This is just cool! I’ve never been spelunking, but really want to try this one day. It seems both eery & exciting, exploring an unknown & unpredictable region. It’s a different world beneath the surface of earth we all walk on each day. I’ve been to Tennessee & Georgia, hiking the Appalachian Trail, but that’s on top. There’s all kinds of exploration to do below the mountains & trails that most people never think about. Read the short excerpt below, then click the link for the whole story:
Groaning and clawing, neck twisted, white head scraping against the rock. To cram his body through this basketball-size hole requires yoga-like contortions—arms overhead as if diving, hips uncomfortably twisted the opposite of chest, legs cramped underneath. The Sphincter lies at the end of a kinked, intestinal tunnel, and Marion "the Goat" Smith is the last of our six-person exploratory team to wriggle through, a task he accomplishes with veteran agility and ceaseless cursing.
Cavers can be considered the equivalent of climbers in Yosemite National Park. In the 1960s both groups developed their skills & equipment which catapulted their respective recreations into new realms of difficulty & danger. Neither activity is for the weak of spirit. What caving means to these people can be summed up in these words: the main thing is to see what no one has ever seen before. To me, that’s true exploration. That’s what a pioneer is, and that’s really cool!
Deep Southern Caves — National Geographic Magazine
Thanks for reading,
The Pilgrim.
