Speleological Photography: exploring the mysterious Kuza Cave

in #hive-1949132 years ago

Hey there my Hive friends and followers!

I´m happy to deliver another post that I have been promising for some time already. It´s probably one of my last posts from Zanzibar and it will take you to the mysterious Kuza Cave. The cave is hidden in a little jungle just outside of the picturesque coastal town of Jambiani in the northeastern part of the Unguja Island and since we were actually based in Jambiani, we couldn´t miss this special cave adventure.

I didn´t realy find much information about the cave on the internet so the following lines will rather be just my own subjective description and observations. The cave itself is a huge limestone sinkhole flooded with crystal clear fresh water. If you have ever been to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, you surely know what cenotes are and this is exactly what the Kuza Cave looked like and felt like.

The entrance fee is 10 USD and once you pay, you can stay in the cave for as long as you wish. That was actually great because there were several groups of people who arrived to the cave in tour minibuses so we could just wait until they go back to the buses and leave for some other attractions of the island. Therefore, we could have the cave just for ourselves for a few moments.

I tried to take pictures of the cave without the strangers in them but you can still see some other visitors of the cave is some of the shots, sorry about that. Talking about photographing caves, this must actually be one of the most difficult photography disciplines because the light conditions are extremely poor in caves and the waving water of the flooded part creates these visual distortions and reflections that might look cool but are super hard to capture with a decent focus.

With that being said, most of the photos that you are now going to see are quite horrible from the quality standpoint but I think that even real cameras would struggle in such an extreme environment, let alone my old poor phone :D :/ But enough moaning, let´s take a look...


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I hope you still enjoyed the pictures, despite their low quality. As you have surely noticed, a significant part of the cave is decorated with all these amazing stalactites and stalagmites and you can also see a lot of different colors on the walls, I guess it was caused by the occurrence of different chemical elements such as iron, sulfur etc.

The water was pleasantly cool and refreshing, much more than the ocean that gets super warm in this part of Africa (Zanzibar is actually located just a few degrees off the equator). It was crystal clear and I wished I had brought my snorkeling gear with me because there was some interesting wildlife to be observed in there, including some beautiful freshwater crabs.

I should also add that near the entrance to the cave, there is a little community center where you can learn more about the history and culture of the area and even buy some Swahili cooking and dancing lessons.

To find out the exact location of the Kuza Cave, feel free to check out the Pinmapple, I pinned it there ;)

PS: I have some traveling and very busy days ahead of me so getting to replying to your comments and checking out your posts might take me a bit longer than usually this time. Sorry about that and thanks for understanding.




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Such an amazing and scary place, but here my question is that are there any casualties happened in this cave due to the scary nature of these caves?

Casualties? What do you mean? The water is not deep so you cannot really drown in there and I cannot think of any other way of getting killed or injured in there. Maybe the place looks more dangerous in photos than it really is :)

I was always fond of visiting caves. I remember I last visit a cave in my childhood and after that never got a chance but now seeing your post made me feel to enjoy this beauty again.

I hope you will have a chance to visit some more caves. Are there any near your hometown? :)

@tipu curate

🤩🤩🤩🤩

:)

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i got scared seeing this😄 but its so amazing!

Really? I didn´t realize the cave may be perceived as scary until some of you mentioned it here in the comments :) Thanks for checking out the photos and sorry for scaring you :D

What a lovely place. I love caves, the last time I was in one was 5 years ago I think. This looks one to visit for sure.

Caves are amazing indeed and even more for us asthmatics as the humid cold air in them has healing properties ;) Thanks for stopping by Erika a sorry for the late reply.

This looks so beautiful ☺️

Thank you.

Bonitas figuras geológicas de diversos colores de acuerdo a su mineralogía , buenas fotos/Beautiful geological figures of different colors according to their mineralogy, good photos

Thanks for checking them out :)

Hi, I am also a speleologist and I do speleology.
The caves are wonderful.
On my channel, he shows videos of cave exploration.
I invite you to visit: https://hive.blog/@kowalscy-team

Hey there! Thanks for stopping by :) Caves are awesome. I will check out your blog, I can see are from Krakow. I love this city, I lived there for 2 years :) Pozdrawiam!

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Wow! Spectacular!

Visiting such a place and taking pictures is a source of great happiness for a person because seeing the natural scenery as it is makes a person very happy.

Thanks, I hope this post was also a source of some happiness for you :)

Wow. I'm surprised the dragon that inhabits this cave didn't come out to duel you.

Posted using Proof of Brain

Hahaha I´m glad he didn´t! :D Thanks for stopping by man. Been checking out your blog from time to time and not much is going on there. Busy in real life?

@phortun, yes, bro, busy as fuck! Trying to make it in this economy 😅

I see :) Good luck then but don´t forget about your favorite blockchain either! :)

Would never forget. I try my best and hope to even do better as the days go by.

Man, that water is insane! It's pretty rare these days to find it that clear. Kind of reminds me of one of the springs we have up north where I live. The water is so clear you can see the fish many meters down in the spring. I get what you mean about the shots not coming out the way you want. It's hard when it is dark like that.

You are right, finding such clear water is hard these days. Most rivers and lakes are polluted so to find clear water, you either need to hike up to the mountains or crawl into caves :D In Mexico, there are actually thousands of places like this just on the Yucatan Peninsula. They are called "cenotes" and they are so cool... I know that this part of Mexico is a very popular destination for US tourists, you might have already been there...

I was supposed to go to Baja this spring, but our plans changed. Mexico doesn't seem that safe for many of us to visit these days...

I see. We lived there for some 2 years and that let us see and experience more than what tourists usually get to and I can say it´s not exactly a safe country indeed. Still a beautiful one though so I hope you will make it there one day...

yeah, I hope so too. Our friends had zero problems where they visited, but I have been seeing so many news reports lately about tourists being attacked.

OMW this is a dream!! 🤩 How beautiful, you had a wonderful opportunity to experience the beauty in these caves! 🪨

Yeah, it was amazing :) Really glad we came there on our own and thus could be there as long as we wished... The tour groups could only spent there like 15 minutes. Thanks for checking out my blog!

This is way I don't like tour groups man!! Let me explore everything on my onw please 🐸

Exactly ;)

Wait so you are telling me I just took a tour of a wonderful African cave on the equator from the comfort of my curation chair in Canada? HELL YA!

Such wonderful colours from the mineral deposits and the super clear water reminds me of the cenotes in Mexico. I have to get to Africa at some point!

It was a pleasure to take you on this tour! It did remind me of the Mexican cenotes too, I mentioned that in the post... During the scorching Mexican summer when the Caribbean was too warm to cool you down, cenotes were the place to go to. I loved them :)

https://steemit.com/travel/@phortun/beauties-of-yucatan-my-ultimate-photo-collection-of-cenotes

That is beautiful.I always admire caves. The rock formation always amazes me. Thanks for sharing, photos are not that horrible for some reason that our brain can imagine what it looks like in actuality.

Thank you Franz, it was a pleasure to show you this cave through my photos :) Have a nice day.

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I think we have that kind of caves in Turkiye as well. One of them I remember is Damlataş Maĝarası on Alanya district od Antalya. It is amazing, check it mate.

Thanks for the photos and post!

I just checked it out and wow! That´s an incredible place! So big and beautiful. Putting it on my list of places to see in Turkey right now, thanks for the tip mate :)

The scene inside the cave looks a bit scary and beautiful at the same time.

I personally don´t find caves scary, rather just mysterious because you never know what´s in there :) Thanks for checking out this post!

Dude, as you said, it's very difficult to take pictures in the cave. I tried before and it was very dark everywhere but you did a very good job. I think the photos look great. The stalactites and the color of the cave walls are very interesting. Thank you for sharing them.

Thank you! Well, I did my best but it was impossible to get a decent focus in most of the shots so they turned out the way they did but I´m glad that, seeing the comments here at least, people still got some idea of what the place looked like from these pictures... Thanks for stopping by! :)

These are the most beautiful pictures you have ever shown to us
I like them!!!

Thanks but I cannot agree with you, the photos are way below what I consider decent shots...

Very cool pictures! You're right it looks exactly like a cenote. That's a beautiful cave with crystal clear water. The Yucatan is such a pretty place, thanks for sharing!
!CTP

Thanks! You have been to Yucatan? Then you know what cenotes are ;) I miss them so much...

https://steemit.com/travel/@phortun/beauties-of-yucatan-my-ultimate-photo-collection-of-cenotes

Oh yeah! They are awesome! I love that part of Mexico! I used to visit that area a lot when I lived in the Caribbean.

That´s cool :) Where exactly did you live? We lived mostly in Playa del Carmen.

Puerto Rico, but went hopping on most weekends all over the Caribbean.

Sounds amazing :)

Wow the portraits that you do are really very good I really like every time you do photography

What portraits are you talking about?

How great your pictures were and also you had a great time in the cave, 10 usd is very good for spending as much time as you want inside the cave.

I remember when I was younger I had gone to a very famous cave here in Venezuela and it was incredible because it was a guided tour and it was a great experience.

Thanks for your kind comment, glad to hear that you had a chance to visit such a place too :) I would love to explore some caves in Venezuela...

I'm glad I don't suffer from clautrophobia and can visit those places, although they are still scary lol.

Here in venezuela there is a very famous cave called "la cueva del gucharo", I think it is the most famous cave in venezuela.

I just googled that cave out, it looks amazing! So big :)

I remember some caves in Cebu, Philippines. It was so clear I just want to jump in and cool down. :D

That´s exactly what I did in this cave, jumped in and cooled down :) Thanks for your visit!

Awesome <3

I like very much to visit caves, I have visited many caves in Romania, Hungary and other European countries.
My opinion is that each cave is unique in its own way even if those stalagmites and stalactites I met in many caves I visited.
You added beautiful pictures and thank you for showing us another beautiful place in Zanzibar.

Thanks man :) Yeah, caves are special indeed. There is something fascinating and mysterious about them. We have a lot of caves here in my country too. Next time you come here, you may want to check out the Moravian Karst ;)

I took a quick look at the location you suggested.
This is a must see place in the Czech Republic, and for me it is a location that is top of the list on my next visit to the Czech Republic, thanks for the tip.

Awesome :) That place is actually an entire network of caves and also one "underground river", I´m sure you would love it.

Honestly these places attract me like a magnet, I don't need to stay in a 5* hotel or go to Michelin star restaurants, for me these don't matter, but when I comes to places like the one you presented I melt.
I leave you a picture of a place I visited in Hungary, everything you see is under a city..

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Same here, I also prefer natural places to urban environment ;) The cave that you got to visit in Hungary looks amazing. You can even take a boat ride in there, wow, just like you can in that underground river in the Moravian Karst ;)

How mysterious the world is, to be able to have such amazing places around us.
The cave I showed you is a gallery under the city, where the bustle of the city passes by every day.

Mysterious and incredible indeed :) Thanks for sharing your experience with us! Greetings from Czechia to Romania!

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