Hundidero Cave, A Challenge Accomplished
Who would build a dam in limestone country? Compania Sevillana de Electricidad did in 1922 in the Serrania de Ronda. The water ran away into the rocks as fast as it was collected. To rectify the situation they employed speliologists (cavers), to try to find an economical and effective solution.
They entered a huge swallow hole, the cave called El Hundidero, and deep inside the mountain they built a concrete dam. It did not work. The project was abandoned, leaving behind an access route consisting of suspended walkways and iron ladders, now in ruins.
The route they made is the start of an underground connection between the sink in El Hundidero and the rising at the Cueva del Gato. It can be followed by energetic adventurers in neoprene wet suits and with electric headlamps on hard helmets.
The first part of the journey follows the river, cold, dark and mysterious. After traversing several large lofty caverns the river starts to plunge over a series of drops; the explorer must jump into the deep pools below, trusting to the buoyancy of his suit to bring him to the surface, to either climb out gasping or swim away along winding lakes whose bottoms are sometimes not felt for up to fifty metres.
For me this was a return to happy days years ago in the Yorkshire Dales and just as I was beginning to think that all my old skills had returned I was introduced to the Sima Calipso, a pot of fifteen metres without a deep pool at its base, to be negotiated by a hairy traverse out to an anchorage from which hung a double rope. I was quickly instructed in the use of an 'eight', an alloy slider that allowed me to drop slowly away from the anchor towards the pinpricks of light visible below, where my fellow cavers waited. Once the whole party was assembled we tackled the next obstacle which was a muddy lake followed by a channel of deep mud, difficult to move through on hands or knees or even at full stretch on the stomach. After much hilarity we emerged on the slippery exit slope, ready for the next excitement. We were not disappointed. We were amazed to see a beautiful frozen cascade of glistening calcite, the premier formation in the system, the Sala de Gours. It is a series of interlinked pools ranked row on row up to the roof of the cavern.
After photographs and drinks I was glad to move on, looking for the huge Plaza de Toros, more lakes and finally, the Sevillana Dam. At this point we were about one third through the trip and ahead was the notorious Galeria del Aburrimiento. At the dam even the hardiest of the party needed a drink and a snack after three hours of strenuous activity. All lights save one were extinguished, high calorie rations were shared and eaten ravenously in preparation for the tribulations known to be ahead. Galeria de Aburrimiento it is called and boring it certainly is, and hard going. Knee high steps, razor sharp footholds and pools whose depths were unguessable until entered. In a large party this section can take up to three hours so that when the lofty spacious and dry Sala de las Dunas was reached another halt was necessary. We relaxed on a soft sand, washed in over the centuries by the flood waters that rage through these passages after heavy rains in the mountains over our heads.
Now the guide started to talk about only two more hours to the exit. My tired legs were forced into motion, my aching back straightened once more and the march continued. In the water, out of the water, high level traversing over faintly visible boulders on the floor below, always onward until I saw in the ceiling a glimmer of what could only be daylight. I'm going to do it. This stretch of cave is home to a colony of bats but by this time my attention was focussed solely on the exit. I was soon conscious of the smell of guano and realised that, above me were circling rock pigeons and swifts, winging in and out of the daylight. Five more minutes, one hundred metres, fifty metres, it was done.
Into the light of day, into hot Spanish sunshine, out on a terrace of limestone overlooking the famous freezing pool outside the Cueva del Gato. Holidaymakers were amazed to see fourteen bedraggled black suited speliologists form a line and in turn execute one last leap of ten metres into the last pool, this one sunlit and sparkling.
The Hundidero - Gato system is 4.5 kilometres long and falls 170 metres over that distance. It is best traversed in a party organised by a qualified adventure firm. Permission to enter is necessary, there is a serious danger of flooding. But for the thrill of a lifetime or to refresh memories of one's youth, this is a trip that should be experienced.