Caving or cave touring is the exploration of caves. In contrast to speleology, caving is merely a leisure activity or sport because it doesn’t follow a scientific approach and isn’t aimed at researching or opening up new caves or areas. But what is caving and what should you look out for if you want to explore a cave yourself? Is it even possible and if so, what are the possibilities and where are the limits? You’ll find all the answers in this blog article.
Nevertheless, I would like to start my article with a clear warning: this blog is not a how-to guide and reading it can’t give you the know-how it takes to enter and explore caves on your own. If in doubt, always seek the advice of experienced people and/or join a professionally guided tour.
Caves and how they’re formed
Caves have always had a special significance for humans. They’ve served and continue to serve as accomodation, storage sites (e.g. for food), hiding places and shelter in wars. The UK boasts a vast cave network, but not all of these caves have been fully explored and are certainly not accessible to everyone. Man-made underground spaces, such as mines, don’t count as caves.
Caves as a separate ecosystem
A cave isn’t just a hole in the ground or a cavity in a mountain. Naturally formed caves are complex ecosystems with their own climate, flora and fauna. Anyone who ventures into caves enters a world of its own that’s so much more than rock and darkness. A cave is usually not just a single shaft or a single cavity, caves are often widely branched and winding and can easily be several kilometres long and hundreds of metres deep.
The largest known caves include for example:
- Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, USA. With a currently known total length of around 680 km, it’s the longest cave system in the world.
- Krubera Cave, Georgia. The cave has currently been explored to a depth of 2,191 metres, but it’s assumed that the cave is much deeper. This makes it the deepest cave in the world.
The Three Counties System is the longest and most complicated cave system in Britain. It’s currently thought to be around 87 km long and spans across three counties: Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cumbria, with entrances in different locations.
Caves and rocks
If a cave was formed at the same time as the surrounding rock and formed a bubble or pipe when the lava cooled, it’s referred to as a primary cave. Secondary caves, on the other hand, were formed later than the rock and were formed, for example, by movements in the earth’s crust, but also by chemical and mechanical weathering. Most of the known caves are secondary caves, more precisely dissolution or karst caves, which are mainly formed in limestone, dolomite or salt rock. Caves are therefore often found in karst areas. In the UK, key karst areas include the Yorkshire Dales, the Peak District, the Mendips, and parts of Wales.
Visiting a cave
Caves are often complex systems, sometimes with challenging terrain. This includes, for example, narrow passages, deep shafts and water-filled passages and cavities. In caves, you may need to be able to abseil, climb or dive. In short, if you misjudge the difficulty level of a tour, don’t know what you’re doing and don’t have the right equipment, you’re definitely putting yourself in danger.
Of course, there are also smaller and less dangerous caves that you can simply take a quick look into during a hike or that are comparatively easy to navigate. Make sure you know what to expect and, if in doubt, join experienced people or professional tours. There are several options for visiting a cave:
3 types of cave tours:
- Show cave: show caves are quite common. These are caves that have been opened up to tourists and secured accordingly. Similar to visitor mines, they’re accessible to almost anyone. There’s usually an entrance fee for show caves and you can visit them either with a guide or on your own.
- Moderate cave tour: you can also explore easier caves on our own, independently of fully developed show caves. There are not only tour tips in the relevant literature, but also information about the difficulty, length and specific requirements of the respective caving tour. Hikes that lead through rather short caves are certainly suitable for beginners. If you venture into caving yourself, you need to be well informed. In the beginning, choose easy and short tours. Once you feel confident in this terrain, you can gradually increase your level.
- Professionally guided tour: if you don’t have any experience with caving but are still looking for a more challenging route with a thrill, you can join a professionally guided caving tour. There are numerous providers throughout the country that offer tours with trained staff in caves that are more challenging for non-experts.
Preparing for a caving tour
Tour planning
As with hiking or mountain tours, caving or cave trekking starts with good planning. This includes finding out enough about the tour, knowing its length and difficulty and also what equipment you need.
- Length: if the tour leads, for example, 1,000 m into the mountain, this doesn’t sound like much at first. However, a caving tour of this length can easily take several hours because progress may be extremely slow since narrow passages and other difficult passages slow down the speed at which you move through the cave considerably. Be sure to plan enough time for your tour.
- Difficulty: some caves are relatively easy to hike through, others are very narrow, at least in places, and you can only make progress by crawling. In shaft caves, you have to be able to abseil and ascend using a rope, and in water caves, it’s always necessary to swim or dive through passages. Find out what terrain awaits you, what equipment you need and whether you meet the necessary requirements.
Being aware of the dangers of caving
Caving always involves dangers. These can vary depending on the cave, the rock and its composition. Accidents can never be ruled out when caving. But if you’re aware of the dangers, have the right equipment and know what to do in an emergency, you’re already doing a lot of things right. The dangers of caving include:
- Rockfall: this is usually caused by the cave walkers themselves and can vary in severity. Wearing a rockfall helmet and taking appropriate care will help to avoid (serious) accidents.
- Risk of falling: caves can have challenging, demanding topographies and deep shafts, meaning that falls can also occur here, with serious or even fatal injuries possible. A good knowledge of the cave and following the cave map will protect you from unpleasant surprises.
- Rising water levels: heavy rainfall can penetrate caves and cause the precipitation to collect in water-stagnant layers of rock. This can completely or partially block the way through a cave. In the worst case, it may then be necessary to stay in the cave for an extended period of time until the water level drops or help arrives from professional cave rescuers. For this reason, it’s important to always check the local weather forecast before going caving.
- Hypothermia: the temperature in caves is often relatively constant all year round. In our latitudes, this is often well below 10 °C. Inadequate clothing, delays or accidents can quickly lead to the risk of hypothermia.
- Problems with orientation: it’s easy to get lost, especially in larger caves and branched cave systems. However, cave maps and knowing how to orientate yourself in caves can help.
Caving – tips for the tour
Team and safety
You should never enter a cave by yourself. A good group size is 3 to 4 people. This way, in the event of an accident, the injured person can be looked after by one person while the other two group members can leave the cave and get help. It’s also important that all team members know how to exit the cave. It’s not normally possible to alert the rescue services by mobile phone in caves.
The team also includes another reliable person who is not part of the tour. Similar to the hut book for alpine tours, this contact person serves as a backup in case of emergencies. An alarm time is agreed with this person, which is set for a specific time after the latest planned return time from the cave. This is usually three hours, for example. If there is no response from the group during this time, the contact person will attempt to contact the group. If this is not successful, the contact person will make an emergency call. Of course, this is also done if it’s not clear at this point whether the group is really in distress or whether it has just been delayed.
Duration and difficulty
How difficult a cave is to navigate always depends heavily on its nature. As with mountain tours, for example, the difficulty of a possible tour always depends on the weakest person in the group. The length of the tour and appropriate breaks must be planned accordingly. It also makes sense to choose the turnaround point in a cave to ensure that it’s reached before any physical weaknesses occur in the group. If the descent into a cave involved abseiling, the way back (climbing up the rope) is much more difficult and time-consuming than the descent.
Rules of behaviour when caving
Caves are fascinating yet vulnerable ecosystems that have difficulty recovering from external disturbances, if at all. A stalactite that has broken off is lost and won’t grow back. Even touching stalactites can cause them to stop growing. However, rubbish, markings and taking souvenirs also affects the ecosystem. The following general rules of behaviour therefore apply when caving:
- Respect closures. Some caves are subject to seasonal closures. This is often for nature conservation reasons, for example when bats are hibernating in a cave. Other caves are only open to certain visitors, such as professional speleologists. If you don’t belong to this group of people, the cave is off-limits to you.
- Don’t break or take anything – no rocks, fossils or anything except pictures and memories.
- Don’t leave anything behind. Take your rubbish and all your equipment with you when you leave. Planned toilet visits should take place outside the cave. For long tours or toilet emergencies, the waste is collected in containers and disposed of outside the cave.
- Don’t leave any traces behind. The walls of caves are not meant to be drawn on, not even with signposts or directional arrows. Stone cairns should not be built in caves either.
Apart from this, there may be different regional bans and prohibitions on entering a cave. Make sure you find out what the local rules are before your tour.
After the tour
No matter how exhausting and nerve-wracking the tour was, it’s crucial to report back to the contact person after leaving the cave to cancel the alarm time. If you forget to do this, you may inadvertently trigger a rescue operation that involves considerable effort.
Caving – the equipment you need
The equipment needed for a tour can vary widely. There are caves that are comparatively easy to enter and navigate. You hardly need any special equipment here. And then there are others where you can only make progress with full caving equipment or where you need diving equipment. If you bivouac in a cave on extremely long tours, you’ll also need equipment for overnight stays and supplies. This list is therefore not exhaustive and is only intended to provide a rough overview of the basic equipment.
Clothing and shoes
Special clothing is used for caving. You should at least wear durable hiking clothing (for caves that are easy to access), but often also special caving suits, such as those worn by speleologists. Suits of this kind protect you from getting dirty and wet. Warm layers of clothing also prevent chilling in constantly low temperatures. Neoprene suits are usually used in water caves.
Mountaineering boots are also well suited for cave tours. They provide high stability and also keep your feet sufficiently warm. Alternatively, you can wear wellington boots for caving. However, these don’t effectively protect against the cold.
Headgear
A suitable rockfall helmet, as known from climbing, for example, is an absolute must in caves. Not only will it protect you from falling rocks but also from injuries that can be caused by hitting your head. Hardshell helmets have proven useful here because of their excellent resistance. To protect you against the cold, lightweight beanies, tube scarves or balaclavas can be worn under the helmet.
Lighting
Bright headlamps are generally used for caving. It’s important that these not only provide sufficient light, but also sit well on the helmet and are durable. In addition, you should always have a second (spare) lamp with you. Also make sure you have enough batteries and rechargeable batteries so that the light will still work even if you’re delayed on your tour.
Stuff sacks and bags
Caving often involves the use of abrasive bags. These are extremely durable and possibly waterproof stuff sacks in which the equipment can be safely stowed. Depending on the terrain, abrasive bags can be worn as a backpack, attached to a seat harness or pulled along behind you in crawl spaces.
Climbing equipment
If you have to abseil and climb back up again on a rope, you’ll need the necessary equipment. What’s really necessary depends on the terrain. Here’s a brief overview of the basic equipment.
- Seat and chest harness, if needed
- Abseiling equipment
- Ascenders
- Slings, fastening material and carabiners
- Ropes
Guided caving tours – what reputable providers offer
If you’re not familiar with caving, don’t want to get more involved in the near future, don’t have any equipment and/or simply fancy a guided tour, then a professional caving provider is the right choice for you. There are numerous different offers throughout the country, aimed at different clientele. Easier caving tours are often possible with children from around primary school age, while significantly more challenging tours sometimes require participants to have an advanced level of knowledge.
The practical thing about a guided tour is that, as a participant, you don’t have to worry about much. The organiser is not only responsible for planning and carrying out the tour, but also provides the necessary (safety) equipment such as helmets, protective clothing and lamps. The organiser is responsible for ensuring compliance with nature conservation laws and other (possibly local) regulations.
In addition, reputable providers always have trained staff and a safety concept that can be viewed online and/or on site. This also includes regular safety training for the guides, regular equipment checks and, last but not least, a briefing session with the participants. Emergency and first aid equipment is carried on every tour and participants are insured in case of an emergency.
Guided tours also have another advantage: you can learn a lot about the cave, for example about its formation, size and ecosystem. What’s more, you can enjoy the tour with peace of mind and don’t have to worry about finding your way, the turnaround point or sticking to a schedule.
