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