In a remarkable feat of human endurance, a Spanish extreme athlete has emerged from a cave after spending 500 days in a cave with no human contact. Beatriz Flamini, has potentially set a new world record for the longest solo cave isolation and has not spoken to anyone in 1 and a half years.
The athlete entered the cave in southeastern Spain on November 5, 2021, equipped with only basic supplies and a determination to test the limits of human endurance. Russia had not yet invaded Ukraine and the world was still in the grip of the COVID pandemic.
“I’m still stuck on November 21, 2021. I don’t know anything about the world,” Beatriz Flamini said after exiting the cave.
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At the age of 48, Ms Flamini entered a cave and spent two years inside. During her stay in the 70m (230ft) deep cave, she kept herself occupied by exercising, drawing, and knitting woolly hats.
For the next 500 days, the athlete lived in complete isolation, surviving on a diet of canned food and water from a nearby underground stream. She also kept herself company by reading 60 books.
While inside the cave, Ms Flamini was under the observation of a team of psychologists, researchers, and speleologists who specialize in the study of caves. However, none of these experts made any contact with her during her isolation period.
Shortly after emerging from the cave, she described her experience as “unbeatable” and “excellent.”
“I’ve been silent for a year-and-a-half, not talking to anyone but myself,” she said, while reporters pressed her for more details.
“I lose my balance, that’s why I’m being held. If you allow me to take a shower – I haven’t touched water for a year-and-a-half I’ll see you in a little while. Is that OK with you?”
She later told reporters she lost track of time after about two months.
“There was a moment when I had to stop counting the days,” she said, adding that she thought she had been in the cave for “between 160-170 days”.
During her time in the cave, she faced several challenges, one of which was a fly invasion that left her covered in flies. She also experienced auditory hallucinations, which she attributed to the brain creating sounds in silence.
Ms Flamini’s period of isolation has been of interest to experts who are studying the effects of social isolation and extreme disorientation on individuals’ perception of time.
According to Ms Flamini’s support team, she has broken the world record for the longest period spent in a cave. However, the Guinness World Records has yet to confirm whether there is an existing record for voluntary cave dwellings.
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The organization has, in the past, awarded the “longest time survived trapped underground” to the 33 Chilean and Bolivian miners who were trapped for 69 days, 688m below the ground after a mining accident in Chile in 2010.
Whether or not the athlete’s achievement will be recognized as a world record remains to be seen, but there is no doubt that their remarkable feat will go down in history as an inspiring example of human endurance and determination.
