Philippine Cave Expedition

Philippine Cave Expedition

Out of all of the expeditions that I have participated in over the past years this one was the best trip of them all. During are 11 day stay in the Philippines we set out to explore 6 virgin caves and one cave dove by a friend of ours. Some of the caves we were going to dive were some that we had discovered on the previous trip.
My trip had started out on the evening of the 6th with the taxi showing up on time and also driving a Mercedes Benz. Normally the driver is always late and shows up in some beat up piece of junk. Things started out quite well. Checked in at the airport and caught the first leg of the flight to Manila Philippines. Once we arrived I grabbed my gear and headed over to the Domestic section of the airport where I would meet my dive partner Thomas Bodis. I met up with Thomas and we waited around for the next flight getting nearer to are next diving destination. After arrival we took a quick taxi to town and picked up are diving tanks. We now only had a short ride to go.

The purpose of this trip was to explore as many virgin caves that we could. On this trip are goal was not to see how far they penetrated or how deep they got. We were looking for cave that we could come back and further explore. Many times we wanted to go get more tanks and see how far they went but we had only a limited amount of tanks and time.

The first morning after arriving we met up with are guide at 8:00 am and had breakfast. From there we loaded up a jeepney for a short ride to one of the nearest villages where we would be meeting the 4 porters we hired. For a mere $25 dollars a day this seemed like a much better ideal then lugging around all the tanks and gear ourselves. We arrived at the entrance to the cave at 11:00 a.m., another 1 ½ hours into the cave and we would be at the first dive spot. After the trek through the jungle the trek through the cave was quite challenging. Lucky thing we had some lights to guide the way. Once we got a ways back in the cave we had a narrow hole in which we had to lower are gear through and then shimmy down ourselves. Upon arrival and after an hour of gear preparation we were ready to get into the water. After doing are initial primary tie off and secondary tie off we headed back into the cave. Since this was are first dive we took it nice and slow. The viz in the cave was awesome, you did have to be careful not to stir things up to much. I was quite surprised at how far the cave had gone back in. We laid 100 meters and the cave kept on going in. I signaled to Thomas to turn back, as we got near the beginning we noticed another chamber off to the side. As we headed down this tunnel it turned out to be quite shallow and only went in around 50 meters. Once we got back to the entrance and started to get are kit off I started to hear a lot of cussing and swearing. Needless to say it was Thomas who was holding a clip but with NO camera. Somehow Thomas snagged the camera on something and it come off.

The second dive of the day again was a small pond of water inside this massive dry cave. We headed down this passage way that had real shallow water with a lot of boulders we had to work are way through. I think getting through this section was twice the work then hiking through the jungle. Once we got to the end of the end of the cave we dropped down in the water and did are tie offs. We headed under a ledge that led back into another chamber. We did a search but could not find any other passageways. We poked are heads above water and decided to drop down once more and have one more look. When we dropped down after a couple of minutes we found another passage way. This passageway had to be one of the main water supplies in the cave. We followed this back and turned the dive after about 100 meters. We ended up getting to a max depth of 20 meters and did a run time of 70 minutes. We decided that this cave we would explore for sure the next trip since it was getting deeper and the room was getting much larger.

After loading up all the gear and heading out when we hit the entrance to the cave it was already dark outside. We ended up hiking through the streams this time only about half the distance. Hiking through the night through riverbeds was quite the trick trying to find a rock to step on that was not slippery and would end up with you on your rear end. We got half way when the guide told us that he had arranged for a boat to pick us up and take us to one of the local villages. This would save us a lot of time since it was getting so late. We ended up getting back to the hotel at around 10:30 that evening.

The second day we decided to take the day off since we had gotten back to late. The next trip we decided to go down to the same location but this time to check out a couple other spots. On this trip we decided to take a boat back up stream to about half the way there and hump it in the rest of the way. That morning to our surprise the water level was quite low. On the way we had to get out of the boat because the water level was to low. Boy were we in for a big surprise later. The first dive a real jammed right near the surface and I was thinking this is one heck of a way to start out. With another reel we were able to penetrate approximately 200 meters inside. There were numerous other chambers and passageways but new there were too many to explore in just one day.

That day the guide fed us corned beef hash and some rice. Actually was quite tasty along with fresh coconuts to eat. We checked two more small places that day but they ended up being nothing. We packed up are equipment and decided to head back. To our surprise when we got back to the river the water had risen an awful lot to were it came up to my neck in some spots. The flow was so strong that in some spaces we had to throw a safety line across just to make it across. The water had risen so high that we could not continue on any farther and had to call the boats to come and pick us up.

The water department in one area asked us to check a cave were there main water supply was. They helped us with transportation and even supplied us with porters to reach the cave. We set out the next day for a two hour hike just to get to the cave. Actually at the entrance there was a square concrete box made to help channel the water through the pipes. We crawled through the top of the cement bunker and lowered the gear down. The water was crystal clear and real cold. This had to been one of the nicest sites we had dove. The beginning of the dive we headed down the left hand side but was awful narrow and it started to silt up. We headed back and decided to go up the right hand side where there was a lot more room to move. There were a lot of stalactites and stalagmites all through this chamber. .This was another definite spot we would return to.

We packed up are equipment and headed off to another destination. The first spot we were going to check out was what looked like a lake but was nothing but was nothing but solid limestone with a few large holes. We took a small boat out to the first hole and the water was only about a half a meter deep. We got kitted up and started into the hole. There was a lot more marine life in this cave then what there was in any of the others. This was the first cave I had seen with soft coral and plants in it. The depth of this cave ended up being 27 meters and we did a 70 minute bottom time. There looked like there were a few other passage ways that could possible connect to some of the other holes in the lake. We checked out 3 other actual spots there but they were either too small or way too silty.

We had planned to check out two caves that were in the jungle on this trip but we decided to take the easier road. The two caves we had a 1 hour hike to and had to repel a short distance to get down to. We thought we had done enough hiking to go ahead and check some caves easier to get to. This next cave was only about 50 meters away from the road. We had entered the cave and headed in and started are way back. As we were moving along I signaled to Thomas that there was a hole and big enough to go through. Thomas signaled to keep moving on. I had gone back and the cave ended at around 80 meters. I turned around and was wanting to check out this hole we started back and I stopped Thomas and signaled to him that I wanted to take a look. I squeezed my way through and it came out in another cavern. I had waited for Thomas to fit through the tight fit before continuing on. Once he got through we started to look around, quite surprised at how large the passage way and how good the viz was. I had reeled out as far as I could and was still curious on how far it went back. I grabbed another reel and tied it off to the first. We had gone back another 100 meters and came to a restriction. I started my way through the restriction and when I looked back it had silted up quite bad. With what viz was left I signaled to Thomas to turn around. The cave at this place was a lot of silt and when we turned around it silted out to where I could not see. I slowly inched my way forward until I could not go any farther. At this time I could not see or even move forward plus Thomas was working himself out. I gradually backed myself out of the line trap and descended down. Once I descended down I had enough space to squeeze through. At this point I could still not see Thomas but then I felt his arm as he was feeling his way through the silt to were I was at. Some how one of the tie offs had worked it self loose and the line had worked its way up to the ceiling. I was glad when the silt had settled and I could again see my way out. This cave had kept on going and we will definitely check to see how far it will go back in.

The last cave that we did on this trip we had found out from a fellow cave diver who showed us were it was at. This was one of the easiest caves to get to since it was right next to a major road. The cave had been dove before but definitely worth diving again. There was a big entrance and we were told to follow the line to the left. At first we had a hard time finding the line since they started it a bit in the cave. Definably a good ideal since there were a lot of people in the area. The visibility was much better then all of the cave we had been in and again much larger. We were told there was about 6 restrictions but these were actually quite minor compared to what we had been through all week. Diving with the side mount also made it much easier. We headed back and ended up making two jumps to get to the main passage way. The cave had gone back about 200 meters before it ended. Just as we reached the end we had hit are rule of thirds. There looked to be a few passage ways off to the side but we were getting low on air at this time.

I would like to say thanks to some major sponsors that have helped us the last few years. John Griffith thanks for the lights and also the equipment you helped us with to make this trip happen. Special thanks to Larry Elsevier of Cochran computers. I was using a EMC20 and Thomas was using a commander. The equipment had taken a beating all during the week in the cave and also in the jungle. We had no equipment failures during the whole trip. Special thanks to are guide and to the many porters that were with us. I wish I could remember all of there names but most of them could not speak English. Again Thanks again for helping with this expedition.

Next trip we have 10 new spots to check out. IF you are interested in joining us on one of these fun filled exploration trips you can contact me at bruce_konefe@yahoo.com

Bruce Konefe