, I get to the top.”

“To start the caving adventure, we hike from an area called The Rise to what is an unassuming hillside. It is here, in between a few small boulders, that we’ll enter the cave. One by one, we carefully maneuver down through the tight “entrance” of the cave – a series of boulders that are by nature, stacked randomly and vertically. Entering the Boulder Choke Cave is a psychological experience.”