Spelunking | Ray and Shelley's Retirement Adventures

We went caving outside of the town of Alcafá del Jucar, which is located in the province of Albacete Spain. We drove to the entrance of the cave which is actually just a small hole in the ground.

Our guide took us to the entrance and began setting up the rappelling gear required to enter the cave.

Rappelling gear set up at the entrance of the cave.

We took the opportunity to take a picture of the group while he was preparing the gear.

Our guide setting up the rappelling ropes for the entrance of the cave.

We each took a turn and rappelled down approximately 15 meters to the base of the cave.

Once we rappelled down to the floor of the cave, we began exploring the different caverns. The cave system was interesting with a lot of different features.

We even meet a few of the locals in the cave system.

We came to one area of the cave which was spectacular. When we shined our lights on the ceiling of the cave it looked like stars. The photo below does not do it justice.

Reflection of light on the drops of water on the ceiling of the cave

There were water drops clinging to the ceiling of the cave and our lights reflected off of them. It made it look like stars in space, truly an amazing sight.

We managed to get a group photo while exploring the cave caves.

We explored the cave system for an hour or so before heading back to the entrance of the cave. We then used a rope ladder and climbed up the 15 meters to the surface.

It was a great experience and very enjoyable.

“Hasta luego y que tengas a buen dia”

We decided to try something totally new and different. We went to explore some of the caves in Murcia. There is a cave system which is over 5 kilometers long called the Cueva del Puerto. They are located in Calasparra and approximately 5 kilometres of the caves have been mapped. Nearly all the caves in the Murcia Region are formed by limestone or dolomite,

We drove with friends to the mountains in Calasparra and arrived at the caves visitor centre.

We were met by our two guides who would be leading the exploration of the caves. We went into a change room to change into our cave gear. We wore coveralls, rappelling gear, and a helmet with light.

Shelley getting ready for the exploration of the caves.

Once everyone was dressed we walked up a trail which brought us to the entrance to the cave system. There we had a finale review of our equipment and then headed inside the caves.

Our group with one of our guides before heading into the caves del Puerto

In the entrance of the cave is an area for tourist to explore a small section. We headed along that pat then headed down into other areas of the caves not open to tourist.

Zack, Susy, Marcelo, Sonja, Ray and Shelley in a section of the Cave del Puerto

It was a frightening and exciting experience at the same time. We climbed down through some small crevices working our way through the caves. We repelled down sections of the cave, sometimes over 20 feet at a time.

Ray rappelling down a section of the cave of Puerto

There were times when we had to literary crawl on our stomachs to get through some of the openings. It was not an activity for the faint of heart or for anyone who is claustaphobic. We would stop every once and a while to take a photo and rest.

We entered areas of the caves which opened up into larger caverns. Some of these caverns were quite large and impressive while others were so small you could not even stand completely upright.