It’s all pervasive yet mostly in the mind.
I was lost in a small but complex multi-level cave system with 15 other misguided cavers 35 years ago. The first 6 members of the full group raced ahead, not looking out for their fellows behind and were through the system in under an hour. The rest of us were underground for five hours, much of that time spent giving me mental & physical support after I’d had a serious panic attack.
There was supposed to be a string line along the shortest route through the caves but it had broken.
And that’s how we lost our bearings. We all had warm clothing and decent footwear plus scalp protection and a bright high endurance torch. These caves were formed by erosion around granite outcrops under a few hills and there were many cavities and different levels where the creek had meandered throughout the rocks.
Eventually we worked out where we’d gone awry and made our way out, finding the six others waiting for us with a warming fire and refreshments near the cave exit.
My panic attack had me stewing and mentally upset so I arranged to got through ten days later with two others, one being our original guide, one of the lost group. I brought a box of white polypropylene cable-hauling line with us & we set it up at the lip of the vertical drop into the cave entrance with a sign on it explaining that the string guide was being replaced. Forty-five minutes was all it took for we "Three Musketeers” to resurvey the route. the guidance line was then tied off.
On Wednesday I was on a bus tour of a historic isolated gold-mining town. First we went on the narrow-gauge railway down to the river and back, following a gorge created by a creek.
Then an excellent lunch and several beers at the local pub. This was followed by a short tour of a gold mine maintained by volunteers as a tourist attraction.
I was feeling increasingly uncomfortable underground and had to get out early because I was stressed and thinking about that old caving experience.