Woman Stays In Cave Alone For 500 days
This woman here, stayed in a cave all alone for 500 days, no phone, no social media, no laptop! Find out why and how!
For how many days can you stay alone, and even without sunshine? Maybe a day or 2 days or maximum a week. Well, you will be surprised to learn that 50 year Spanish athlete Beatriz Flamini has done this for 500 days in Granada, Spain. This story is about 50 year old Beatriz Flamini, who came out from a cave recently after spending 500 days with no human contact. She went into the cave when she was 48. When she entered the cave in Granada, Russia had not yet invaded Ukraine, and the world was still under the wave of COVID pandemic.
Just after coming out of the cave she said , “I'm still stuck on 21 November 2021. I don't know anything about the world." She had absolutely no connection to the outside world. Just like she didn’t know about the Russia-Ukraine war, she didn’t even know about the death of a family member. "If it's no communication it's no communication regardless of the circumstances. The people who know me knew and respected that," she said. She was given a panic button just in case it became too overwhelming or if something went wrong. However, Flamini said she was never tempted to call for help and never considered leaving the cave.
"Never. In fact, I didn't want to come out," she told reporters after leaving the cave.
She spent her time in the 70m deep cave drawing, exercising, and knitting woollen hats. As per her support team, she got through 60 books and 1,000 litres of water. A group of researchers, psychologists, and speleologists, who specialise in the study of caves, was monitoring/observing her from outside. However, none of them made contact with her. Shortly after coming out of the cave, she described her experience as “excellent and unbeatable." She also added that she had remained silent for a year-and-a-half, as she had had none to talk to but herself.
She recalled that she lost track of time after about two months, and that there was a moment when she stopped counting the days. She documented her experience on two GoPro cameras. Flamini had no contact with anyone except her support team, who sent her fresh food and clothes, and removed her waste "every five poos." Flamini said that she dealt with the isolation in her own ways.
"I didn't talk to myself out loud, but I had internal conversations and got on very well with myself," she said. "You have to remain conscious of your feelings. If you're afraid, that's something natural but never let panic in or you get paralyzed."
Technically, her stint of isolation lasted 508 days as she was forced to temporarily leave the cave for eight days due to a technical problem. However, throughout this eight days hiatus, she claimed to have still maintained isolation and stayed in a tent before returning to her cave. On some of the questions, Flamini struggled to reply and stumbled on her words – although that’s fairly understandable considering the extreme social isolation she has faced.
She recalled that one of the toughest moments that she faced in the cave was when flies had attacked. Experts have been studying her case to learn more about the impact of social isolation on people.
The Guinness World Record for the "longest time survived trapped underground" is currently held by the 33 Chilean and Bolivian miners who spent 69 days trapped at a depth of 2,257 ft in 2010.
However, the Guinness World Records has not yet confirmed whether there is a record for voluntary time living in a cave.
