Imagine for a moment that you’re lost in
an underground cave. You have no food, but plenty of fresh water
to sustain you. There’s a catch, however: your partner,
who’s gone for help, hasn’t returned for a few days now, and you’re quickly running
out of breathing air. This is a true story of Xisco Gràcia’s
dangerous ordeal in the Spanish caves. Gràcia is a 56-year-old geology teacher in
Mallorca, a beautiful island in Spain. Lush greenery covers the land there, and lots
of tourists find this place incredibly attractive as a resort. To him, though, the underground world has
always been more appealing than what’s above. Gràcia’s spent many years as a scuba diver
in the caves that make a huge network beneath Mallorca. Almost every weekend he takes his gear, calls
on one of his diving partners, and goes on another underground adventure, mapping the
mysterious hollows of the island. It was to be just another routine dive for
him and Guillem Mascaró on April 15, 2017. Gràcia prepared for the expedition as thoroughly
as usual — even for such a skilled and experienced scuba diver as he is, underground caves pose
a real threat if not taken seriously. Either of the divers had four tanks of air
on them, each designed to last an hour. That should’ve been enough to get them inside
Cova de Sa Piqueta — a cave with lots of chambers 130 ft deep and about 3,300 ft from
the entrance to the network. It took them an hour of swimming underwater
to get to their destination. Gràcia stayed at the entrance to pick up
geological samples, while Mascaró went a bit further to explore a nearby chamber. Everything was going according to their schedule
— they still had plenty of air to swim around and safely get back. But then the unimaginable happened. First, as the two divers were exploring the
chambers, they accidentally bumped into each other at an intersection and stirred the silt
on the bottom of the cave. The visibility became zero almost in an instant,
and they couldn’t see each other in the cloudy water. But that was far from the worst. You see, cave divers always have a roll of
string with them that they tie at the entrance and leave behind them as they go inside. It acts as a guideline — this way, they
always know how to return to the surface. The string is sturdy because it has to endure
a lot of friction, but that day something went terribly wrong. Barely able to find their way around, Gràcia
and his partner oriented by touch but couldn’t find the guideline. This was a bad sign. Silt wasn’t going to lie down soon, and
they spent another hour trying to locate the line, but all was in vain. It was apparently severed by falling rocks
somewhere along the way back. The situation was growing desperate. By this time, they barely had enough air in
their tanks to get back to the surface with the line intact, but without it, they had
no chance to get out alive together. In one of the chambers, there was an air pocket
where they could take off their breathing masks and talk. They discussed their options and came to a
difficult but necessary conclusion: only one of them would go back, while the other would
remain in the caves and wait for help. They decided that Mascaró would be the one
to go. He was thinner and needed less air, while
at the same time Gràcia had more experience breathing carbon dioxide-rich air of the caves. Mascaró didn’t want to leave his friend
behind, all alone and with no supplies, but he understood they had no other choice. He was their last hope for survival, so he
agreed with the plan. They looked at the map and drew another route
for Mascaró to follow: it was longer, but if there indeed was a rock fall where they
had come from, he could find himself in a dead-end. The biggest problem with this new route was
the lack of a guideline: Mascaró could easily get lost, and then they were both doomed. But then again, it was their only chance. At last, they said their goodbyes, and Mascaró
left for help. Gràcia, in the meantime, set out to explore
the chamber where he would have to wait for his partner. It was spacious, as it turned out, and there
was enough air for him to last for some time. There was also drinkable water — on the
surface, it was fresh enough to be consumed. Brackish, yes, but at least it was something. Finally, he found a flat rock that stuck from
the underwater lake, and was able to get out of the water and have some rest. He took off his equipment and started waiting. Now, you might remember that Mascaró had
only enough air on him to get him out alive — and that would’ve normally taken him
a little over an hour. Gràcia was counting on that, and that help
was soon to come. But still he realized that rescuers would
have to spend some time searching for him and then getting him out, so he turned his
light off to save it for when he really needed it. But something went wrong — again. Hours passed, and still there was no news
from his friend. Situation was growing desperate for Gràcia. He had some drinking water, of course, but
the air in the cave was getting sparse, and even at the beginning of his ordeal it was
too high on CO2. His head was aching, and he couldn’t even
get to sleep because of the poisoned air. The worst began when he started seeing things
that weren’t really there. At some point, he thought he heard bubbles
of air springing to the surface of the lake, as if there was a diver about to emerge. He also saw lights reflecting from the walls
of the cave. Elated, he thought he was finally saved, but
when he turned his head he saw nothing — the chamber was as dark and empty as ever. His brain was playing tricks on him — he
was hallucinating. Gràcia didn’t really know how much time
had passed since he’d been left alone underground, but it felt like days. He was already losing any hope. But then it returned to him in a flash. There was a rumble from above, and this time
it wasn’t a hallucination. Mascaró really made it out alive, and he
must’ve brought help! At first Gràcia thought the rumbling was
a sound of oxygen tanks getting filled with air, but soon he realized they were trying
to drill the rock to get to him from above. He was happy: they’d come, they’d have
him rescued. And then… the sound vanished. The cave went quiet again. Gràcia couldn’t believe his ears. His rescuers must’ve faced an obstacle they
couldn’t get past. He wasn’t going to survive, after all. Scared and confused, these were the darkest
hours for Xisco Gràcia. His last flashlight was at its limit, and
he knew he wouldn’t be able to get to the drinkable water in the dark. So he just sat there and contemplated his
fate. As he was thinking about how his life would
end, he suddenly heard a sound again. The air bubbles in the water. He didn’t get too hopeful at first, discounting
it as another hallucination, but soon he saw a diver’s light getting closer and closer. No trick of mind, that: someone was really
coming for him. He sprang to his feet and stared into the
water. At last, a human figure emerged on the surface. It was his old friend and another diving partner
Bernat Clamor. Gràcia jumped into the water and gave his
rescuer a hearty hug, while the man was asking if he was okay and saying how he’d been
afraid something happened to him. It turned out that Gràcia really spent more
than 60 hours in the cave. Guillem Mascaró safely found his way out
and immediately gathered a search party, but the visibility in the caves was so poor that
they spent too much time getting their bearings. At some point, the rescue team decided to
drill through the cave rock and at least get some provisions to the poor man down below,
yet they didn’t manage to do that either. Finally, they made a hard decision to wait
for a day until the water clears from the mud and then go after Gràcia. This was how they found the man. It wasn’t the end for him, though. He had to stay there alone again, while Clamor
got back to the team and informed them of his success. It took eight more hours for Gràcia to finally
see the light of day again, but, as he himself said, they were eight happy hours. After more than two days in full isolation,
without food and with only poisoned air to breathe and barely drinkable water to sustain
him, Xisco Gràcia was a free man again. Today, two years after the ordeal, he’s
still alive and well, and continues exploring the caves underneath Mallorca. Wow! Wasn’t that an awesome story! Do you know anyone who has something equally
exciting to tell the world? Let me know down in the comments! If you learned something new today, then give
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