About · Introduction · The Team · Voladores

Pete Simpson
"There is nothing else left to find on earth's surface"
Pete, born in Huyton, a small town near Liverpool, officer of the British Army, and also a Chemist, shakes his head while he states that there are no cavers in his family.

Everything started while he was doing his degree in France; two years in Marseille where enough to turn him into a caver. He describes us how he originally wanted to be part of his university climbing club, but mysteriously got kidnapped by the SCM (Spéleo Club de Marseille).

"Luckily they all adopted me claiming they already had before a great British caver, so I inherited his fame and privileges." "They fed me and I became part of the family, just like the other 40 people that were there. As a matter of fact, I learnt to speak French from my very patient caving companions. In fact, when I was back to the UK, I could hardly speak any English!

I started exploring caves when I was twenty years old, and my rhythm was 2 caves per week. At the end of the year, I'd been to almost 140 caves." "It got so bad that when I came back to England, to visit my parents, mind you, I spent one day with them, and the next I had vanished to explore some caves. Over there I discovered that that there were quite a lot of cavers of the old guard, and soon after, realized that there was a caving club in the military, the CSCA (Combined Services Caving Association), which I promptly joined. That's where I met Jonathan, and we went exploring to the caves in Jura."

"Since then I think you can call me a caving evangelist. I try to get as many people as possible to come and try it out. A clear example of this is Aitch, who was working for me when I asked him along for an expedition. He liked it so much, that I inscribed him to a caving course, and now he's here having a great time in Cuetzalan."

"What I love about exploring is that it's all about doing something very difficult, developing yourself in the worst of conditions, exposing yourself to risk, and then, when it's over, you're left with this amazing feeling of achievement." "In the beginning I was incredibly innocent. I'd be travelling around the UK, and I'd come across a small cave entrance, convinced that I'd found a new cave. I'd tell people about it, and they'd point to their maps, laughing at me."

"It didn't take me long to realize that there's really nothing to explore in the UK, and that's why Cuetzalan is extremely attractive. You can go for a 20-minute stroll in the hills, and literally fall into 4 new caves, completely unexplored. That's a great thrill."

Finally Pete tells us about his desire to organize expeditions like this one in the future. It's an idea he loves, and also partly the reason he is here: to learn the smaller details of leading this form of expedition. "I also think that we who go underground are the last true explorers. It's the last frontier, definitely."