Exploring Caves
As you can imagine, exploring caves in the mountainous region of Cathar Country, offers exciting delights and surprises, as there are many natural caves in the region. A visit to a cave is like no other day out, you will be transported to a world of eerie darkness where the summer heat outside will fade like a distant memory. In this respect if the weather is just a little too hot for comfort, take a cave tour, and a sweater and see the world from a different perspective.
The earliest remains of pre-historic European humans ever found were given the name Cromagnon-man, and are up to 45,000 years old; these very early homo-sapiens would have spent time in the caves that we can explore, as is evidenced by some of the cave art that has been left in the caves.
There are other caves that you can visit in the nearby regions, but to just focus on the Department of Aude I have selected the three most popular guided tours for exploring caves available in this department:
Cave de L’aguzou
Cave de L’aguzou is a little over an hour south from Limoux on the border of the Aude and Pyrenees Orientales departments. Here you will take a guided tour into the underground world of stalactites and stalagmites which have been formed over many thousands of years to produce a very impressive example of the creativity of water combined with the patience of time. Cave de L’aguzou is a cave trekking service open year-round for guided tours, though bookings must be made in advance.
Gouffre de Cabrespine
Gouffre de Cabrespine is essentially a huge underground cavern of 1,600,000 cubic metres, technically a cave but this is so much more than just a cave. You zip-line through the areas that are inaccessible by foot and climb rope bridges to access a 200 metre high walkway to admire the views below. Unlike a lot of cave visits here you can actually canoe through what they call the secret river, taking you 200m underground the Gouffre de Cabrespine is very impressive, and its interactive nature make it a must see!
Cave de Limousis
Cave de Limousis is a one hour guided walk along a wooden walkway where you will see seven chambers and two lakes. Both beast and people have lived in the cave throughout history, you will see the bear refuge with large claw marks on the walls. Prehistoric people lived here from the Neolithic times through to the Middle Ages. As you traverse the walkway you will cross a clear lake that they call the mirror and onto the chamber of aragonite called the Aragonite Chandelier, the largest set of Aragonite crystals on the planet, a light show has been set up to enhance the beauty of this amazing collection of aragonite crystals.
Exploring caves is fun, educational and a great day out!
