Deep into darkness

This text is about the beauty of caves, twisting tunnels and animals that live in it.

Stephen Alvarez is a professional caver. He visited and explored a lot of caves even the
longest one – Mammoth Cave in the USA which has 580 kilometers of tunnels.

Alvarez confirms that caves are dangerous, but only if you don’t know what you are
doing. It’s very important to stay safe, that’s why Alvarez goes into caves with other
cavers and never by himself. Cavers team can look out for one another. You should be
well equipped: helmet, knee pads, gloves, headlamps and extra torches.

There are fantastic shapes in caves for example stalactites and stalagmites. Stalactites
are formed when rainwater drips onto limestone, they are hanging down. Stalagmites
are growing upwards from the cave floor.

A lot of animals live in caves. Many of them have no eyes because of the darkness. They
can catch their food without ever seeing the victim. Examples of caves animals are: blind
crayfish (live up to 175 years), spiders, eyeless fish. They have a highly sense of hearing,
touch and smell.

Caves need to be protected. One of the cave’s threat is a water pollution, another one
are human visitors.

I like the motto of the cavers which says: “Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but
footprints, kill nothing but time”