Non-fiction set in Caves – Blind Descent

Submitted: 20th February 2026

Blind Descent – When cave exploration turns deadly

I recently discovered the horrific true story of the Nutty Putty Cave. I was looking at a map ( of course) and came across the name Nutty Putty which I thought sounded nice. Well….then I found out that on google maps, it’s called John Jones Hill. Intrigued, I went all Columbo….

Nutty Putty Cave – John Jones Hill

Back in 2019 a man named John Jones decided to go caving with a few friends and his brother. He had been caving many times before and wanted to explore Nutty Putty. However, he took a wrong turn and became trapped upside down for more than 27 hours before sadly passing away.

I became fascinated with the idea of what makes someone want to explore underground. Why would someone want to crawl through warm, wet dark tunnels that can often be extremely narrow? A hobby that could be very dangerous indeed.

It brought me to this book – and deeper caves and even more of a claustrophobic read….

Blind Descent James Tabor

‘Blind Descent’ chronicles two teams both aiming for the deepest cave system in the world.

Bill Stone heads to a Mexican cave called Cheve. Alexander Klimchouk heads to Krubera in Abkhazia, south eastern Georgia. I will say it now – if you are in any way claustrophobic, this might not be the book for you. But what a read!

I really can’t explain how terrifying this book is. But what fascinated me is why anyone would want to go so far down underground. What drives someone like this? Well, this book might explain some of that but it’s the explanations of what cave diving actually entails that really got me. So complicated and so painstaking!

Still don’t get why people want to go anywhere near caves but what a world I have experienced thanks to at first a name on a map and then this book of an even more intense experience.

I now need a lie down in the middle of a field where there is so much space around me, I can start to recover after this read. ….