Spelunking (or caving) isn’t exactly considered by many to be a sport that is easy to get into. Sure, some caves are easier to go through than others, not requiring you to climb up rocks, rappel down some distance, or even make you go cave diving, but even then, you’ll be carrying a lot of gear and equipment with you. A helmet and some lights are just some of the mandatory things that you will need to bring if you choose to embark on an adventure underground.
So, what makes caving so appealing then? Is it really worth all the effort that you have to go through just to get started, as well as the risks that put you in danger?
Let’s see what the benefits of caving are.
Being able to explore a place for the first time
The thing about caves is that there are so many of them all around the world. Sure, many of them have been mapped out, already, which is why you can easily research caves that are easy to traverse and caves that you should probably avoid unless you’re a confident with your skills and adequately prepared.
But this is just a small portion of caves all across the world. For instance, caves that have large and obvious entrances as holes are likely caves that may have been explored at least once by someone, especially if it is in a populated area or country. Yet, even then, people keep finding more and more caves that have yet to be touched by people every year. And it’s not impossible to do so today. Obviously not all caves are complex cave systems that can be a big discovery. Sudden dead-ends even at the beginning of your journey is not an uncommon occurrence just when you prepared for a deep exploration.
There are other types of cave entrances as well which are not as explored as much, due to the fact that they require more effort on your end before you can even enter them. For instance, closed-cave entrances are like the caves with open entrances mentioned earlier, but the entrance has been sealed off by rocks, mud, or other forces of nature. Depending on their location, the entrance being sealed off may be a regular occurrence.
Due to their nature of being sealed off, one would have to dig and remove these obstacles before getting the opportunity to enter the cave, and indeed, many have done so. Though sometimes, the blockage may be too big for it to be considered worth it to attempt to dig out.
Then there are the caves with no entrances to speak, but exist underground nonetheless, of which there are numerous upon numerous of them. It is practically impossible to find them without getting lucky, due to them being neatly tucked in the earth and being covered, but they exist as unexplored places, waiting for someone to find them eventually. It is estimated that caves with no entrances outnumber those with entrances by around 10 to 1.
You won’t be running out of new places to explore inside caves anytime soon.
Seeing beautiful rock formations that you won’t be able to see elsewhere
People might think that caves are boring because they have nothing but rocks, but that’s not exactly true. While the entire place is indeed covered from head to toe in rocks, many places have unique formations that were formed over many, many years. You can even find things like stalagmites and stalactites hanging from the ceiling or poking out from the ground, something that you won’t normally see elsewhere.
Caves are like the natural mazes of nature, and it shows in its own design and structures.
Seeing fauna that make their home inside of caves
Other than just bats that we’re accustomed to, caves have a wide variety of animals living inside of them, such as cave salamanders, millipedes, and other insects. One can also see cave fish, cave crayfish, and cave shrimp in these caves, should one find a suitable body of water.
Indeed, if you wish to see animals that you won’t find on the surface, seeing them while caving feels lovely.
Speaking of bodies of water though…
Running into beautiful bodies of water underground
There are a lot of bodies of water that one can find while caving. It can be a tiny pond, or it can even be a deep lake that would allow for cave diving. And even if you don’t want to go cave diving, you can still enjoy the beauty of seeing a lake or even a waterfall underground. It gives a completely different feeling from seeing it aboveground.
Getting a lot of exercise
Last, but not the least, there is a lot of exercise to be had here. Any person that enters a cave will undoubtedly walk out with a few stronger leg muscles, even if all they did was walk through the cave with no challenge at all. But if you wish to go for more activities that demand more physical power, then you can most certainly do so, and get even more exercise along the way.
Of course, going deep into caves also assumes that you have sufficiently prepared your body. You want to have good strength when you go climbing and rappelling, after all. You can basically keep fit from just walking around the easier caves, then getting even more exercise by going in the deeper ones.