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| PHOTOCREDIT: Chasing Potatoes |
DAY 2: Gobingob Cave to Langun Cave
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| PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio |
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| PHOTOCREDIT: Chasing Potatoes |
2. Boulder down the vertical area
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| PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio |
With a safety harness tied around our waist, we climbed down this deep and steep crevice. Looking down is enough to make the faint hearted admit defeat but this is also the only way to Langun Cave from Gobingob Cave!
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| PHOTOCREDIT: Chasing Potatoes |
This is how high the drop was and this photo was taken halfway along the descent. We still needed to hike down to access the passage to Langun Cave.
3. Towering forest of stalagmites
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| PHOTOCREDIT: Chasing Potatoes |
4. Giant chandeliers
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| PHOTOCREDIT: Chasing Potatoes |
3. Mother of All Cave Chambers
This part of the cave is cavernous! It's huge and from the distance you will slowly see the light filtering in from the caves mouth. It is refreshing to see sunlight after almost 48 hours of total darkness.
4. Mountain of Guano
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| PHOTOCREDIT: Rylle Valdez |
What we are standing on is the Mountain of Guano. On rainy days, this can be soft and mushy. If you stand too long in one position, you will sink to your knees. We walked on the sides as it's safer and shallower.
Ask me what it feels like to be in deep shit. I'm almost there. The smell was not bad though. Trust me on this as my sense of smell is so strong. I measure smells from sneezing(mild) to gagging(awful!) but this here did not even elicit a twitching of my nose.
5. Crossing the Meadow
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| PHOTOCREDIT: Mich Yurro |
I love the meadow. It has a beautiful carpet of green moss and there were ferns everywhere. I wish I brought my wig, wings, flower crown, and a beautiful, flowy chiffon dress so I could pretend to be an engkantada (fairy) for a couple of minutes.
I give the Girl Scout award to Ate Michelle because she was prepared for the trip. She brought engkantada props with her! So that is a tip for you there-bring a costume!
I give the Girl Scout award to Ate Michelle because she was prepared for the trip. She brought engkantada props with her! So that is a tip for you there-bring a costume!
There's also a rock that was perfect for bouldering!
"Para kang bouldering, walang safety harness. Kailangan ko pang gumawa ng strategy sa rota patungo sa puso mo. 'Di kita ma reach. Wala akong stable foothold sa 'yo. Nauubos na ang upper body strength ko lalo na ang puso ko." Charooootttt
6. Langun Campsite (12nn)
All bats and birds live at the right side of the cave where the Mountain of Guano is. All snakes live at the left side of the cave where a small stream runs through.
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| Pagoda me! PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio |
We had lunch and dinner here. We basically just napped the whole afternoon to re-energize for that night's trek.
6. Bat watching
When we were in Hpa-an, I really wanted to observe the bats as they fly out of the cave. Unfortunately, we did not get to see that.
I am thankful that I get to observe the bats flying pattern this time around. It is very interesting. At 5PM they just flew around the cave's mouth in random formation then slowly formed a circle and at about 6PM they flew off in a straight line!
8. Stargazing
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| PHOTOREDIT: Rylle Valdez |
9. Rappel down to Langun Cave (8PM)
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| PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio |
To enter Lower Langun Chamber, we had a 3 meters single rope descent. Good footing was needed towards the end as we needed to jump off the rest of the way.
10. Snake Room
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| PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio |
Sir Joni calls this part "romancing the rocks". I'd call it NSVD or normal spontaneous vaginal delivery. I felt like I was a newborn baby trying to crawl out of the vaginal canal. I even had to maneuver my shoulders laterally to get out of that small tunnel. Ok, TMI!
11. Langun Water Terraces
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| PHOTOCREDIT: Chasing Potatoes
It's fun dipping into the cold water pools! We get to clean up our muddy apparel and freshen up.
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| Blind crabs PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio |
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| Blind fish PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio |
12. Mad Mud Walk
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| PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio |
Most of the paths we went through were muddy so we had a lot of fun getting stuck in the mud. Apparently, the strategy that worked best was to run fast in the mud so you won't sink. Stick to the wall as well as the ground is more tightly packed in that area.
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| PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio |
It's tricky climbing up when it's slippery.
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| PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio
And mudslides were the best shortcut ever!
13. Langun Underground River
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| PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio |
The river trek was challenging. You can't see how deep it is so there is an innate fear of the unknown. The deepest was probably thigh high deep only. There are areas with rapids but it's not really strong. You would sometimes skip over slippery stones to get to the other side.
13. Waterfall
We dropped by a waterfall but we were standing on top of it. the rapid was strong and the drop was really high.
14. Tunnel
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| PHOTOCREDIT: Chasing Potatoes |
It's similar to the World War tunnels and it reminds me of the tunnel where the train passes through in Go Teik Viaduct, only that this is totally made by nature.
15. Dead End
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| PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio |
Take a peek at our back and there is a deep drop to a river.
16. Back to base camp (12MN)
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| PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio |
Dozing off, hoping snakes won't crawl over us while we sleep.
DAY 3: Three Hours Hike
We started looking like this...
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| PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio |
But the three hour steep climb on the forest covering the cave was very challenging.
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| PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio |
The dense secondary forest is home to different species of fauna and flora. The guides pointed out some moss that grows on the tree bark which glows in the dark.
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| PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio |
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| PHOTO CREDIT: Joni Bonifacio |
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