No Better Thing Or Word Than Spelunking

Today I was watching a television show on caves and spelunking. If it were my decision, caves would be considered a wonder of the world — even the tiny ones. Truly gorgeous. Whilst viewing this show, it made me think of all the caves I've been to during my short, worthless life. To be honest, I've only been in two, but that's not the point. The point is how amazing they truly are.

A few years back, my family and I took a vacation to the wonderful province of British Columbia (we go there a lot). During that trip we visited a mountain that happened to have a cave spelunking tour and being the completely extreme, adventurous family we are, we decided on the easiest beginner route. The only part of the trip that was difficult in any sense was the virtually vertical hike up the mountain to where the caves were actually located. Utterly strenuous. After about an hour and a half of the trek, we eventually did reach the top and readied ourselves for the descent into the damp darkness.

I must say, from the few lights that were conveniently located on the tops of our helmets, I have never seen anything so amazing. Underground, you see things and shapes made by nothing but water and the minerals it contains. I find it hard to believe that it takes years for them to form such creations and that something as simple as a human touch could bring it crashing down, leaving nothing but regret with the person whom caused such damage. Luckily, nothing of that matter happened when we were down there.

The single detail that I remember the most is when our guide led us to the bottom of the small cave and told us to turn off our helmet lights and witness complete darkness. She asked us in her striking Australian accent to wave our hand in front of our faces. Being the egotistical group we were, almost every person out of the twenty or so that came along for the trip scoffed in her face and directly stated that they could see their hands perfectly clear. The guide seemed to be expecting this, however, because she merely laughed and told us to grab a partner and hold up a certain number of fingers in front of their faces and then see if it wasn't so dark. The scorn within the group soon turned to shock as we realized that we couldn't see anything at all and listened attentively as our Australian guide explained that our brains know what they're supposed to see when we wave our own hands in front of our faces, and fool us into believing that we have vision.

Image credit: http://www.hotnaturally.com/img/img_man-in-caves.jpg

That cave was probably more riveting since it was less influenced by man than the second one I visited. Still in B.C., my family then travelled to Ainsworth Hot Springs Resort. Here, the luxuriously warm water runs in a loop that goes into one cave and out another. I love visiting hot springs as it is, but the caves seemed to give the whole atmosphere that extra something. It gave me that same sensation that makes me want to curl up in a warm blanket next to a window spattered with rain drops and read a good book whilst listening to some sort of ambient music. Wonderful. Despite the crowds, it was a pleasant experience and I would love to relive every minute of it.

I have many absurd dreams and one of them is to discover and explore a cave that has never been found before by anyone. How exciting that would be. When I'm in a cave it feels as if I've entered a whole new world full of unique findings and endless adventures. I plan to go back to the mountain that contained the first cave I'd ever entered and take a more challenging route that will hopefully go deeper and darker than I've ever gone in one. One day…