Many people are asked how they got interested in spelunking in the first place. The most common answer is that someone took them in a cave, and they got "bitten by the bug." I don't go along with this theory; I think they were bitten by "the bug" long before they ever got near a cave -- the adventure bug. ... I see nothing wrong with looking for adventure; I think almost every young person looks for it in some form or another. Older people who are adventurous are not so common, but they are by no means unusual. Some of us tire of ordinary adventure very quickly -- what was adventure becomes a mere novelty, something to be done on occasion and forgotten. Lacking adequate adventure on the surface, we go underground. Here, truly, is adventure that is far from ordinary, and will never be forgotten; for no matter how often we travel to these underground fantasies, they are always different. Even when one returns to the same cave time after time, it is somehow different.
A toast, then, to adventure -- better than that, a toast to Underground Adventure -- may we learn to appreciate it a long as we live.
(Adapted from "So you want to be a spelunker")
Caving does not involve walking along well lit cement paths with guard
rails. You need to carry sufficient light and may have to crawl on your
belly like a reptile through mud. There may also be climbs, walkways slippery
with mud, and underground streams to wade through. Caving is not always
comfortable. I have never been on a trip where anyone has gotten worse than
a few bruises, but I do not want people to think that caving is free from
hazards. On the other hand, caving does have its points. The mud is fun
to play in and there is a certain thrill to knowing that you are traveling
through the "solid" earth. Ghost stories take on a new dimension underground
with the lights off.