They Never Made It Out of This Suffocating Cave

Ambient Songs:
By CoAg
https://www.youtube.com/@co.agmusic1823

Intro Theme by Swift Junai:
https://www.instagram.com/swiftjunai/?hl=en
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6hf5nMJ8s6LJJfFR4OQ3lg
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1PoG2b18MHocWZA8zQgWjO

Writers and researchers: Jay Adams
https://instagram.com/jayadamsdigital?igshid=MzMyNGUyNmU2YQ==

Jordan Gottschick https://www.youtube.com/@DerpsWithWolves/playlists

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Securer Interesting and to
another edition of cave exploring Gone Wrong. In this video,
we're going to go over two disturbing cave diving instincts
that feature everything that make cave diving terrifying. The passages
are long, winding corridors, the restrictions are claustrophobia inducing, and
the panic of the people in the stories is all
too real. As always, viewer discretion is advised. On paper,

(00:34):
Woki Hole sounds like something out of a family day
trip brochure, which, to be fair, it kind of is.
It's got all of the hits, underground rivers, bizarre rock formations,
a cave aged cheese tunnel, and even a legend about
a witch who was turned to stone. It's located in Somerset, England.
It is one of the oldest showcaves in the country.
But beyond the tourist friendly trails and electric lighting, Wikie
Hole becomes something else entirely. It's actually one of the

(00:57):
most complex and unforgiving cave systems in Britain. Only roughly
two and a half miles or four thousand meters of
it eaven mapped so far, but that doesn't mean it's tame.
Parts of the system can only be accessed by deving
through long, narrow underwater tunnels, some of which can drop
down steeply or twist unpredictably into deeper chambers. Visibility can
also go from poor to zero in an instant, and

(01:19):
water temperatures hover around fifty two degrees fahrenheit or eleven
celsius all year. It's essentially just dark, disorienting, and unrelentingly cold.
The river Axe flows through the cave system, disappearing underground
before re emerging outside, and this river is actually what
carved out the chambers in the first place, slowly dissolving
the limestone over thousands of years. It's also what makes

(01:39):
this place so tricky. The water can hide entrances and
even block exits. Interestingly, people have also lived in the caves,
including Neanderthals, Celtic farmers, and Roman settlers. Animals have too,
including a species of cave hyena that no longer exists.
All of this commines to make a place that's old, strange,
and soaked in history. Over time, it's been a home,

(02:00):
sacred site, a source of water, a place to hide,
and more than once a place where people have disappeared.
Cave diving in Wookie Hole started back in the nineteen thirties,
back when divers were basically strapping auction tanks to themselves
with rope and sheer optimism. A few of them helped
map new chambers and figure out what kind of gear
would actually work in these harsh conditions. Since then, technology

(02:20):
has improved, but the risks haven't really changed all that
much for divers. The name wookie Hole still cares a
certain way of part challenge at part warning. James Gordon
was a twenty four year old ex Royal Marine known
for being sharp, disciplined, and extraordinarily skilled underwater. He'd racked
up more than five hundred hours of dived him, which
in the nineteen forties was no small feet in open water,

(02:41):
he was practically untouchable at this point in his life.
James didn't have much cave diving experience. In fact, his
entire record consisted of just one previous cave dive in
a different system altogether. Still, based on his military record
and reputation, he was fast tracked to explore one of
the most difficult sections of Wookie Hole. Normally, divers were
expected to completely at least two practice dives to the

(03:01):
seventh chamber before going deeper. For the team mint exception
for James, one warm up dive was enough and then
it was off to the ninth Chamber. On April ninth,
nineteen forty nine, the team made it to the ninth
chamber without instant, even doing a brief check on Chamber
eleven while they were doing that, and so far everything
was going well. On the way back, though, the team
decided to split into two groups. Two of the divers

(03:24):
took the shorter, more direct route to Chamber three. James
and another diver, Bob than opted for what was known
as the second loop. This is a longer path that
connects the ninth Chamber to the eighth then back around.
It wasn't an unusual decision. They had enough air, the
path was known, and James was eager to take the
scenic group back inside the eighth chamber. Though visibility dropped,

(03:46):
The silt in Wookie Hole is notorious. One wrong kick
and it's like diving into a mud slide. Bob even
thought briefly that his light had actually gone out, but
it hadn't. The cloud of mud around him was just
that thick still, he pressed on his heart beating just
a little faster and his hands a little colder, assuming
James was in front of him. When he reached chamber
three and found the others, though he immediately realized that

(04:08):
James wasn't there. A search party then quickly re entered
the cave, and they found James not far from the
guideline near Chamber six, head down and unmoving. They then
realized that his auction tank was empty and his counter
lung had collapsed. Even worse, he had a reserve tank
with him than he must have dropped at some point. Essentially,
he had run out of air and never made it back.

(04:28):
Some time later, they checked his equipment and found a
fault in his test pressure gage. This might have given
him a false reading, convincing him that he had more
air left than he did for the team. It was devastating.
While some chalked up to bad luck or technical failure,
others couldn't help but feel the cave itself had a
role to play. People started saying his spirit still lingers
in those chambers or drifting along the same guidelines he

(04:50):
followed in life. Either way, James's death left a lasting
mark on wookie Hole's diving history. It was sort of
a turning point, a moment when even the most confident
divers were forced to take a step back and take
a more serious look at cave diving as something else entirely.
By the time Keith Potter enter the caves nineteen eighty one,
wookie Hole had already earned its reputation. Keith, unlike James, though,

(05:11):
was no cave diving rookie. He had been through the
system before, and he knew exactly how serious it was.
That day, he was diving in the group of seasoned caterers,
including Martin Farr, who, if you know anything about British
cave diving, is basically a living legend. Their plan was
straightforward dive through the long sump between the ninth and
nineteenth chambers. It was a hall, but it also wasn't
new territory for Keith. He had done it before. Now.

(05:32):
There are two ways to make it through the sump.
Keith chose the lower route, which is deeper but less complex.
Martin took the upper path, which is a little shallower
but trickier to navigate. Keith set off first and everything
was normal. Visibility wasn't great, and it rarely is down there,
but nothing alarming. He was wearing two wetsuits layered together
to guard against the cold, since Wookie's chilly waters can
suck the heat right out of you, just like James. Though.

(05:54):
When Martin surfaced at the other end of the sump,
Keith wasn't there. At first, it didn't cause any concerned
in Martin, but as the seconds dragged out and then minutes,
the word began to grow Suddenly Martin spotted Keith. But
something was terribly wrong. Keith was floating just below the surface,
still under water and not moving, his mouth be set
slip free, no more than ten feet or three meters

(06:15):
from open fresh air. Martin then immediately doveed back to him,
and the others in the dive group weren't far behind.
They pulled Keith from the water and started CPR right
there on the stone floor of the cave. They would
go into work for almost an hour, trading turns and
refusing to give up, but Keith was gone. No one
could say for sure what happened, but there were theories.
Maybe he'd exerted himself a little too much near the

(06:36):
elbow of the sum where the passage tilted shortly upward.
Maybe he tried to push through too fast and couldn't
catch his breath in time. Meanwhile, others sought the cold
finally caught up with him. His friends remembered that Keith's
wetsuits had seen better days, even with him wearing two
layers and water of that cold doesn't take much of
a chill to sap your strength and slow your mind.
But the truth is, no one really knows what happened

(06:57):
to Keith. One minute he was swimming the netX he wasn't.
These days, most people still know Wokihle as a family
friendly attraction. For most visitors, it's an afternoon of lightheart fun,
something across off the vacation list before moving on to
the next stop. But the parts open to tourists are
just a fraction of what lies underground. Beyond the walkways
and railings, the cave system stretches from miles, twisting through

(07:19):
tight flooded tunnels and massive chambers that few people ever see.
The River Axe still runs cold through the rock, just
as it has for thousands of years, and even with
modern equipment and experienced divers, the risks haven't gone away.
Cave diving continues at Wokihole, but it's approached with a
lot more caution. Now access is limited to highly trained
divers who plan every move carefully, and while technology has

(07:41):
come a long way since the early days of exploration,
even today some of the system remains unmapped, and some
sections are simply too difficult or dangerous to explore. Gustavo
and Wardo were excited as they looked over a crinkled
piece of paper with hand drawn sketches on it. The
two men, thirty one and thirty years old, respectively, had
gotten their hands to something extremely valuable, at least to them.

(08:05):
During a British driving expedition in their home country of
Venezuela in nineteen seventy three, a diver had purportedly made
an unexpected discovery while exploring the underwater chambers of Rito
de Acarite Cave. Afterward, the diver drope a crude map
from memory of the path to a large underwater lake
that no one had previously known about. It's unclear exactly
how the map got into the hands of gustav And and
Wuardo in nineteen ninety one, but there it was, and

(08:26):
was a chance to explore something very few had witnessed.
So few, in fact, that many locals who had heard
the story of the Secret Lakes discovery actually disregarded the
idea as fake. But from the moment they got their
hands in the map, the two friends knew they were
going to explore it. The cave itself is primarily an
underwater cave located just sixty miles south of the city
of Coro. Interestingly, to add to the excitement, the cave

(08:47):
was well known within the community of cave divers, so
it had been explored countless times, but even still, there
was no mention of some massive, breathtaking underground lake inside.
For the two men, this made it even more exciting,
and they were planning on seeing it first hand. And
now it should be noted that while neither of the
men were certified in cave diving, both had a wealth
of experience as open water divers. Gustavo was a certified

(09:09):
diving instructor and Eduardo had similar credentials. But as you
probably know by now, these only served to create false confidence.
To make things worse, the British diver who first mapped
the cave was so impacted by the sealed inside the
cave that he made a note of the fine mudd
that turned the surrounding water into soup with the flick
of a fin. It's unclear if the two men understood
the significance of this note, but even if they did,

(09:30):
they clearly thought it was a risk worth taking. After
finalizing their plan, they started to share it with their friends,
expecting them to be just as enthusiastic about the dive
as they were. Instead, though, they were met with warnings
and pleased for them to reconsider. When it was clear
that the two men were dad sat on making the dive.
Some friends suggested they bring in an American cave there
who had the experience and knowledge to guide them, but

(09:50):
the two men brushed aside, almost taking a fence to
the idea. In their minds. They had diving experience, and
they had a map that made the journey look like
a straight shot in their estimation. As a team, it
was a sure, but they'd come out of the cave
having confirmed the presence of this supposed underground lake. On Saturday,
July thirteenth, nineteen ninety one, Gustavo Eduardo and a handful
of their friends trudged through the dense ven as well

(10:10):
in jungle on the way to the mouth of Rito
de Acerite. One of those in attendants was Maria, Gustavo's girlfriend,
who was visibly apprehensive about the dive, and understandably no
amount of assurance or consoling from Gustavo would alleviate her concerns.
All the way until the two men stepped into the water,
she begged Gustavano to go, and when it was clear
that her pleas were falling on deaf ears, she pulled
out a piece of paper that shed written a prayer

(10:31):
on and wrapped it in plastic to protect it from
the water. She then handed it over to Gustavo, hoping
that it would help keep them safe. By eight pm,
the two were ready to get the dive underway, and
shortly after Gustavo and water disappeared into the stream that
runs into the cave. They had no clue at that moment,
but they were already in deep trouble. Although they had
correctly tied a rope to the entrance to find their
way back, they didn't know that it had either broken

(10:53):
or come loose as they made their way deeper, But
in any case, their dive got underway in relatively clear
conditions and visibility started out at about ten feet or
three meters of distance. After making their way through the
main tunnel, one of them spotted an air pockethead and
the two friends surface inside it. This should have been
the first indication that something was wrong, because this air
pocket wasn't marked in the map. Initially, this didn't appear

(11:15):
to bother them much, but then they tried to pull
on the guideline and it was full of slack. Then
as soon as they ducked beneath the surface as well,
they discovered the giant silt out they had made on
their way in there. Now, this might seem like a
relatively easy thing to deal with you just wait until
the sill settles, but often it can be days or
even longer before all the settlement resettles and visibility improves.

(11:35):
Both of them now realized the trouble they were in,
Although neither of them panic just yet. Eduardo was pretty
certain he could feel his way out, and he encouraged
Gustava to follow him. He then crept along the wall
the cave using his hands, and after long enough, miraculously,
he found himself at the entrance. It's hard to describe
just how lucky this was, but as he caught his
breath and his friends gathered around him, Gustava's absence was
overly apparent. Eduardo then looked at Maria and asked where

(11:58):
Gustava was. Worried look on her face then morphed into
one of both disbelief and anger at hearing the question.
A second later, she blurted out that Gustavo was supposed
to be with him. Ed Warda then looked back at
the cave entrance and watched in hopes that his friend
would surface at any moment, but the stream was come
and there were no air bubbles to indicate Gustavo was
on his way. What none of them knew at the
time was that when Eduardo left the air pocket to

(12:19):
start feeling his way back to the entrance, Gustavo descended
to follow him, but got tangled in the rope. After
untangling himself in the murky conditions, he turned the wrong
way and took himself deeper inside the cave. The clear
conditions ahead of him should have tipped him off to this,
but in the moment it never crossed his mind. He
then swam in the wrong direction for a while until
he came across another much larger airpocket and surfaced. He

(12:41):
expected ed Wardo to surface in the pocket right behind him,
but after waiting for a few minutes for that to happen,
it was clear the two were now separated and for
a moment, and Gustavo couldn't keep the fear down anymore.
He began to panic and shouted at Wardo's name inside
the air pocket, but the sound was swallowed by the
water and rock that now trapped him there. After a
few more moments of this raced about what to do,
Gustavo got a hold of himself and returned to a

(13:03):
calmer state where he could think things out more clearly.
There was a way into the caves. There was obviously
a way out of the cave. He just needed to
think it through and come up with a plant. He
then took out his diving knife and carved an EX
into the rock inside the air pocket to his note
that he had been there. He then submerged again and
swam underwater to try to locate a tunnel, but surfaced
after bumping into a wall. He then carved another X

(13:23):
into the rock and tried again. Then after that over
and over he went under, only to surface when he
inevitably came into contact with another wall. Soon his surroundings
were covered with axis, and he still had no clue
where even the tunnel that led him into the air
pocket was let alone the one that would lead him out.
Worse yeah, the second of his three light sources was
on the verge of dying, so if he didn't get
out soon, he was going to be trapped in complete

(13:45):
darkness inside this unmarked air pocket. After doing this for
what seemed like forever, he decided to change tactics. The
large airpocket he was in did have some dry land available,
so he climbed out of the water and hopes that
he could preserve his warmth and energy, also not wanting
to burn up his last light, so he sat there,
shivering in the dark and holding it to hope that
his friends would be with them soon to guide him out.
Shortly Meanwhile, outside the cave, Eduardo had returned his regularly

(14:08):
to his mouth and submerged into the cave again. He
was going to find his friend, and he was going
to lead him to safety. At least that was his plan.
It was very quickly realized that it was too murky
and too dangerous, so with nothing else they could do,
Eduardo and the group of friends held vigil at the
entrance to Ritail to acurite in the dark jungle as
they prayed for Gustavo to suddenly appear. At dawn, that

(14:29):
still hadn't happened, and so Maria demanded that Eduardo drive
to phone for help. After long drive back to the city,
at Warda found the nearest phone and started making calls.
One of these was to his pilot friend Fernando. Fernando's wife, Vivian,
was a certified cave diver, although it had been three
years since she was inside one. As Eduardo described the
snare to Vivian, her heart sank. Based on the conditions.

(14:49):
She knew she wasn't the right person to come and
save Gustavo, but maybe she knew someone who was. After
hanging up with Eduardo, she called the Spring Systems Dive
Center in Florida, where cavediver Steve Gerard was getting ready
to teach a cave diving class. Vivian had trained under Steve,
so she knew that if anyone could rescue Gustavo, it
would be him. When she explained what was happening, though
she was surprised that the response Steve gave he was

(15:10):
pretty noncommittal about coming to Venezuela. Based on what Vivian
was telling him, it'd all added up to the conclusion
that Gustavo was probably already dead. Still, Vivian pleaded with
Steve to get on the next flight before the two
hung up, rather than pack his gear and rush the airport,
though Steve continued to get ready to teach his diving class.
As the day wore on with no word from Steve,
Vivian called him back and was in disbelief that he

(15:31):
was still in Florida. The last flight to Venezuela out
of Miami had left at five PM, which had come
and gone without Steve boarding. He continued to try a
convincerr that Gustavo was already dead, but neither she nor
Fernando would hear of it. That's when Fernando struck a deal.
If he could get Gustavo's parents to pay the ten
thousand dollars for Fernando to fly to Miami, he'd pick
up Steve and fellow diver John and Loriski himself and

(15:52):
fly them into Korro. At this, Steve agreed, and by
ten PM both he and John were on their way
to Venezuela. They touched down around five point thirty on
the morning of Monday, July fifteenth, and a few hours
after that they were at the cave entrance. The two
divers then geared up and decided that John would lead
and then enter the water, just like Gustavn and Warda
before them. Steve and John made their way through the

(16:13):
main tunnel, only for them, visibility were somewhere only around
a few inches. The silt hadn't dissipated at all, but
because Steve and John were well trained for such a
set of conditions, they barely blinked the low visibility. A
few minutes after starting the dive, the two surfaced in
the exact same first air pocket that Gustavan and Wardo found.
Steve then pulled his regulator from his mouth and expressed
disbelief in annoyance that anyone could have decided to make

(16:35):
this kind of dive. Conditions were so bad that Gustava's
body could be right next them and they'd never know it.
But either way, after a few more moments in the
air pocket, The two descended one at a time, and
John continued to lead the way deeper inside the cave,
further down the main tunnel. With a little bit of
distance between the two of them, Steve thought he could
barely make out John flashing his light at him. Finally,
Steve thought they found Gustava's body. Steve then surfaced in

(16:59):
a second air pocket and immediately saw John standing there,
and then just beyond John was another human stumbling toward
them through about two feet of water. Steve couldn't believe it.
Gustavo was alive after all. Gustavo then rushed to John
and threw his arms around him, before doing the same
to Steve. After an initial assessment by Steve, who was
still dumbfounded by finding Gustavo alive, he knew the first

(17:20):
sort of business was to get something for Gustava to drink.
All in all, he was in great shape for his predicament,
but dehydration was setting in and getting him out of
the cave alive would be difficult if they didn't get
some water into him first. Steve then tied off his
reels that the rope would lead him right back to
the air pocket, and he started to make his way
back toward the entrance of the cave, while John stayed
with Gustavo. As soon as he surfaced outside the cave,

(17:40):
Steve shouted to the crowd that Gustavo was alive. In unison,
everyone burst out to cheers and hugs, and while that
was going on, Steve grabbed a little bottle of glucose
water and headed back into the cave toward the air pocket.
When he arrived back inside the chamber, he handed the
ball to Gustavo, who drank it all down. He would
need more liquids, but at least his body had something
to work with that would last until they got out
of the cave. They then discussed a game plan for

(18:03):
their exit and determined that John would again lead the
way and Gustava would breathe of John's spare regulator. Steve
would then bring up the rear and hold onto Gustavo's
leg to make sure that he didn't take a wrong
turn somewhere. Thankfully, everything went according to plant, and soon
Gustava was sobbing in the arms of his loved ones
after nearly forty hours trapped inside the cave. By that point,
the fog had lifted from the jungle, and a helicopter

(18:23):
was on its way to pick Gustavo up and transport
him for medical attention, but he wouldn't need much. With
the exception of a moderate degree of dehydration, he was
fine physically, at least In the weeks following his rescue,
the psychological impact of his ordeal began to take a
heavy toll on him. He reportedly struggled to sleep, and
when he could, he almost always woke up in the
middle of the night, believing he was back inside the cave.

(18:45):
As of this recording, there has never been any confirmation
that an underground lake exists within Rito to Acarite