I have visited many caves in my life, in Italy, Austria and the UK, and upon entering each of these places in the underbelly of the Earth I have always found myself astounded and humbled by the force of nature that has created them. Moulded by the flow of water through limestone over thousands of years, the tunnels and rock formations can take the strangest and most ominous shapes. Each time, I would be amazed by the size of these underground rooms, inhabited by armies of stalagmites and stalactites that have accumulated over time, drip by drip, layer by layer. To the human eye, many of these formations often resemble people or creatures, living underground and casting a mysterious aura within the caves. The gurgling sound of streams and channels rushing beneath the earth creates a tingling sound that bounces off the wet rock walls and echoes throughout the empty spaces. To think that, before me entering these caves, people in the past have had to explore these dark and unforgiving places without reliable lights, proper protective gear and very few maps. Only recently electric lighting, walking planks and metal railings have been fitted for the public. It is difficult to understand what these early cave explorers must have felt like while exploring these intricate underground systems. However, about a year ago in September 2019, I had the opportunity to go caving with the University of Manchester caving society. There, in the depths of the Speedwell Cavern in the Peak District (UK), I had the chance to feel what it is like to explore one of these sites – and let me tell you, it was both a shocking and beautifully immersive experience. The riverside cottages in Castleton, where the cavern is located, encase you in picturesque and fairy-tale like surroundings, with their stone walls, their crooked rooves and wooden window frames. The caving society hut is situated about ten minutes away from the cave and getting ready and briefed for the underground expedition was an experience in itself. As we tried to find the right size of thick waterproof overalls and attempted to put them on without falling over, our guides explained the path we’d take and what to look out for. Mainly, stay close to the group and take your time. We would come across a slippery metal staircase, and later on we’d have to climb up a rockface using a rope. Even briefed and geared up, ready to enter the cave with our feet still dry in our wellington boots and head torches strapped to our hard hats, we didn’t really know what we were about to do. Before entering Speedwell’s Cavern, the first thing visitors approach is Peak Cavern (or, like the locals like to call it – the Devil’s Arse), which is a large hall carved in the side of a hill that looks like a natural amphitheatre and is actually the largest natural cave entrance in Britain. As we walked through the exhibit area open to the public, visitors looked at our convoy of highly geared-up people in awe and confusion. We went all the way to the end of the exhibit, where a railing marked the end of the point where ‘rational’ people should stop. But, as you’ve imagined, this was no ordinary experience. Our trip to the underworld began by launching ourselves down a metal slide that led to a series of tunnels used by miners in the 1770s to search for lead ore deposits. The mine was closed down shortly after in the 1790s, but marks of pickaxes have been left on the walls of some passageways. As we ventured deeper into the cave, we were led through large and dark tunnels, lit only by the light of our head torches. Everything seemed easy then, and we were mainly busy trying not to slip on the wet rocks lying on the caves’ ground. Then, slowly, the passageways became tighter and darker, and eerily quieter. The only sound was that of people right beside us, and everybody else’s was absorbed by the underground void. It became suddenly apparent why we had to stick together. Quickly after, we reached a point permanently flooded with crystal clear, but also absolutely freezing water. If anybody had a rip in their overalls, that is when they found it out. Soon, our boots were full of bitter cold cave water which we had to routinely stop to empty out. Still, somehow, the cave was beautiful, even when we were forced to dive into the water with our entire body to get past a low hanging rock formation that hung from the ceiling. Then, we reached the steep metal staircase and, one by one, holding onto a rope, we slowly went even further down the cave being careful not to slip and fall from about three meters onto the hard rock. For three hours, we followed our guides through water, mud and tight passages, and we were still heading down through the cave. Still, neither of those instances were as hard as pulling ourselves back up the rockface and reaching a system of passages barely as wide as an average person, made of clay – the Galena Chambers. The only reason we knew we could go that way was the trail left by the legs of previous cavers as they crawled through the shafts, like a railway dug into the clay. It is fair to say that during that moment, our character was being strongly tested. Nevertheless, we all managed to get out the other side safely and take a well-deserved rest, during which we decided to turn our head torches off and experience the absolute darkness of the cave. Once the last torch was switched off, everything disappeared. Never before I had seen such darkness. I use the word seen, because my eyes were open, and for some reason I could still see my hand if I waved it in front of myself. This is a common phenomenon called the Spelunker Illusion, where the brain creates an image of what it expects to see, even in total absence of light. Truly surreal. After five hours of crawling, dipping in freezing water, and climbing up and down shafts, we finally returned to our starting point, but the experience wasn’t over yet. You see, we were full of mud, and we wouldn’t be able to give our overalls back filthy like that. There was only one option. While still in the cave, we used the icy water to wash ourselves and clean all the mud off. I’d say that was definitely a “cool” way of finishing the trip, especially when water would trickle down the back of our overalls’ collars and all the way down our back!
Needless to say, the trip to the depths of Speedwell Cavern was a change to my journeys in the forests of the above world, but has made me appreciate another crucial ecosystem of our planet. It has also made me think about all the sacrifice that people in the past (and currently still in many parts of the world) have had to go through for the precious minerals found underground. Although treeless, caves are not lifeless and are the home to so many animals and plants that are specifically adapted to the darkness and cold. We must never forget about what is beneath our feet, even though it is easy to take for granted and often seen as unimportant – so unimportant that the underground has been used to fuel our houses for centuries. It is time to move away from resources that deplete our earth and aim towards more sustainable options. Stay tuned and stay wanderlust, Dael
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