Our third tour.

We entered the cave on our third tour through the main cave entrance and saw some of the same part of the cave as the previous tour, but turned left instead of right part way in. This was a very interesting tour, which provided us with more history of the cave, including the idea that it some people in the past thought staying in the cave might cure tuberculosis. In fact, some people died from the disease in the cave. We also went across a section thought to be a bottomless pit, which was not, and we passed through a section known as, ‘Fat Man’s Misery’. This section is so called because you must duck down to avoid hitting your head (just over a meter in height) and it is very narrow from hip level down as it snakes along a path that is about 30 meters long. You can read more about Mammoth Cave here. And this is a very interesting article about the Kentucky Cave Wars.

Since I am a fat man, I did get stuck one time going through ‘Fat Man’s Misery’, and my Destiny going ahead of me thought is was funny, but I dislodged myself, backed up, shifted my fat belly around by lifting it up, and managed to make it through. At the end of the tour, we had to go up 155 stairs to escape the cave. Since I wasn’t in the best physical condition and wasn’t used to so much activity at one time, I had to stop at each platform to rest and catch my breath. By the time I got to the last 27 steps, I wasn’t certain I would make it, but knew I was going back the way I came. It was only me and one of the tour guides. I asked him if he was still responsible for me until I left the cave and if he knew where the heart defibrillators were located. Needless to say, I made it out.