NEW CAVE DISCOVERY

NEW PASSAGE DISCOVERED IN CALBIGA CAVES

Catbalogan, Samar, August 18, 2009 – Bruce Konefe, a Thailand based, American Full Cave Diving Instructor Trainer with ANDI (American Nitrox Divers International), together with William Hudson, cave diver and Scuba Instructor from Alaska, and Thomas Bodis, a German cave diver, have penetrated a sump using open circuit scuba within the recesses of the Calbiga Cave system, located south of Catbalogan City, Samar Island.

Caving for 3 days and 2 nights, the expedition was supported and guided by Joni Bonifacio of Trexplore, an outfitter based in Catbalogan City, and 12 porters as the team had to haul climbing gears, diving equipment, tents, food & water supplies, and other logistical needs. Also with them was guest caver Geraldine Antonio from Manila. Crossing mountains and streams, and trekking inside the Calbiga Cave system’s (locally named Gobingos-Langun ) vast and complex passages which is claimed to be the biggest in Southeast Asia, the team had to rappel down a seventy meter wall and follow the waterways of an underground river that took a day and a half before reaching the sump.

At around 1pm of August 17, the 3 cave divers set up their gears, did a recon dive around the sump, found a hole which they penetrated, and came out into new dry passage where no one has ever set foot. This newly discovered cave section is now specifically named Gobingos-Langun-Lurodpon. “Lurodpon” in Waray dialect means a place that could be reached by swimming underwater. They explored the passage for about 100 meters onwards until it was decided to turn around. Bruce said he could hear waterfalls further ahead.

More from Bruce…..

"The first day we left at 10 in the morning and did not get to the base camp until around 6 pm at night. We got up the next morning and hiked about 3 hours to get to were the sump was at. We had to go down a water fall to get to the very end or supposedly the end. We put on our sidemount equipment and searched around the sump before we found were the water passage kept going. We had all surfaced on the other side and could not believe how big the dry passageway was. We took off are equipment and walked at least 100 meters or so and the cave had kept going. The passage was humongous, in the back ground farther up in the cave you could hear water walls! I was the leader of the trip and organized it from the start. We spent 3 days and two nights in the jungle/cave and it was one of the most exhilarating expeditions I have ever been on. We had to scale down a 70 meter cliff with all the equipment and tanks plus cross many water crossing. We come across a few snakes and a lot of bats in the cave. Coming in a room where no one has ever been in before was awesome. Hard to explain the feeling you have of accomplishing something others had failed to do. The trip was both physically and mentally challenging. There were times I almost wanted to turn around especially when you see us squeezing through the very small holes. This was definitely facing all my fears crawling through that. It was a good thing I didn't stop since once you squeezed through the small hole the passage was so big you could drive a truck down the middle of the cave. We had hired 12 porters and one guide to help get us there and back. Actually two of us wore out two pairs of shoes between the two of us in just a couple of days. Thomas is the taller skinnier person with his girlfriend Geraldine. This girl was a real trooper. When in town she would dress up in a dress and once we hit the jungle, she’d be in overalls. She impressed us all."

Sump diving is the most dangerous form of diving activity there is. It entails being super cool in very extreme environments where water visibility could turn into a serious zero in an instant, where underwater passages could shrink into squeeze holes the size of a coffin, and where time becomes an eternity as your air supply diminishes while your mind shrieks “get me outta here!”. But seriously it involves a high level of discipline, dedication, skill, and courage. Above all it requires tremendous and unyielding passion from an individual. And the essence of exploration may be summed up with the famous line “to boldly go where no man has ever gone before”. More of that is left for other cavers to push….. in “Lurodpon”.

And the cave goes on…..

By: Bob Manas

September 29, 2009

PCS Cave Divers Explore Sump

Jan. 20, 2008 - PCS welcomes cave divers Robin Bernarbe and Graham Blackmore as its newest members. Together with Bobby Manas, the trio pushed beyond "Ulong Tubig" resurging sump to discover an underwater chamber with an initial recorded depth of 5.5 meters. With the inner chamber laid with varying sizes & shapes of limestone plus a milky water vizibility of one meter, difficulty in navigating directions were encountered to further find the resurging water passage or any dry sections. A 2nd dive by Robin and Graham reported worsened visibility in the inner chamber but more water space were found at a shallow section which could lead to the potential resurging passage. The team has discussed to attempt another push around March to avail of summer conditions which would have less water action inside the cave and clearer visibility.

With showers lingering throughout the day and turning the already less than ideal off-road conditions into muck, the drive out of the mountain trail was an adventure in itself. Much appreciation to Mike Nera for providing off-road guiding and an extra 4x4 vehicle, and to the MME Staff for providing essential logistical support.

Album Photos of Sump Explo trip posted in Gallery

MME Team Starts SRT Training

Dec. 19, 2007
A group of mountaineers from Multi Media Exponent have started their SRT training at Wawa dam located at Bry. San Rafael, Rodriguez. The basics of Single Rope Technique were introduced to TonTon Hernandez, team leader & mgr at MME together with staffers Julius and Christian. With a couple of hrs in the morning spent on equipment intro, knot-ties, and a lunch break, the whole afternoon was dedicated to practice riggings, abseiling, & prusiking along the rock cliffs by the river. Training was conducted by Bobby Manas and assisted by Mike Nera. A campsite for the night was set at a mountain farm, courtesy of our guide, Frank Mendez, where tales of deep caves and explortation lingered thru the night, amidst the food & beer and the slowly creeping fog.
Dec. 20, 2007
After coffee, breakfast, and packing up, the team did the river crossing and headed for Pamitinan Cave where rigging started into the pit towards Sump-2. Three pitch anchor rigs were rigged that abseiled the team down to 150ft/45m leading to the sump pool. After a short rest by the pool, the team prusiked back up the line and on to the main cave. Then a visit up into level-2 by the "hall of dwarves" was led by Frank as the spelunking part for the MME team. The entire caving trip took an "easy going" time of app. 5 hrs.
Photos of this trip are now in Gallery section entiltled "MME Cavers".

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

Haribon Forum

How can you get a natural high without drugs? - August Forum

Posted on 24 December, 2004 - 4:05pm.

August saw the Haribon Forum take a detour from the normally grave and serious issues it usually tackles and discuss fun and recreation for a change. Instead of talking about pollution, forest destruction and other environmental problems, our invited speakers talked about “How to get a natural high without drugs”. The earth is one giant playground, as one adage goes, and Haribon felt that with so many interesting things one can do in this giant playground, there really is no need for people to take chemicals and banned substances just to feel good.

Caves
There were two speakers representing the Philippine Caving Society. Derrik Manas, a licensed dive master specializing in shipwrecks and underwater caverns who also happens to be a mountaineer and dry caver. Derrik says the Philippines has a wealth of limestone formations, yet caving is the most underrated outdoor sport. The PCS is a non-profit group whose purpose and objective is to promote interest and offer training and experience and advance the study of speleology, the protection of caves and to promote fellowship. The organization started from within the diving community with professional scuba divers who would explore shipwrecks and underwater caverns.
Mr. Manas says there are three kinds of caving: spelunking, which is a leisurely activity that everyone can enjoy; caving, which is spelunking wherein you gather data and document your activities in the cave; and speleology which is the scientific study of caves and is a branch of geology.
Derrik says PCS members are cavers. He boasts that the PCS is the first caving group in Southeast Asia to become a member of the National Speleological Society in the US. They submit the findings of their explorations to the archives to NSS of America.
Meantime Mr. Mike Nera also of PCS gave us an insight into what draws people like him into caving. Mike says caving gives him a natural high—it immerses you in a totally different reality. Mike says the Philippines has many unexplored caves, the closest of which are in Rizal. Simple caving just requires a helmet and gloves. He says the PCS holds monthly briefings and trainings for free and anyone interested is welcome to attend.
Mike however laments the situation of our country’s caves. He is saddened that nobody is paying attention to the plight of caves. Many of our caves have been ruined and vandalized. He says that caves are non-renewable treasures. A ruined cave takes thousands of years to rehabilitate. He gave as example the once famous Crystal Caves in Baguio, which were ruined by tourism and souvenir hunters. Mike says a lot of people don’t realize how ecologically rich and important the caves are. These are also sources of water. Quarrying and destruction of caves also causes landslides and erosion. The neglect of caves status as national treasures is costing huge loss of revenue from potential ecotourism.

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