Many year ago I used to go down a cave in the Yorkshire Dales. It is a very popular cave called Long Churn and over the years I have taken scores of folk down this cave. When my kids got to the toddler stage I thought I would introduce them to caving and pot holing, so duly camped at the farm that tenants the land and we played the usual games including who could throw the boomerang (a plastic one) the furthest. We found a wooden one, so we were not the first.
Anyhow as my kids were very young I decided to take them into the cave, but in order to give me the best mobility I decided I would do it naked as that would allow me to sense everything, temperature, wind, smells and all. Being naked gives the body (and the brain) a level of awareness that is on a par with our past hunter gatherer survival times. My youngest on my shoulders.
The cave is a stream cave, in that it has a water course flowing through it and there is a breeze that comes from the flow of the water down open passages. Being the UK it has a constant temperature of cold (but warm if you are active). My kids loved this cave journey and never noticed I was naked, why should they as that is such a natural state. The cave has one difficult bit at Dr Bannisters Handbasin where there is a climb, but being bare footed eases this. I got dressed for the walk back to the camp site, but as per usual that cold water heated me up in the way that our outer body closes capillaries to keep the inner core warm.
