ShowCaveBlog

James Cameron is world famous, with Titanic the director made the best selling film of all times. Now he has launched Avatar, which has smashed his own record. And the next movie is already in the queue: Sanctum. However, director is this time Alister Grierson, not Cameron.
It is a story about cave diving. A team of cave divers exploring an Australian underwater cave is in deadly danger by the collapse of the entrance. Actually this type of story always ends pretty fast with the death of the divers, as the air runs out. But it seems this time the divers have to stay several days in the cave and finally make it back to the surface. Such an unlikely story actually happened, the movie is based on the experiences of the Australian Andrew Wight. He co-produced Cameron’s underwater documentaries.
James Cameron’s Sanctum filmed in Australia | Herald Sun

The Philippine government has released PHP 5 million (some €75,000, $100,000) for the development of the Sohoton Cave on Samar island, Eastern Visayas. The cave was already part of a National Park and guided, with a boat ride to the cave and a walk through the cave with men holding lamps. Now it will be improved with electric light and paths.
It seems the Phillipines learned what most first world countries already know: one reason for a show cave is the cave protection. If people are guided and must stay on a trail with handrail, they are not able to touch and destroy anything.

BusinessWorld Weekender: Samar to have country’s first ‘show cave’

We do not know why they wrote it was the first show cave of the country. Showcaves.com has liste numerous show caves. Probably it’s a matter of how one defines the term show cave.

An article on NPR catched our attention: Texting Underground Can Save Lives and Caves. It tells about an 16 year old boy named Alexander Kendrick, who invented an underground texting device. With this invention he won the 2009 International Science Fair and received a new computer, a trip to Switzerland and US$12,000 in checks.
While we are impressed by his work, we suggest he should visit Felix Ziegler of Cave-Link when he is in Switzerland. He invented the same device several years ago, but his device does not text through 1,000 feet of solid rock, it actually send through 1,200 metres of solid rock. It also sends the data of data loggers, is small and robust, does not need a huge and fragile antenna, and does not omit the h of happy. The work of Kendrick is definitely great, but actually it is not new. Diana Northup should have known that.

We read weird news from a cave in Nepal. Three foreign tourists, one Indian and two Korean, entered the sacred Gupteswor Mahadev Gufa on Wendsday 27-JAN-2010. Until Thursday 28-JAN-2010 they have not returned, so they presumably got lost in the cave.
The cave is said to be some three kilometres long. Actually this is a length given to most caves in this area, so we believe, it is another term for unbelievably long. However, the cave is in a semi wild state, there are narrow and low passages. It is much recommended to take an experienced guide along, but actually it is not necessary. Beginning Thursday morning, a rescue team of police plus local volunteers started to search the cave and surroundings.

Tourists go missing after entering cave in Pokhara

Smoke Hole Caverns is located in West Virginia, U.S.A.. Lately it has been the target of an arsonist. The first fire burned on the evening of 10-NOV-2009 and destroyed the apartment area above the restaurant. The second fire on 11-NOV-2009 at 5:00 in the morning destroyed the building housing the restaurant and gift shop. Items found in a trash can, which was also set on fire, are evidence that the fires were set deliberately.
The cave itself remains open, although there is no restaurant and gift shop any more.
Fires at W.Va. cave attraction ruled arson

Showcaves.com is now 15 years online. The first descriptions of caves and the collection of useful information was made around 1990 by Jochen Duckeck, first for the new show caves in eastern Germany, which became accessible after the border was opend in November 1989.
The first idea to publish a guidebook was never realized: printing books was expensive and impossible to finance by a student. The first online version was created in 1994 with the tool latex2html from the original LaTeX book. So actually showcaves.com went online 15 years ago.
In this early times it was hosted on the webserver of the FORWISS in Erlangen, the company where Jochen Duckeck worked at this time. It listed 55 show caves in Germany and started with the first caves in other countries.
In 1995 the site was hosted by the new company of Jochen Duckeck, the small internet company mediatec. Finally in 1998 the website was moved to bubis.com, and 2002 it got its own domain showcaves.com, hosted by domainfactory. And that is where it is hosted until today.
Today showcaves.com lists almost 3,500 underground tourist sites or subterranea, including show caves, show mines, cellars, bunkers, tunnels and much more.

After our last blog some minutes ago, we mentioned that there was no entry since July, almost half a year without show cave news. Actually we are not dead, the site is still maintained and the blog still lives. However there was not a single story which fit into this blog all this time.

Not long ago we made a page about a new cave in the U.S.A. which was developed as a show cave and promised to become a great cave. We added comments about the difficulties to book a tour during the first years. And now it celebrates its tenth anniversary.
We were impressed how long ago this cave was opened, and started to check how old showcaves.com is. We will post a blog entry about this soon.
However, our congratulations to Kartchner Cavern which seems to be not only an impressive cave, but also a successful example of nature awareness and careful cave management.

Actually there are lots of comics with various topics. And there are even a few which include caves. Pretty funny is the Little Asshole comic of German Walter Moers, with one story telling about a guided tour through a show cave. The little asshole is able to annoy the guide in no time.
Now there is a new comic about caves, from a different genre. UNDERGROUND is a five issue color series about Park Ranger Wesley Fischer as she tries to save Stillwater Cave. Its a sort of crime story or thriller.
The comic is written by Jeff Parker, drawn by Steve Lieber, and colored by Ron Chan. It is not published yet, but as a preview the first issue may be downloaded in black and white as a pdf file from their website.

The underground power plant of a gunpowder factory was opened in 1927, between the World Wars. It was built underground in the fear of another war, which was obviously realistic. And gunpowder is an important good during war times. Underground the plant was both: covered up and hidden from the enemy, and protected against air strikes.
The plant was closed in 1972 and replaced by a oil fueled plant on the surface. The equipment was sold as waste metal in the late 1990s. Now the current owner, chemicals firm Nitrokemia Zrt, tries to sell the underground structure.
The underground power plant is located near Balatonfuzfo, at central Europe’s biggest lake, the Balaton, 110km west of the capital Budapest.
It consists of three huge halls with concrete walls, in two storeys. Four coal furnaces the size of a small bus fed two power generators. This place was so hoot, the worke only wore their underpants.
The entrance into the plant is an unassuming office block. First a spiral staicase, then a steep concrete tunnel, lead down to the iron gallery high on the wall of the first hall. The power plant burned up to 275,000 tonnes of coal a year.

For Sale: Vintage underground Hungarian power plant | Lifestyle | Reuters