PART 1.0 – SAMAR ISLAND, RP – 23 – 25 September 2023
It seems like years ago that Jim put forward the idea of a return trip to the Philippines to do some more caving. He had a good response from MSS members, but over the following months, the numbers dropped significantly, until there were just the four of us. Ah, well, you get that when you organise a trip.
Saturday 23 September – Jim and I spent the night before at the Ibis at the Airport, this meant we didn’t have to get up so early to check in. It was a good thing that we’d taken this precaution, apparently it was the start of school holidays and the line for immigration (or was it carry-on baggage security checks), was out the door and about 100m down the wall of the terminal.
The flight from Sydney to Manila was uneventful. Anna, Jim and I regrouped and went in search of a taxi to take us to our accommodation in Makati City. We took the first taxi in the rank but made the mistake of not negotiating a rate for the ride – rookie error – and we WEREN’T rookies. This came back to bite us because when we got to the hotel he asked for P5,400! This didn’t sound right and we tried to argue with him but didn’t get far, we ended up paying him P5,000. We headed up to our room, which was fine, when Omar arrived it would be four people in one room, which was about the size of a room meant for one person but that was okay, it was only 1 night.
We all went out and had Asian food. Was difficult looking for a vegan restaurant for Anna, and this would become an ongoing problem over the next 3 weeks.
Omar arrived an hour later, turns out his taxi from the airport was only P700 pesos so obviously we were fleeced. From this moment on we were pedantic about getting a rate that we all agreed upon first!
Sunday 24 September – we checked out and negotiated a rate for a taxi to take us to the airport, P700 yep, a taxi driver is probably still telling the story of getting tourists to pay P5,000 for the trip! Anna was catching a different flight to us, Omar, Jim and I arrived at Tacloban after Anna.
Joni Bonifacio, his wife and son met us at the airport, with welcome pendants (l-r), Jim, me, Anna and Omar.
And then Joni rolled out a welcome banner – this banner would follow us around to all our caves on Samar Island.
Joni had hired a van to take us down to Catbalogan which meant that we could stop on this bridge which spans the waterway between Leyte and Samar, it’s the longest bridge in the Philippines and was built by Marcos (the first Marcos president, not the current one lol).
The view from our Catbalogan hotel 1st floor balcony, looking at peak hour traffic, mostly tricycles! The hotel was basic but would be fine for us for the five or six nights we’d be staying in town. With so few cars it was easy crossing the road, Anna got the hang of it really quickly, she just held her hand up like a stop sign.
Monday 25th September – we were up bright and early for our first day’s caving. We had bananas and bread rolls for breakfast (this would be our breakfast for almost 3 weeks). The plan was to do Central Cave and we piled into two tricycles to go to the start of the walk to the cave.
The tricycle dropped us off in a village on the outskirts of Catbalogan, and we then had to walk up the “street”, the “street” was too rocky to get us to the end. (Porters leading the way … all these photos are courtesy of Omar – thanks Mate!)
This was a little disconcerting to me, some drop offs to the left were quite exposed, was happy to get to the end of it (was about 100m), on the way back, Joni took me through the grass (also a little disconcerting, could have been snakes there!).
The route then turned into a track, sometimes muddy, the track followed what Anna and I called the “Pipeline Track” – because all along the track was a pipeline which was providing drinking water to the town of Catbalogan.
Sometimes the track was nicely paved with cement. We wondered why there were sections of cement. Turns out there is a village high in the hills and there are villagers walking down to town, and so, when they have the money, the two villages get together and cement the track (or maybe it’s the government, I forget), regardless of who paved it, we were happy when we didn’t have to walk in mud or on slippery pipes.
I wasn’t dealing with the heat and about 1/2 the way to the cave, I said I was struggling and wouldn’t continue. Joni took pity on me and took my pack from me (it was big weighty what with my SRT gear in it). That made it easier, but with the heat it was still a struggle.
It seemed like hours by the time we got to the cave entrance, but I’m sure that was just my imagination. Didn’t take long for the porters to set up our lunch area whilst Joni rigged the SRT pitch. Lunch was decicious and Joni’s wife went all out with the vegan options. The porters had disappeared for a while and next thing we knew they were back at the lunch site with freshly harvested coconuts which they opened for us so that we could drink the coconut milk (a highlight of our trip!).
Anna on the start of the 18m pitch.
Anna on the pitch.
Me waiting around at the bottom of the pitch.
These photos are all out of order (all taken on the same day but with all different names – Apple is like that – what a pain), so, enjoy them in their disorderly way.
This formation is called Twin Towers – obviously.
Lovely section of rim pools.
I have to say this was one of the most fabulously decorated caves I’ve ever seen definitely worth the effort, even with the 18m prussic out!
By now it started raining and we had to walk all the way down the Pipeline Track in the rain. Even with the heat and humidity, it was still unpleasant walking in wet clothes and by now the track was a bit muddy.
We got back to the hotel around 4 o’clock picked up something to eat and high-tailed it for hot showers (although our shower wasn’t all that hot). It had been a big day and it was so good to get into bed and then we discovered that our air conditioner was set to 16ºC and we didn’t know where the remote was. I spent the night sleeping in thermals.
Regardless of the not so hot water and far too cold air conditioning, this was the best day’s caving!