SAGADA ADVENTURE PART ii.b - Pong-as Falls, Lumiang & Sumaguing Caves (Spelunking)

May 31 - June 3, 2013

SAGADA ADVENTURE PART ii.b
(Day 2 - Pong-as falls, Lumiang & Sumaguing Cave)

    

Spelunking is one of the adventure that I'd love to do once again. I'll share to you our pictures from the entrance of the Lumiang cave going out to Sumaguing cave. Kuya Kirky and his professional team were the ones who guided us all the way out to the two caves. It took us 7 (seven) hours from Lumiang to Sumaguing caves. Well, we were not in a hurry because we often took pictures whenever we had a chance.

One thing I have to advise when you do spelunking is to take off your sandals. It's the best thing to do since the path was slippery. We all tied our sandals on our risk so we won't lose them.

  

Entrance to Lumiang cave.

 

Our guides were making sure that the lights were all good.

Preparing our mind, body and soul ...

Before we went inside the cave, our guide already provided us some instructions to follow as well as the stories about these two caves. At the entrance of the Lumiang cave, there are coffins of the old tribes unfortunately some of it were stolen. So right now, they make sure that it is secured from those thieves who want to take and sell it. Kuya Kirky told us about its origin and the tribes that settled on this cave.

After Kuya Kirky provided the historical background, he gave us simple instructions that we need to follow. He told us that if he asked to step on their head, shoulders, thighs, etc. we really have to do it. Also, if he advised to place our feet/hands to either left or right then we have to follow it. Honestly, those were simple instructions but when you're already inside the cave, sometimes you'll missed those especially when you're trying to reach something and you definitely can't do it, you'll basically do the things that will be convenient on your part.

Most of all, you need to have courage and prepare your mind and soul to take this kind of adventure.

First challenge, we encountered was to fit into the small hole. Whoah!

 

When I saw the hole, I said to myself "am I really gonna fit into that small hole?". Sometimes small people have the advantage especially in fitting into a small hole.

That's Eric who's very excited getting in.

Ms. Vee finished crossing the small hole. Success!



Here are some of the pictures we took on the first part of the trail.

 

When I was in the cave, I felt the danger that this cave can bring to us but I'm still confident that our guides will make sure of our safety. Most of us were saying ... "please keep us safe".

Second challenge was to pass through the water luckily it's not -BER months yet because the water rise up to 5 feet when it's rainy season. Our guides took us a top view shot while crossing into the water.

 

Getting ourselves wet ...

Climb up high! Oh yes! We definitely can do it!!! You have to release a lot of energy when doing this kind of activity. I don't want to burden my weight to any of the guides so I grasp and put my weight on the ropes.

We crossed the water inside the cave. We were extra careful since it was dark inside and we couldn't see if there were holes on our paths, we stayed at the right side to make sure of our safety.

 

After all the challenges we crossed, we were able to reach Sumaguing cave. Beautiful as expected. It was my first time to see a cave with full of beautiful structures. Some of the structures were images of a person, animal and thing.

 I'm not sure what this one looks like but for me it's a huge umbrella LOL

this one is deep so they called it the "cave's pool"

  

 

this rock resembles like a frog

 

 looks like a layered cakes

   

 You think it's all about spelunking? We also did rappelling! ha ha ha...go go go! 

 

Around 6:00 pm, it was really cold and almost all of us were shaking! We were like living in an igloo. We still managed to take a couple of shots inside Sumaguing before we all decided to leave this cave. It was a whole lot of experience especially for me since it was my first time to actually get into the cave and explore it. If only we have enough food, drinks and dry clothes, we could've stayed longer. Anyway, we enjoyed a LOT!

- Liz Lagasca