those that find it don’t come back because it’s just so neat

You took it further than I would. I’d listen to the sign these days, but there was absolutely a time that, that sign would have just been a challenge.

Edit: for you grammar nerds. Do I need that comma? It seems like it should be there, but it also seems superfluous at the same time.

I’ve done training dives in man made quarries under zero visibility conditions. There’s no way in hell I’d go into an actual cave under those conditions.

It was bad enough when you’d almost run into a purposefully placed sculpture or bathtub in that flooded quarry.

You had to do a scavenger hunt to find stuff to pass your training and it was super disorienting.

I don’t know if PADI still does that sort of thing or if it was unique to my training center conditions but it was wild.

I’ll stick to open water, thank you very much.

New fear unlocked

“There are older and fouler things than Orcs, in the deep places of the world…”

–Gandalf

It’s dark so requires torches (more than one as a backup) and very easy to get disoriented. You can easily get lost and run out of air. Risk of being blinded by silt even with a torch, leading to more risk of disoriented and getting lost. If anything goes wrong such as equipment malfunction then you don’t have the option of going to the surface as you do in open water (albeit with the risk of a bend). It’s often cramped with places to get stuck, snag equipment, or get tangled in your guideline. There are sharp rocks you can hit your head on.

Basically yes. Once you go inside a cave like this, it gets dark real fast. You can’t tell where “up” is and you can’t find your way back. So these people often drown or suffocate.

In cave dive training, you learn how not to do that.