GUWAHATI: In a fairy-tale like experience, a 50-year-old Spanish extreme athlete has emerged from a 70-metres deep cave outside Granada after spending 500 days.
During this entire period of her ordeal inside the cave she had no contact with the outside world.
However, she her experiment was closely monitored round the clock by scientists seeking to learn more about the capacities of the human mind and circadian rhythms.
Beatriz Flamini, an elite sportswoman, mountaineer and climber, is said by her support team to have broken a world record for longest time spent in a cave.
She was 48 when she went into the cave, and celebrated two birthdays alone underground.
She began her challenge on Saturday, Novermber 20, 2021.
During her stay inside the cave, the world witnessed several landmark events like the outbreak of the Ukraine war, the resultant cost of living crisis, the end of Spain’s lengthy COVID mask requirement and the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.
Flamini spent her time underground doing exercises to keep her fit and busy, painting and drawing and knitting woolly hats.
According to reports quoting her support team, she took two GoPro cameras to document her time, 60 books and 1,000 litres of water.
According to reports, her experience has been used by scientists at the universities of Granada and Almeria and a Madrid-based sleep clinic.
They were studying the impact of social isolation and extreme temporary disorientation on people’s perception of time, the possible neuropsychological and cognitive changes humans undergo underground and the impact on circadian rhythms and sleep.
Media was strictly restricted when she emerged from the cave into the outside world of broad daylight.
It was reported that she emerged wearing dark glasses even as her support team hugged her wearing masks.