Cuevas de Sorbas: Gypsum caving

Cuevas de Sorbas are touristic caves in the Almeria province. The uniqueness is that these are Karst in Gypsum caves. It is therefore possible to admire the gypsum formations (similar to alabaster) which give the entire cave the resemblance of Alibaba caves.

The caving here is always guided but  not on marked paths, therefore there is always an element of adventure present. You get an overall, caving shoes, helmet and frontal light (and you WILL need this). We wanted to do the routa tecnica but ended up doing ruta combinada as 'tecnica' requires min 16 years of age (insurance) and my son is 13. With our guide we were alone and we visited two separate caves, with a break in between. There are more than 800 sinkholes in the Sorbas area (!). The first cave was smaller and ca. 200m long. The second cave was spectacular and more intricate and more tecnical requiring crawling in narrow spaces, walking in a river, but all together nothing more than a hike. We came to were ruta tecnica would continue... essentially a narrow vertical drop of ca 15m to abseil to reach the next cave level down. In any case nothing for claustrophobic people. The route follows a river bed which normally has little water. An important danger are flash floods from distant rainfall.

Alltogether a very enjoyable afternoon, worth if you would like to discover the caves. The gypsum is spectacular and the whole cave is covered with it. We were lucky no other people were there, apparently on weekends it can get quite crowded.