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Thursday, March 04, 2004
Spelunker Plunker
By Jojie Alcantara
SINCE Compostela Valley is dubbed as the ultimate Eco-Adventure Destination of the Davao Region, I shall enthrall you with a series of (mis)adventures where I trekked and journeyed into a place so lush with vegetation, flora and fauna, that it amazes me to no end how nature can be so generous with blessings in this particular area.
Take its caves, for instance.
This is how I found out that a spelunker is not a poor speller who flunked.
The municipality of Nabunturan, located along the northeastern part of the province of Davao, is the capital town of the Province of Compostela Valley. It is 88 kilometers from Davao and 33 kilometers from Tagum connected with concrete Daang Maharlika National Highway.
Nabunturan is best known for its wondrous caverns in barangays Cabidianan and Magsaysay. A successful two-day eco-adventure was once held in ComVal where more than a hundred cave enthusiasts congregated to explore the richness of its hollows.
Invited by ComVal tourism officer Eden Larano, I was among delegates of a tourism expedition that included caving. When asked who among us knows how to rapel, I stupidly raised my hand.
So I was sent off to one of four caves in San Vicente, along with guide Kagawad Dennis Bugas, who happens to be the president of the Nabunturan Caving Association too.
The only other female in our group was Portia Abanilla. We were given Cave 1, the most difficult and challenging of them all since it is a sinking cave, where you can see just a large gaping hole and darkness down below. I swallowed my nervousness as my companions (the Nabunturan Cavers) started harnessing me with ropes and gears to prepare my very first descent into claustrophobic enclosures. My helmet was lighted.
To enter Cave I is to rapel down the mouth of the cave while the guide waits below with candlelight. Portia and I marveled at the cathedral-like atmosphere below, where shadows cast odd shapes onto muddy stone walls, and small striped snakes dart in and out of holes where you just sat on. Our shoes were drenched in mud and puddle as we started following our leader further into tighter paths.
There were the stalactites and stalagmites that I've seen in school books, and other weirdly dangling shapes that photographer Ben Young jokingly called "oloktites", which I started referring to, until I stupidly caught on much, much later.
The cave's enclosure becomes smaller and tighter as you go further, so one has to bend, crawl or wade through knee-deep waters through crystallized formations, but we still had time to pose for photo sessions for the Tourism brochure. There are instances when in order to get in, we had to submerge ourselves and swim neck-deep inside (while trying not to squeamishly wonder what lurks below as you step on it).
Thankfully, it was time to go back after almost an hour of wading and struggling. Soon after the experience, a very dirty but happy soul climbed the rickety wooden stairs towards the light. I think I must have clambered so fast (from my Mandayan roots) that the barangay captain commented what a veteran I was. I told him it was my first time. Now I know what it felt like to be a Spelunker. I never bothered telling my companions I was a claustrophobic cave girl wannabe.
To enjoy this caving experience, contact Nabunturan Municipal Tourism through telephone numbers (084)3761152 and (084)3761072. Entrance and Guide Fee: P100-150.
(March 4, 2004 issue)
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