1st Cateel Caving Congress

October 29 to November 1, 2004
Cateel, Davao Oriental

We took a very early 2:00 a.m. ride out of the city to Cateel. I was not able to sleep a wink the night before as it was my neice's 2nd birthday. And prior to that, Bambie, Joan and I had some marketing to do and some sorting of the groceries. So I practically slept the whole trip. I was thinking we would pass by Mati but it turned out that passing through Mauab instead is the shortest way to get there.

We made a brief stopover at Mauab for some breakfast of "bibingkas" and coffee. I would have wanted to just sleep but Bee was adamant about me having something to eat. Then off we went again and doze off I went again. Several times I would wake up to my protesting, aching back and would notice that we have somewhat made a short-cut in a dirt (and rough) road in some "forest" somewhere. It was pretty much reminiscent of the road to Maragusan. I would have wanted to take some pictures but sleep prevailed.

Stretching a bit after a long trip at aliwagwag falls.

Upon reaching Aliwagwag falls, we made a brief stopover. Some of us answered nature's calling and took some pictures of the falls. The falls was picturesque. It had several drops. My camera was trapped in my backpack (an unfortunate oversight!)which was burried somewhere inside the van so I wasn't able to take any pictures. After a while, we then proceeded with our trip.

Soon after, we arrived at Cateel proper. My impression of it is that it is such a small, sleepy town but I liked it just the same. We had to wait for the trucks that would "haul" us over to the campsite for the activity. When it did arrive, we immediately boarded it, registered upon reaching the campsite and settled for the night.

Day 2: On to caving!

Leaving the campisite behind to go spelunking

It had been a long walk from the campsite to where the caves are. Some of the participants were already grumbling. It was really a hot day and our trekking pants that's supposed to be great for spelunking are not exactly conducive for long treks in the sweltering sun. I felt like my legs were being steamed crisp.

Most of the participants could be heard complaining. I guess nobody was really expecting such a long trek. I knew that us in the group were not expecting it at all! We thought the activity would be very much similar to the Kapalong Caving Congress the past year which had us walk just a short distance from the drop off point to the caves themselves. But this time, it was different. It felt pretty much like a major climb having to climb all the way to where the caves are. There were those who were grumbbling saying the cave's better be worth it for all the climbing that has to be done he-he =).

The fact that we had to wait awhile for our guide also did not sit well with most of us there. Everyone is already eager to proceed with the spelunking since we had to explore 2 caves that day. Some of us were even contemplating about proceeding without a guide but that's a great no-no. And so we waited and waited...


Waiting and resting somewhere in between cave 1 and cave 2.

Resting some more.


Natural swing!

On to Cave 2! After much waiting, our guide finally arrived and so we immediately proceeded to cave 2 which is the cave assigned to us that morning. Cave 1 would have to come later. On the way there, we encountered this solitary "swing" in the middle of a small clearing in the woods. It felt a bit eerie to me looking at it. It's not so obvious in this photo but Eric, Bolo and I are actually sitting on the swing. It's this piece of a thick vine that hangs suspended from a tree. Hmm... we could have been encroaching on "someone's" property, only we did not know it.

We did not have to walk far to reach cave 2. It looked pretty "unexciting" from the outside. We were hoping its insides would make up for its facade's lack of character. It had to be, to make up for the very hot, long trek we had to endure just to get there. But we were wrong. It turned out to be such a short cave. Inside though, there's a portion there that house a small, clear pond. The water looks really clear and cool. We were assured that the water is potable and so we filled our water bottles with it.

Class Picture. (behind: the mouth of Cave 2)


Inside Cave 2

We did not linger inside the cave. We immediately went outside after reaching its end. More were coming inside and it had started to become too crowded for me. To be expected, there were much grumblings going on. I did not share their sentiment. Well, maybe a little. I was hopeful though that cave 1 would prove to be different. It has to be. And it was!

Jay inside cave 2

Cave 1!

Cave 1 was indeed great compared to cave 1. It's bigger, longer and had several chambers. On our way out of the cave, the group explored a chamber we had failed to notice on our way in. The chamber had us crawling on all-fours but it was worth it just the same. There was still more to the cave than what we're allowed to see. We would have wanted to explore it further noticing that one of its chambers still opens up further ahead. But our guide was adamant about our stopping. That did not leave us with much of a choice. Courtesy and common sense also prevailed.



Inside cave 1


Edoc and Joan inside cave 1


The gang inside cave 1


Joan and myself manuevering a narrow ledge inside cave 1


Cave 1


Further inside cave 1


The shimmering curtain inside cave 1


The ledge "dancers"


The whole gang on our way out of the cave, passing through the narrow ledge again

Bee and I had a spat over my wanting to explore one of the chambers with the group. I felt that since we were assured it would just be a short chamber, it would be quite a shame to pass it up. He was insistent that we ought to just get out as we had overextended our stay inside the cave. What I did not know was that he had already difficulty breathing. The carbide in the lamp he was using somewhat became too overpowering for him. And it did not help that the cave had become overcrowded thus blocking the air from coming in. When I stubbornly went with Edoc and the rest to explore the chamber, he proceeded to get out of the cave on his own. When we were back, I found out that he had gone ahead of us. I tried to catch up with him and did just before the cave's entrance. I then got the cold treatment much to my dismay. The "silent war" lasted till we got to the hanging bridge on our way to the waterfalls. The bridge was even further than our campsite which meant a long, long time of trekking without saying a word to each other. It was fine by me. I had Joan to talk with and Edoc to help me out in some of the hurdles along the way.

The silent treatment was starting to rub me raw. He did not tell me about the difficulty-in-breathing part until later that night so I did not quite understand why he was so pissed. So, totally not understanding, I was steaming the whole time we were walking towards our campsite too. It was a hot day and my temper was rising along with the temperature. I thought he was being unreasonable about the whole thing, feeding along my anger.

The long trek back took a toll on the "WAMOC." We were all very close to our limits already. The day's activity and the heat had left us exhausted that we were just pushing ourselves to continue walking. Reaching the campsite was very much on our mind -- it kept us walking. We were thankful when we finally saw the river which signals our proximity to the campsite. Though it required an effort to go down to the river, we did anyway, took off our shoes and washed up. We were doing just that when Edoc and the other guys called out to us and hurried us up since we are still proceeding to the waterfalls. Huh! We did not want to go but they were persistent. Sluggishly, we put our shoes back on and started our ascent. Bee still was not talking to me. Neither was I to him.

I thought we were going back to the campsite to change into shorts. I was already thinking by then that the wet, heavy with mud, trek pants are begining to make me feel uncomfortable. But off we went. When we got to the hanging bridge, Bee turned around and approached me, much to my surprise. He remembered my fear of heights and crossing hanging bridges of "questionable" security hehe. He told me we would only be friends up until we reached the bridge's other end. I told him I'm very much fine with just having to hold Bambie's hand while crossing the bridge. But he insisted. The "friendship" however, lasted up until we went back to Davao hehe =)


"The Bridge of Golden Friendship." Crossing the hanging bridge to get to the waterfalls!

Reaching the waterfalls took some time. And it wasn't exactly like a stroll in the park either! On the contrary, it could be pretty dangerous as we really had to access it through the river, pass through some mini-falls. Our shoes were hadly reliable at this point already. Not only once have we slipped and fallen while continuing our climb up to get to the waterfalls. Remember that we were also pretty much exhausted by then also. So we practically had very little energy left to continue walking. Thrice, we all questioned the practicality of continuing on. Being very tired, we would have wanted to just rest as there is still dinner to prepare for pretty soon. But one of the organizers who pointed us to the falls told us it is one worth seeing as it is very much like Tudaya Waterfalls.

Tudaya! We've also been to Tudaya just recently and it was quite a fall to behold. Powerful. Beautiful. With that vision in mind, we dragged our exhausted selves and continued walking and treading on water. And there it was, the waterfalls...


The waterfalls

It was quite a disappointment, beholding the waterfalls. It's nothing like the mighty Tudaya. Still, after our initial reaction, we forgot about our tiredness and enjoyed bathing in the water. True, it is a far cry from Tudaya but it's one of mother Nature's treasure just the same. The water was cold, refreshing our already tired limbs and spirit. Soon after, we started our way back down. Tired but refreshed, we made our way back to the camp to prepare our dinner that night.


Day 3: Cooking breakfast


day 3: cooking and clowning around


Breaking camp, getting ready to go to aliwagwag


aliwagwag! 


Amoc at aliwagwag