The explorers of inner Earth are of a special kind. In Brno I met a lot of them. Not all young, not many looking like Indiana Jones.
All motivated, determined to investigate the geology, microbiology, paleontology, biology (you name it) ... in fact all possible contributions to the evolution of the depths of our planet.
These people go places where nobody has gone before, and they do it discreetly, with limited or no resources, but a lot of friends.
Some months ago I presented ESA CAVES to my home speleological group. It was the 55th anniversary of the foundation of the group. They were presenting a publication summarising the history of their exploration. While reading about the early adventures, still using ladders, one story captured my attention. It said "I knew that while I was exploring down there, an astronaut was in space. Everybody knew about him being in space, but nobody knew about me being down here. And yet, I had less chances to return safe to the surface than he did, and less chances of anybody finding out soon if I didn't."
I'd love the underworld to get the spot sometimes, and all those adventurous explorers to have the recognition that they deserve, for bringing to light a reality that most of us will never reach, not even know of, in our entire life.
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