About · Introduction · The Team · Voladores

Kevin Welch
Pushing it to the limit
Originally from the North of Yorkshire, but dreaming of one day going to Madagascar, and now here in Cuetzalan, Kev affirms: "I am a soldier, too, and my work consists of fixing helicopters for the Army, where I´ve been for almost four years and a half." He is one of the youngest in the expedition and one of the first things he does is to tell us about his dear girlfriend in Germany, who he misses a lot, "especially when I'm sleeping inside a wet cave."

When he was fourteen years old, his school organized a caving trip and since then it's been impossible for Kev to forget the unique feeling he got the very first time he found himself inside a cave. "To reach where no one has been before is one of the best experience I've ever had, and the possibility of doing this within the boundaries of a team, makes it all the more interesting." He points out that for him the basics of team work consists not of being the best, but to try to fit in and understand each other. He adds that he's never participated in an expedition where the team worked as well as on this one, and he admires Jonathan for choosing the people he did.

The part of caving he enjoys the most is "to push for new passages. I like it when you get trapped inside." He starts laughing nervously. "Seriously, what I like is to explore, as well as the physical effort you put into it. As a soldier you are always working out and this is already part of your routine. Therefore when I go to an expedition and my habits are altered, I try at least to keep on training."

Caving consists of many different stages. "Surveying is one of the most boring parts of caving but is also extremely important. I like to keep on pushing leads whenever the surveying is over, and I can run and explore, looking for new leads.

"The Alpazat cave is one of the scariest I´ve ever been to. This cave is pure and absolute beauty, but I also think that part of the attractiveness resides in the high risk. For me, caving is a way of getting a buzz - now we're talking adrenaline, the attraction for the unknown."

Another thing Kev likes about caves is that he never knows what's going to happen next, if he is going to find a dry place to rest, or if there's another exit and you will have to go all the way back on your footsteps. "It's hard work, especially when you're out for a long time; that's when you start missing a bed, good food and your girlfriend."

This is the second time Kev is in Mexico; the first was in Yucatán, but just briefly on his way to another caving expedition to Belize. "There we had to cope with the warmest and most humid caves I've ever been to. The water had a temperature of 23 to 25°C, and the whole experience was amazing. Inside we found a large variety of insects, it was unbelievable!" Kev has obviously been to caves in France and Spain, which he describes as "something like the caving university to all cavers in Europe."

Other things that Kev appreciates is climbing, rappelling, travelling, movies and photography. As a matter of fact, some of the caving pictures we have shown here were taken by him. For a long time he wanted to start taking pictures, but found it rather difficult since he didn't actually own a camera. Last year, before leaving to Belize, he bought a couple, and started shooting. The result is quite interesting, as his working method is purely intuitive and almost experimental. We can only hope he will keep on shooting more pictures so he can show more underground images to the world.