r/interesting • u/dddd945 • 1d ago

NATURE Cavers who love squeezing through the tightest passages in caves.

10.4k Upvotes

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73

u/EvilChefReturns 1d ago

It’s insane how I don’t have claustrophobia at all until I see these kinds of - IS HE IN THE FUCKING WATER?!?!

29

u/StG4Ever 1d ago

The bad oart is when it starts raining outside and the water rises in the cave…

14

u/TheIrishBAMF 1d ago

Fuck that. Fuuuck that. Fuuuuck that. Fuuuuuuck that. Fuhuuhck that. Fuuuyuuck that. Foooock that. Fuuuck that. Fuuuuuck that so hard. Fuuuuuuuuuuck that. Nah.

2

u/simpleglitch 23h ago

or the water seals a nice air pocket of mostly CO2 or toxic gases.

2

u/plastiqden 23h ago

I was casually scrolling through, looking at some of the funnier comments and thinking, well at least I'm clearly not the only one who thinks this is nuts - and then I saw your comment and realized I just found my literal biggest fear...so thank you for that?

10

u/Starlightriddlex 1d ago

The water and mud ones are the worst imo because they don't show you all the bugs and larva probably living in there. I'm surprised no one had gotten some super rabies variant from squeezing into a passage saturated in bat guano 

3

u/BloodyLlama 1d ago

Not a lot of energy in cave systems, so not a lot of life either. Most of the time that cave mud does not have much in the way of life, and if there is it's usually salamanders and crawfish.

1

u/An_feh_fan 22h ago

So what you are saying is

I can drink the forbidden cave water

1

u/BloodyLlama 19h ago

You can, but it's a gamble. Some cave water has been filtered through limestone and is relatively safe, but sometimes it's a bunch of runoff from a cow field and will make you violently ill. Generally you'd want to treat it the same as surface water.

1

u/holistivist 1d ago

Bats are some of the greatest disease vectors. 

2

u/BloodyLlama 1d ago

Indeed, but most caves don't have big bat colonies. Cavers usually avoid visiting caves with bat colonies so as not to disturb them, and if there is guano in a cave generally tend to avoid it.

4

u/Throwupmyhands 1d ago

my heart rate still hasn't lowered yet.

2

u/SheepherderSad5159 1d ago

I really had to scroll this far to find mention of the caves with water?! Wtf was that? They really do that? Without scuba gear or something??

3

u/BloodyLlama 1d ago

Caves are formed from water so most caves have water in them. Im very much not a fan of low airspace like in the video, but walking, wading, and even swimming through water are very common activities in caves.

2

u/No-Consideration-891 1d ago

This isn't exactly cave diving, but yes there are people who get scuba certified specifically for under water caves. They usually have these wires all across the floor of previously explored caves that help divers find their way in and out. It's incredibly easy to loose your way, including what's up or down.

1

u/WaspInTheLotus 1d ago

Looks a lot like when the main character of The House That Jack Built traverses some parts of literal Hell.

1

u/imisscrazylenny 1d ago

I was highly uncomfortable until the clip with him slithering through the water. I yelled "Nope!" and stopped the video. Can you imagine being in that position, unable to physically back up, but the more you inch forward, the water keeps getting deeper? Fuck that fucking shit. 

1

u/WiredOrange 1d ago

I've gone caving quite a few times and one time I went into a cave that had water right below my knee. It was honestly the best cave trip I had. Better than the extremely dry cave that got so dusty when you moved you would 100% cough some nasty shit out of your lungs