Adventures in Wet & Willd Winter at Horne Lake Caves

Of late I seem to have become an arm chair traveller, reading and writing about places which I read about. One such interesting place I read about is the Horne Lake Caves which is supposed to be a great winter getaway. But then one has to wear snowshoes and wear protective apparel before entering the caves. There are other options at the location too, such as climbing a subterranean waterfall, walking in the snow etc.

Horne Lake Caverns
The best location to do adventurous activities such as climb up an underground waterfall, see rare crystal rock formations is the Horne Lake Caves Provincial Park, Vancouver island, British Columbia, Canada. The caves offers an incredibly exciting three hour Wet and Wild Spelunking (Caving) Adventure tour, during winter and spring only. The tour concentrates on Ice Age water forces that created one of the largest and most spectacular karst systems in North America.

There are no prerequisites or caving experience required to participate in this adventure activity. You should be interested to take up the physical and mental challenges caving offers and be excited about the sense of exploration and discovery; and of course have a moderate fitness level and be above 8 years.

Natural formations inside the caves have been named after comic characters which they resemble, such as Jabba the Hut, Piglet, Winnie the Pooh, Howling Wolf and Smiling Buddha. In India I remember the Belum caves where all the formations have Indian cultural names such as Sapta svaralu, Koti Lingalu, Simha dwaram etc. Here they have names related to their culture. Human beings are the same everywhere.

Interestingly out of 123 of the longest and deepest caves in North America, 76 are on Vancouver Island alone. Riverbend is 387 metres (1270 feet) long and features a seven-story waterfall. Imagine climbing a water fall in the deep womb of mother earth. It is interesting and makes you enact the roles played by hollywood star Nicolas Cage in National Treasure or even Sylvester Stallone in Rambo III.

If you are someone who doesn't like getting into closed areas then there are surface adventure activities such as fishing for cutthroat and rainbow trout, canoeing, kayaking. Take a look at the pictures and you will head straight there the next long weekend.