The Dechenhöhle (the Dechen Cave)
The Dechen Cave is part of a 20 km long cave system, which still isn't explored completely. New caves belonging to it are still found on a regular basis. However, only 400 m of the Dechen Cave is open to public tours.
In 1868, two railwayman dropped a hammer into a crevice during their procedure of rock consolidation at the railroad between Letmathe and Iserlohn. They let themselves down on a rope into the crevice - and found themselves in a wonderful cave.
The owner of that area, the Bergisch-Märkische
Eisenbahngesellschaft (Bergisch-Märkische railroad company), turned the cave into a show cave at once, securing the front entrance with a door, laying ways and installing steps so the public could see 280 m of the cave.
In 1910 a continuation of the cave was found and after laying out paths and stairs there, the cave could be visited for a bit over 400 m from 1921 on.
In 1890, the illumination with first candles and later on oil gas was exchanged for electric light, so the sooting of the dripstone wouldn't continue. At that time, the Dechen Cave had been among the most modern ones when it came to illumination. Til today, light plays a major part when it comes to the tours.
Until the end of 1983, the Dechen Cave belonged to first private, later state railroad companies. Today it belongs to the Mark Sauerland Touristik GmbH, which in turn belongs to Iserlohn and the Märkische district. The cave museum from 1979 got expanded into the German Cave Museum Iserlohn in 2006.
And, no, they haven't so far found any fossiles of human beings or human cultures in the cave. But they found fossiles of cave bears, cave lions, cave hyenas, reindeers and even wooly rhinos. The Dechen Cave itself has existed in its current form for approximately 800,000 years.
Our group trouped into the cave, along some fantastical formations...
... to the Orgelgrotte (Organ Grotto). Our first reading stop.
And yes, that's yours truly. If you're wondering, I'm the one on the left. The gentleman on the right is one of my authors' collegues, Winfried Diener, who was kind enough to help out with the light since blue light turns the scenery into a fairyland but a typed text into a game of memory.
And, yes, this place also has a monster. One just hast to change the light and the perpective to see sunk-in eyes, the knobbly nose and the clawy left hand...
After this first reading part, we moved on to the Kanzelgrotte (Pulpit Grotto) with its Kronleuchter (chandelier):
My colleague Wilfried read here before the whole group marched on. We passed through winding "hallways,"...
... saw Makkaroni Stalaktiten (Macaroni Stalactites aka stalactites which are hollow inside)...
... and lone watchers...
... til we reached the Nixengrotte (Mermaid Grotto):
It was a bit of a challenge to take pictures, to not fall too much behind, nor stumble over some dripstone and fall flat on my face. So, although I might be able to multitask up to a certain point, I still wasn't able to dot down all the names of the places we saw and passed. Some places are obvious, like where they store the Stollen, a traditional fruit loaf for Christmas time, which needs a certain time, coolness and humidity to ripen to perfection. As a fun note, "Stollen" is a fruity loaf - but also a tunnel in a mine...
The other places you just have to enjoy without my babbling:
What fascinated me no end was that I couldn't find some local myth or fairytale of the Dechenhöhle. Not one! I guess the time after 1868 was too modern for myths and magic.
But, there is a story about the dwarf Buntröckchen (colored coat), who helped a poor boy, a cowherd to herd the cows while they chatted and told stories to each other. The village people were impressed by the good care those two took of the cows, so they gave the dwarf a coat in the colors of white, black and green as a small thank you. the dwarf was delighted and the people liked the colors as well, so they painted their own house in the same colors: the walls white, the door-posts black and the shutters green. And since the dwarf didn't have a name so far, they called him Buntröckchen.
One day, the by now grown up boy went away to learn a trade and the dwarf gave him a small golden hammer, asking him to please visit him when he returned. This the young man did and the dwarf was very happy to see him once more, because he was old by now and wanted to return to his fellow dwarves, deep in the mountain. Before he left, he took the young man aside and told him: "There is a fortune within these hills. Take the rock and burn it to lime and you will get very rich!"
The dwarf said his farewell and the young man heeded his advice. He sold the burnt lime and could live a life of comfort.
So, the cave itself may not have a legend attached to it. But they do have a ghost in here [can you see him?], watching over dead-end paths and tunnels, scaring away curious visitors so they won't come to harm:
They also have bats! Not as many as the Carlsbad Caverns have, but we did see one. Probably their amabassador. But it was too fast for my clumsy fingers on the release. In any case, the tour was over much too fast.
If you are curious about the two stories I've read, you can find a podcast of them below. And, yes, it's the English version. Thanks to Alec Hyde, I hope to have not too many errors in them. If I still do, it's my fault not his! He worked at high speed to have the texts ready for me til Christmas 2018 - just to hear that my voice was gone and I would do the whole post later. I'm deeply grateful he didn't terminate our friendship there and then!
If you are curious about Alec's work, you can find it e.g. at Amazon UK or Amazon USA. Trust me, it's worth reading!
As for my two texts:
Marcel took form after a man from our parish first told me that, being a professional foster parent, one of course knew how to guard one's heart because the children never stayed. And then, after this short credo, he took out his smartphone - and showed me about a zillion photos of the last little foster boy they'd had...
Ohin is an autobiographical story. Only the student's name in the title got changed.
Last but not least, I'm happy to say that I not only have a new PC but also still all of my earlier photos! As it turned out, my former hard disk has, against all odds, survived the crash. Actually, it was (besides a few cables) the only thing of that old PC that has survived the crash. In any case, the chances of getting new posts to you on a more regular basis are now significant higher thanks to my surviving photos.