Cave diver left message to wife in sand before suffering one of most harrowing deaths imaginable

A cave diver who perished in South Africa was able to leave a message for his loved ones before his body was found.

In 1984, a three-man cave diving expedition to the Sterkfontein Caves ended in tragedy when one of their number became trapped.

29-year-old Peter Verhulsel had been diving in the caves with two friends, but he kept leaving the line designed to safely guide the divers back to the exit so he could explore.

The diver was able to find a small underwater beach, but could not be found himself and died of starvation. (Youtube / Cave Exploring Disasters)

He twice left the line to go exploring before being brought back by his friends, but tragedy struck when he let go for a third time after he became lost in a maze of tunnels.

Verhulsel was able to find his way to a small underground beach where there was breathable air, meaning he wouldn't run out of oxygen but he didn't have enough in the tank to try and find his way back out.

Instead, he was stuck waiting in the pitch black darkness and hoping that rescue efforts could find him.

Such efforts were launched, with a six-week search made to find Verhulsel and bring him out of the cave.

Some of the attempts to find him came with 40 yards of his location, but he could not tell they were there and they didn't know where he was either.

Eventually his body was found, though by the time those searching for Peter made it to his location, he was dead.

An autopsy judged that he must have died of starvation after around three weeks, with little else he could do but stay in the cave and wait to see if he could be rescued.

One thing he did do was leave a message in the sand for his wife and mother, as a message had been written in the ground besides his body, which read: "I love you Shirl and Ma."

These days the Sterkfontein Caves are a tourist attraction, and was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000.

These days the Sterkfontein Caves are a tourist attraction. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

It's part of an area in South Africa that's known as the Cradle of Humankind, and contains the largest discovered amount of human ancestral remains anywhere in the world.

Cave diving can be a dangerous and tragic activity, as in another South African cave called 'Bushman's Hole', 20-year-old diver Deon Dreyer died in 1994 during a practice dive.

His friends hired a remotely operated submersible to search for his body and were able to find his helmet, but could not find Deon.

A decade later, diver David Shaw found the body but on a subsequent attempt to recover Deon in 2005, he also died.

Both of their bodies were able to be recovered as Shaw had been able to attach a line to Dreyer before he died in the recovery attempt, and other members of the recovery team were able to pull both bodies out.