Ah, yes - a State famous for its deep, water-filled but gorgeous caves, I believe. I've seen quite a few photos from these, and read a few exploration accounts. Similarly in the Bahamas.
Fingal's cave when we were newly married. Weather blew up on return journey so we had to go under the tarpaulins. Rest of the party thought we were enjoying ourselves a bit too much.
I once went 600 feet down in a mine shaft. It was actually 650 feet deep, but it was filled with water in the last 50 feet. Ground water at that depth carries a lot of calcium and it flows over things and encases them in shimmering white stone. I saw a mason jar stuck in the wall, covered in that flowstone.
A couple weeks later somebody tried to steal an ore car out of the shaft. The hoist cable broke and the falling car tore out all the timbers. That was the same cable that we rode down and up just a couple weeks before.
Yes, and an unusually high number of times although for me not great severe caves in exotic locations. Even if the cave is modest in extent and difficulty, it is still very satisfying to be in the first party to enter somewhere literally no-one has ever seen before.
Exploring that is - not simply visiting already-known caves where there may be an "exploration" aspect personally if the cave is new to you, but you are not finding anything new or otherwise adding to the sum of caving knowledge.
I take 'exploring' to mean helping to find and investigate new cave passages, whether entire caves from the entrance inwards, or new series within otherwise-known caves. Often this is by clearing the sediment of ages that were blocking it, but I have helped explore open caves known locally but not previously investigated in any serious manner, if at all.
Nice Jugs mentions the Cheddar Caves - I've been involved for years helping to make discoveries in their catchment area, or the neighbouring catchment that feeds Wookey Hole in a similar manner; on the Mendip Hills. (An active river-cave like Goughs [Cheddar] and Wookey is essentially the natural drain for rain and snow falling on the hills above it.)
(BTW, Stu Bee refers to "spelunking". I was under the impression even cavers in America, to which country the word is confined, no longer use it. I've never seen it in modern caving literature, and wondering its etymology, discovered it was concocted in the 1930s by two cavers in the USA. The 'spel' syllable's root is the Greek word for cave, 'Spaeleos', used in 'Spaeleology', - I think I have the 'AE' compounds in the right places - the umbrella term for the scientific studies of caves and their contents. 'Spelunk -ers/ing' was used in the USA but nowhere else to describe cavers/caving generally, for a while, at first genuinely despite being a bit pretentious; but became corrupted to deride novice cavers - by cavers who must have forgotten they were beginners once!)
Stu Spelling Bee 