Guihulngan Report

June 23 – 28, 2005

When Jack Villarete, Astrid Castaneda, and Carmela Garcia participated in the 4th Visayan Cave Congress in Samar organized by Rommel Rutor of Centro Outdoor a couple of months ago, they left a positive impression among visayan cavers. Adhering to the “cave softly” ethics and being well versed in cave know-how, they have gained respect and popularity among other cavers in the area. So much so that it has imprinted an impression that PCS members are educated, safety conscious, serious cavers yet are easy and fun to get along with.
Among the participants was Mr. Guido Reyes, a councilor of Guihulngan, Negros Oriental and head of the town’s tourism council. He had never been caving previously and I assume he was cave-bitten after the Samar trip. For as soon as he got back, he discovered that in just a couple of barangays in his area, there lay more than a 100 caves! An initial recon exploration and inventory was done which led to an invitation for a Guihulngan Spelunking Exploration done last May which was also participated by PCS member Jack Villarete. With little experience in proper caving and tour organizing compounded by domestic politicking, the Guihulngan tourism council realized that it needed outside assistance for cave education and organizational skills. An invitation was relayed thru Rommel Rutor and I agreed to conduct a comprehensive Caving Orientation and SRT Training Seminar for the Tourism Council staff and the would-be Cave Guides of Guihulngan. Rommel was to do the Cost Study Seminar. Frustrated on missing out on the previous Samar trip and with my round-trip airfare, land transfers, accommodations, and food (& BEERS!) being sponsored by the Guihulngan Tourism Council plus a chance to do some exotic island caving, it was an opportunity I jumped into without hesitation!

June 23, thursday – Lunch with Councilor Guido Reyes and we discussed assessing a camp site app 7 km. from the town proper located in Bry. Binuboan. There are around 53 caves in this area alone. We ended up doing a cave known as “Rakrakan”. Really muddy cave with lots of graffiti and diggings on the onset, but formations abound as one goes further into the passages. There were 5 that started and only 3 of us made it thru the tight passages. It was a typical “malagkit” cave.

June 24, friday – Whole afternoon was spent with Intro-SRT training with Bry. Binuboan guides.
June 25, saturday AM – Caving Orientation lecture the whole morning also attended by Bagtasin Adventure group of Northern Samar and Centro Outdoor of Catbalogan represented by Rommel Rutor and Ricky Bautista. All 3 groups were given copies of the Complete Caving Manual, Guide to Responsible Caving and Leave No Trace booklets, plus various inserts of caving educational materials.

June 25, saturday PM – With guides briefed and taught proper caving procedures, the group was divided into 2 with the Samar group entering a cave named ‘Mag-aso II”. I joined the Negros group to explore an unknown cave which turned out to be a really exciting and beautiful adventure show cave. I then named it “Guido’s Passage”. It starts as a pit and you just follow the water where it really becomes exciting. We were only able to explore 2 hours worth going in. Some guides say it traverses and connects to an opening somewhere further up the mountain hills. It was supposed to be explored by some Belgians years ago, so they say.

June 25, saturday EVE – Showing of “Journey To Amazing Caves”.

June 26, Sunday PM - Basic SRT Training

June 27, Monday PM – Basic SRT Training

June 28, Tuesday – Whole day caving, practicum abseiling into “Secret Pit”.
Afternoon was spent exploring a river cave named “Mag-aso I”. It starts with a spectacular entrance pit of app 30 meters across and 60 meters deep which lands on a rocky mound that slopes to the river which goes underground into the cave system. It is very scenic and should be great with a video. Following the water upstream, the cave traverses through several deep pools where swimming is required, bouldering up a number of waterfalls, widening up ceilings where a colony of fruit bats roost, and exiting at a river sink where the water enters the cave system. I rate this 4-star and a good adventure cave with a traverse time of 2 hrs. Unfortunately, my digital cam got wet, so no photos of this cave! A real bummer! It had to happen just when I ordered the underwater housing for it!

Photos are posted in Gallery Link.

POSTSCRIPT – Another Visayan Cave Congress is slated for next year 2006 to be held somewhere. Several groups are still bidding to host venue, but it’ll probably be in Northern Samar where the caves are really huge and wild. I’m optimistic that PCS will be invited. We will keep you updated with developments on this so more of us can plan out and be able to participate.

New Cave Passage Discovered

Jack Villarete, Pong Padilla, and yours truly opted to go to Sangab after the intended trip to Mauban-Quezon was cancelled the previous day, due to our host (Dirk Maez) catching the flu. We were hoping that Dexter (Sangab guide) would be able to lead us to the entrance of Cave-4 which is perched high up by the adjacent karst hill of Sangab. But Dexter was still in Kalinga so we opted to explore Pit-1 of Cave-3 and find out where it would lead.

Pit-1 was a surprise. It required rappelling first down a 40-foot vertical wall with a short overhang before landing, then rigging a rebelay down to 30-ft with a 45-degree slope, then drop down another vertical wall for another 40 ft, climaxing with 20-ft overhang before one lands at Shark-Tooth Junction Hall of Cave-2! It took me one hour to rig the ropes properly. Finding safe anchor points took some time. I think there is a need to bolt-in anchors on the rebelay for the future. Finally, all three of us were down in Cave-2 within 2 hours. Very nice and exciting, indeed!

Just beside Shark-Tooth Junction, Pong took a peep at a small opening along the granite wall. We squeezed and crawled through the opening which led us to tight passages but it went on. Fueled by excitement it led us on to what appeared like a narrow long crack of granite where one has to squeeze sideways to go through. More turns with low tunnels, the passage finally widened and meandered downwards into pristine walls covered with staggering spleothems. There were beautiful flowstones covering the walls which cascaded to the floors. Pure white calcite adorned the ceilings dripping down magnificently in a multitude of stalactites. Huge columns sometimes lined the passageway. We discovered another slit passage that led to bacon formations on both side of the tunnel walls which is shaped like a vulva. Henceforth, it shall be called the “vulva passage”. Going through will require a short rope which we didn’t have with us. So we back tracked and took another fork leading further down. We then discovered numerous bats by what seemed to be the end of the passages. Small baby bats lined the ceiling with their ears sticking out appearing larger than their cute faces. I hate it when I forget my camera!

But there will always be a next time for a visit to this new cave tunnel of Cave-2 which we now deemed as “Pong’s Passage” in honor of our new PCS member Pong Padilla, who excitingly pushed on. For adventure spelunkers and tech cavers, I would say this section is worth doing and could possibly hold more surprises.

Have a Nice Cave,
Bobby Manas