PLANETCAVER

Welcome to the Planetcaver blog, featuring stories from caves and underground explorations around the world, from the point of view of a beginner caver. The Planetcaver has explored underground places in 42 countries and 577 locations (431 natural in 35 countries and 147 man-made in 24 countries) and has written about 80 other places. You can also click on the map on the left to see where in the world they took place.

There's also a "map of maps" -- a map of caves that I have drawn a cave map on on the right (182 maps). There's also a long list of those maps as well as a list of 3D models that I have created. The Planetcaver articles appeared originally in the Blogspot Planetskier series, at TGR posts, or at the Relaa website. See also the articles about skiing, urban exploration, climbing, cycling, flying, swimming, and saunas.

All caving-related articles:
Parc Naturel de Portneuf caves in Quebec
The Portneuf municipality is half way between Trois-Rivières and Quebec cities, on the north side of the St. Lawrence river. A bit north of them lies the Saint-Alban village and there is the natural park, Parc Naturel de Portneuf. And two wonderful caves, the Grotte le Trou du Diable and Grotte aux Cascatelles. The first one is a Quebec speleological society's organized touring cave, a wet wading cave. I was not able to do this tour, since it was out of the season. In any case, summer would probably be a nicer time to be deep in the water. The second one is cave by the gorge-like river Sainte-Anne, where a small stream has carved a cave to short-cut the gorge walls.
Full story

November 2025, Grotte le Trou de Diable, Saint-Marc-des-Carrières, Quebec, Canada; Grotte aux Cascatelles, Saint-Alban, Quebec, Canada
Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Limestone, Morphology-Karst, Morphology-Erosion)

Spilia Beach Bar - obviously with a cave
One would expect there to be plenty of caves in mountainous Greek islands, but it didn't seem to be the case for Idea. There are some beach caves, however, the easiest to access being right in the main village, Hydra, at the "Spilia Beach Bar". That, is the cave beach bar.
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October 2025, Spilia Beach Bar cave, Hydra, Greece
Caving (Basic, Swimming, Rock, Morphology-Erosion); Swimming (Outdoor, Water, Waterbody-Sea, Beach)

Ivanovići Pećina in Bečići, Montenegro
The Ivanovići Pećina is a small, 18-meter cave located east of the town of Budva on the Adriatic Coast of Montenegro. The drive to access the cave is a long one up the hills on narrow roads, then there's a well-marked half a kilometer hike down a small valley and then up to the cave. But it is well worth the trip! The cave is nicely shaped, and the hike offers wonderful views. Indeed, even from the cave entrance you can see the green hills sloping down to the sea, and the coast. Recommended.
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September 2025, Ivanovići Pećina, Bečići, Montenegro
Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Limestone, Morphology-Karst, Surveying)

Unspecified hole in Norway
After exploring the Mareminehollet cave in Bergen, I was more in the south of Norway, and explored another cave. I don't want to expose its location or even name/city. It was interesting, though I the promised 50 meters seemed like a stretch. But I also didn't feel like squeezing into the very low part, it is possible that something could have been found there.
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July 2025, Undisclosed cave 1, Undisclosed city, Norway; Undisclosed cave 1 side cave, Undisclosed city, Norway
Caving (Basic, Rock, Morphology-Crack, Morphology-Erosion, Morphology-Karst, Surveying)

Luolavuori cave scan
I went with Ralf's organized caving trip to Turku's Luolavuori (cave mountain) cave. Been there many times, it is a wonderful cave! Also fun to meet new people, perhaps there's some cave trips we can do together at some point! Also, I did a quick 3D scan of the cave with my iPhone.
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June 2025, Luolavuoren luola, Turku, Finland
Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Gneiss, Morphology-Crack, Morphology-Boulders)

Mareminehollet
I'm in Norway, traveling between Oslo and Bergen. But are there any caves that I could visit? Turning to Google, I do find some, but they are generally too far out of my reach. The good caves appear to be much higher up north. However, just a kilometer from the city center of Bergen there's Maraminehollet. It is a city cave, with everything that comes with it. Easy to access, there's a sign, there's a bench next to it. But to enter, you must first pass the beer cans and park chemists :-)
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June 2025, Mareminehollet, Bergen, Norway
Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Unknown, Morphology-Unknow, Surveying)

Underground rivers of Flåm
While going on the Flåm railway (see the other article), I noticed that on Google Maps there was a marking for a "cave waterfall", Grottefossen-Høgabru. I saw it briefly when the train drove by, the river entered the mountain and came out shortly thereafter on the other side. And there was an additional similar underground water flow after the Kjosfossen waterfall, under the station. These seem man-made, however, as in both cases the water is taking a different direction to bypass the station or the bank that the rails were on.
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June 2025, Grottefossen-Høgabru, Flåm, Norway; Kjosfossen station, Flåm, Norway
Travel; Urban-Exploration (Tunnels, Railways); Caving (Man-Made, None)

Solamäki caves update
We got an update from Kim Petterson about the Solamäki caves.
Full story

May 2025, Solamäen luola, Siuntio, Finland
Caving (None)

This is the 1th set of articles. The next sets are set 2, set 3, set 4, set 5, set 6, set 7, set 8, set 9, set 10, set 11, set 12, set 13, set 14, set 15, set 16, set 17, set 18, set 19, set 20, set 21, set 22, set 23, and set 24.

The Planetcaver articles appeared originally in the Blogspot Planetskier series, at TGR posts, or at the Relaa website. See also the articles about skiing, urban exploration, climbing, cycling, flying, swimming, and saunas.