Alone in the Dark Forest, Exploring Caves With Strange Altar
One evening I found myself quite bored and I asked my workmate if he knows any cool places to go to that I could photograph in the dark that are not too far away. He told me about some caves that are in the middle of a forest. These are named Naage caves. I was actually surprised that I didn't know about these previously, especially so because these caves are not very far from where I live.
There was a small road that led to this part of the forest and I took this photo there.
Now I had the mission to find the first cave. It's hard to see anything there due to the dense forest even though I had a flashlight with me. After some minutes of searching, I found the first cave entrance in a cliff face.
Seeing the opening and going inside felt shady as hell but that's why I came there.
Interesting ice sculpting on the ground. I had to be careful not to fall on this ice with my tripod and camera.
When I got inside, it was actually longer than I thought. Here is the view to the end of the cave.
Thoughts of getting trapped inside this came are inevitable. When looking back towards the entrance, you can see how the ceiling has fallen down previously in history and I wondered... What if the entrance fully collapses right now? I would be trapped. In the cave, I didn't have reception so I wouldn't be able to call for help. They would start to search this place when I didn't arrive to work or something since I only told my workmate where I went.
I got out of the first cave and it took me a short while to find the second cave there is. The entrance looks quite similar to the first cave. A bit larger
A couple of shots of the cliffs next to the cave opening.
I again, had to climb down from the rubble that has fell from the ceiling previously. You can also see something at the end of the cave, it's an altar.
I have to be honest I was actually a bit scared there. Alone in some random forest, in a random cave underground with thoughts of it collapsing and then there is also some creepy ass altar. Since I'm a curious person, I had to take a closer look.
...Oh and my big flashlight also regularly failed and I was left in total darkness, fortunately, it started working again when hitting it.
This is the altar.
This is a Buddhist altar. I don't know why or who made it happen there, it's just in a too-random place. I was aware of the altar there so I took a couple of candles with me so I could take some long exposure photos in candlelight there. I found one usable candle there too which I lit.
I'm not sure what the sign says since it is in a language I don't understand but there is a line translated into English that says "Bowing to the triple gem". I have no idea what that means.
It was time to get out of there. I took my 3 candles with me but left one candle that I found there burning. Took one last picture before leaving the place.
I think it was the right thing to do, visiting this place in the dark. Though the cave is always dark inside, it gave another creepy vibe going there when it was dark outside too.