Most of us enjoy a little peace and quiet, but one woman took solitude to an extraordinary level by spending more than a year living in complete darkness inside a cave.
In 2023, Spanish adventurer Beatriz Flamini set a world record after spending 500 days alone underground, living in a cavern around 70 metres beneath the Earth’s surface.
Her story has been resurfacing online, and it’s easy to see why. Flamini was 48 when she descended into the cave near Granada in November 2021, and she marked her 50th birthday while still below ground, before finally returning to the surface in April 2023.
With no mobile reception underground, she had no direct contact with other people during the entire challenge. Researchers and specialists did keep tabs on her from outside, using the project to study how prolonged isolation can affect the human body and mind.
The experience wasn’t without difficulties. Over nearly two years away from everyday life, she dealt with a range of problems, including an infestation of flies—though that was only part of what made the ordeal so tough.
Beyond the insects, Flamini also admitted she felt an unexpected sense of ‘annoyance’ when the moment came to end the experiment.
She later explained that time seemed to move so quickly that, when people arrived to bring her up, she assumed something had gone wrong rather than her days being over.
“I was sleeping – or at least dozing – when they came down to get me … I thought something had happened. I said: ‘Already? No way.’ I hadn’t finished my book,'” she told media.
Despite spending so long alone, Flamini didn’t get much of a buffer once she returned. After brief medical and psychological checks, she was quickly ushered into a press conference that ran for close to an hour, with intense curiosity surrounding what the experience had been like.
But the reception wasn’t what she had imagined.
“I was expecting to come out and have a shower,” she told the reporters moments after re emerging from the cave.
“I wasn’t expecting there to be so much interest.”
During the challenge, Flamini stayed committed to the rules she’d set with the team, making it clear she didn’t want updates from the outside world—even if that meant not being told major personal news, such as a death in the family.
So what helped her last so long? “I got on very well with myself,” she said—adding that she lost track of time entirely by day 65.
To fill her days, she wrote, drew, knitted, and said she made her way through 60 books while underground.
Flamini’s background as an extreme sportswoman and mountaineer likely prepared her for the physical and mental strain of the challenge.
Even so, the achievement remains remarkable.