Greetings fellow Steemians,
After a short travel break to talk crypto, the travel focused posts are back. I will post more crypto updates in the future as the crypto market has been crazy lately.
Anyhow, Adventure Caving! Yes, we will be going underground in my latest post and explore the underbelly of the beautiful Buda hills. As we all know, Budapest is full of natural hot springs. What you may not know is that all the spring water formerly resided beneath the Buda hills and carved a massive network of caves and tunnels beneath the amazing city.
This city has a seemingly endless amount of activities to fill your schedule. For the more adventurous, a trip to the dark corridors slicing throughout the city's underside is a must. For a mere 7000 HUF or about $27 USD, you can enjoy a guided tour of Buda's underground passages.
In addition, these tours fill up quick and you must sign up via their email to secure a spot on one of the tours.
You can sign up using their contact form on their website: http://caving.hu/adventure-caving
The entry is a bit out of the way. It takes about 50 min by bus to get to the site or 15 min by taxi. My own experience took about 30 min buy bus as the traffic was very light.
To get there from Stephen's Basilica, you take bus no. 9 to Timar Utca, which is a larger transfer station. Then, you switch to bus no. 29 and ride it to Csalit Utca (on Google Maps, it is called the Cave of Paul Valley) where you will then walk about 10 mins to the cafe which is the headquarters for the caving excursions.
That's what the stop looks like near the cafe.
Down a long driveway you will find this quaint little cafe that serves drinks and food of all sorts. I sat down and had a cup of tea, but beer and sandwiches are also available and the price is not bad.
Then, about 15 minutes before your schedules excursion, your guide will come out, gather everyone up, and take you upstairs to get geared up and pay for the tour.
The guide then takes the group for a short hike to the cave entrance, which is a massive pre-war looking steel door. I did not think to take a photo of it. Sorry... :3
Once inside, you descend a thick steel ladder, which is bolted to the cave wall.
I apologize for the blurriness. The only light source where our headlamps and they were not the brightest. Thus, most images are either grainy or blurry within the cave as I had to photograph everything with my phone due to the cramp nature of the cave and inability to bring cameras gear with me.
Once inside, we navigated tight corridors and even tighter tunnel-like passages.
Occasionally the fit got so tight that I and others feared getting stuck.
However, the guide instructed us in the methods to keep moving forward, even when it seemed impossible to do so.
Our fearless leader (on the right).
Yes, you will get dirty on this adventure. There is climbing and crawling and scooting on your but as well as your stomach. Your knees and elbow with ache and there with be a powdery dirty covering all of you by the end. However, it is a wonderful experience and the guides couldn't be better. For the price, I've never experienced anything like it.
If you haven't already, go and check out my other post on Budapest and get excited to make it one of your travel destinations. See St Stephen’s Basilica, Buda Castle, Fisherman’s Bastion, Heros’ Square, and Vajdahhunyad Castle.
Below, enjoy more images of my caving experience beneath Budapest.
Seashells are embedded throughout the caves system's walls and ceilings.
Taking a break on the smooth chill boulders scattered about the caves.
Fearless leader 2.0
Adventurers crawling up out of the blackness of the deep.
A view of the stunning Buda hills form across the river perched atop the Basilica.
Thanks for stopping by and see you next time.