Wandering Ays

     Gwen, Edz, Ivory and me at the cave entrance.

*For a 'less wordy' itinerary, click here. But you'll miss the video below. =)

On the early morning of January 10, 2016, my friends and I rode the Ceres Bus from Dumaguete to Mabinay (P106/pax) to go on our first-ever spelunking adventure. Arriving bright and early at the Bulwang Cave Offices (09269739386), we learned that not everyone was as excited as we were: the office was still closed.  After a while though, some of the office personnel finally arrived and we immediately asked around for the cave tour.

Turns out, there are actually 3 levels of spelunking available: Beginner, Advanced and Extreme. The Beginners’ level is the most-commonly availed one, where the participants follow the guides through 3 caves along pathways, stairs and platforms. There are many guides available for this level and this is available anytime (P400/pax tour fee). The Advanced level, on the other hand, requires an advanced booking because it’s more on the “technical” side (i.e. harder); and, from the conversations we had with the other guides, we gathered that only “Shem” can guide this tour. The extreme level, as the name suggests, is an extreme adventure, spanning 3 days of cave exploration, with one day of training required.

We were all beginners but we were looking for an authentic cave immersion; and picture-taking while walking on paved paths, smoothed stairs, and installed walkways inside a cave didn’t quite sound as exciting as we expected. So we decided on the advanced level and one of the guides gave us Shem’s number to contact (09358412290). We got hold of Shem at 9AM and he promised to be at the office by 9:30. We took this opportunity to have our breakfast at a carinderia that was a 5 minute-wallk away. Shem arrived well past 11. To be fair, it was his day-off and he wasn’t expecting us so it took him a while to get ready. (The other guides said he is quite tardy most of the time though, but denied saying so when he arrived. haha) Anyway, after settling the fees (P1500/group Baliw Cave tour + P1500/group Panligawan Cave rappelling + P50/pc head lamp rental), we were finally off to go spelunking!

We rode a bus (P10/pax) to the Baliw Cave jump-off, rode a habal-habal (P100/trip good for 2) for around 2.5km and arrived at the start of the trail.

I’m an office worker and a couch potato so the trail was really hard for me. There were steep climbs and steep descents. I could feel my heartbeat at my temples. After around 30 minutes of trekking, including a short break where we had siopao for snacks (courtesy of Ivoel), we finally arrived at the cave’s mouth (±1PM). This is where the real adventure begins.

(Tip: if you can, wear clothes to cover your whole legs and arms, well-fitted gloves, and bring high-lumens waterproof headlamps. Also, your shoes should be able to withstand twisting and turning, and walking through mud, muddy water and sharp rocks. Bring a small, waterproof camera; flash is an advantage. Bring as little else as possible.)

The beginning of the trek relies mostly on upper-body strength to carry your weight while you’re searching for footholds to lower yourself down boulders. At this point, you realize that this is not a walk in the park at all. And you begin to doubt your decision to go advanced, but there’s practically no going back, so you don’t have a choice but to go forward. The rocks are sharp and slippery due to the mud (most likely bat poop / “guano”). Since I was following Shem, I got to see as he pointed out critters like the tailless scorpions and a red tarantula before they scurried away. After a while of walking, the passages become smaller and the going becomes more tedious. Then you encounter water. At first, this is just ankle-deep and you relish the relief of finally being able to wash your hands. (Tip: don’t bother skipping on rocks to avoid the water; you’ll be wet from head to toe by the end.)

(Update: reading this again after almost a year made me realize the weird change in tense & perspective :)

From this point on, you will find deeper waters, and even smaller passages. There are areas where you have to sit on your haunches while moving sideward crab-like. You walk among numerous dildos (cue the jokes from the guide), and sparkly stalagmites and stalactites. There also comes a point where you have to go into push-up position, supporting your weight on your palms and the tips of your toes. You can’t lie down because the sharp rock beneath will surely scratch you; and you can’t extend your hands either because the rock at your back are just as sharp. It was definitely a workout.

There are portions where you have to jump/slide from rocks into waist-deep water and sink into the mud until you’re in, chest-deep. At one point, I couldn’t feel the bottom beneath my feet so I held onto rocks at the side to move forward. (It’s difficult to tread muddy water in hiking shoes.)

The finale is definitely the most memorable. Here, you only have about 4-5 inches between the overhead rock and the surface of the water, so you have to take off your helmets and headlamps and hold it with one hand. Then you float belly-up with your face less than an inch from the overhead rock, and with your free hand, navigate yourself calmly until you reach the outside world. You have to remember to keep your distance from your buddies and minimize your movements. Otherwise, you could cause a wave that will eliminate his/her airspace. It was scary and incredible and truly exciting.

Once you’re out, you can rinse off in the river and try to remove as much mud from your shoes and socks as you can. Then you’ll have to trek back to the start of the trail where your habal-habal drivers are waiting. (Make sure to negotiate for the drivers to come back for you after around 2 hours from dropping you off. And request to be brought directly to the cave office instead of the jump-off point).

Once at the office, we changed into dry clothes, walked along a path for about 1 km, and waited while Shem and his companion, Xander, worked on the rappelling set-up. By the time they were finished, it was already ±5:30PM and getting dark. For those who haven’t tried rappelling before, this is worth a try. It would have been so much better if we did it earlier though. As it is, we could barely make out the cave’s features when we have finally descended. The thrill of lowering yourself down is still worth the fee. The hardest part I think is at the start: finally giving up solid ground and trusting the rope to carry your weight. Once everyone has descended, we took the stairs back out of the cave and we were finally done for day.

Well, not quite yet. We still had to walk to the highway (±2km) and wait for a bus to take us home. The bus, when it finally came, was filled to capacity so we were standing/sitting on the steps all the way to Dumaguete.

All in all, this was a really fascinating experience that I will try to remember for the rest of my life. Do I recommend it? If you have read my extra-long narrative and still think you can survive it, then it’s definitely a must. This was my first advanced spelunking experience so I can’t really tell how it compares to other caves.

You have to be warned though: this trip is less about what you get to see and more about what you get to feel/experience. And for those like me, expect to still feel the super sore muscles 3 days later.

Here's a video compilation by Ivory & Noel that could describe the experience better than my words ever can:

Next: tabulated itinerary (shorter version) here.