Bukidnon Promised a Better Cave — So I Went Spelunking at Sumalsag Cave

Exploring Sumalsag Cave in Kilabong, Villa Vista, Sumilao, Bukidnon, came about through a suggestion from our Bukidnon friends after our Marilog waterfalling and Cathedral Caves exploration. They promised us pristine caves and a chilling waterfall-hopping adventure, so our group scheduled the trip soon after our exploration of the Marilog district.

Sumalsag Cave, known as “the longest cave in the first Congressional District of Bukidnon,” is a stretch of caverns with an underground stream, located in Sitio Kilabong, Villa Vista, Sumilao, Bukidnon.

According to Wikipedia, “The total length of Sumalsag Cave’s three branches is approximately 1,859 meters. Its wide entrance, boasting of huge stalactites, opens to a spacious chamber floored with mud. From its mouth, a gigantic column that dwarfs any person standing near it can be seen. Beyond this chamber is a bigger chamber, which allegedly used to be a rebel headquarters. Remnants of the headquarters facilities can still be found. Stalagmites, stalactites and rimstones can be seen.”

It was a well-planned adventure after all, except that much of the excitement came from the unexpected twists and turns along the way. Of the original nine potential explorers, only Chris and I made it to Bukidnon. To back out on a commitment to Joan, who had gone to great lengths to prepare for the trip and graciously serve as our host, was unthinkable. So Chris and I decided to go. And thank heavens we did!

Monday, April 30, 2007

We were eight would be Sumalsag Cave spelunkers- Joan, PamBoy, Jonkoi, Onin, Chris, me, Pandy and his wife. Dressed in our usual beach-ready shorts and dri-fit shirts, we rode a bus from Malaybalay, which dropped us off at the highway entrance to Barangay Dalirig. From there, we hiked for about 20 minutes through a pineapple plantation, stopped at an open cottage, and ate our packed lunch.

We really enjoyed the hike and took a lot of self-deprecating but fun photos. We looked like a bunch of kids heading to the beach.

We continued hiking to the cave entrance, some 300 metres above the surrounding ground. At a house near the entrance, we signed the logbook and hired a cave guide.

Sumalsag Cave is a large cave whose entrance is almost hidden by vines and boulders. There were life-sized crosses and religious figurines at the entrance.

I wondered what they were for. Interesting.

A steep descent greeted us at the cave entrance.

Just 10 metres from the entrance stood colossal stalagmites, almost resembling the pillars of old Roman buildings.

Sunlight could still penetrate up to this point. Behind those columns were chambers that allegedly used to serve as rebel headquarters.

Once we started walking through the passageways leading to the main chamber, it was total darkness. At times, we bumped into scurrying, flying bats or got stuck in a waterhole. Thank goodness I brought my headlamp!

Majestic stalactites hung from the cave ceiling, some almost reaching the floor. Stalagmites jutted out of the ground, sometimes forming miniature catch basins of water.

After descending around forty steps, we encountered a stream. It was here that I realised I was ill-equipped and unprepared for what lay ahead. No hard hats, slippers instead of proper footwear, dri-fit shirts, and beach shorts? I looked like a kid heading for the beach, not a cave.

But drawing confidence from my teammates, who seemed unbothered by the challenges, I pushed on.

We were actually trekking through an underground river system, with stalagmites and stalactites jutting out of the water and ceiling like an obstacle course. The river seemed never-ending, getting deeper and wider as we progressed.

I felt as though I were river trekking with zero visibility. And the bats, which I thought could see perfectly well in the dark, bumped into me twice. Literally, the blind bumping into the blind??!!

We pointed our headlamps simultaneously at a formation to illuminate it and take pictures. The water started at ankle depth, then rose to our knees, hips, and eventually our chests. We eventually had to place our cameras inside waterproof bags.

Sumalsag Cave was really a series of chambers separated by columns or partitions that we had to climb over or, more often, crawl under, duck-walk through, or tackle in the most adrenaline-rush-inducing way possible: by diving into the water.

Duck-walking or crawling helped prevent us from bumping into the sharp stalactites hanging overhead like swords of Damocles. The cave formations looked like gold in the dark, glistening red-orange whenever our headlamp beams struck them.

Then there were the cold-water lagoons, with sudden changes in depth that made you feel as though you were about to fall into a manhole!

Some stalagmites had rather exotic shapes, and we made jokes about them and posed for pictures beside a few. Maybe we were hallucinating, or perhaps we were just running on hormones. Either way, we all had a good laugh.

To our dismay, we also saw what looked like the sawed-off bases of some cave formations. Perhaps those stalagmites were destined to become lounge or table pieces for these “nature hunters.”

I begged my friends to stay a little longer at the four lagoons we encountered.

“Let’s take a cold bath!” I said.

The water was cold and soothing. And, of course, it was my first time taking a bath in a lagoon inside a cave! Coming from a hot, dry city, I wished I had lagoons like these in my backyard.

There were times when we had to submerge ourselves underwater to get past obstacles or enter another passageway. This made our picture-taking adventure a little more difficult, but thanks to the Zip-Lock bags, my camera was still functioning after spending what must have been close to an hour underwater in total.

A lesson learned for this newbie spelunker.

Remember when I said I was ill-equipped and unprepared for this exploration? Well, there were times when we had to climb slippery cave formations. It was exhilarating, but I hit an overhanging stalactite twice, accidentally stepped into a lagoon, and slipped and landed butt-first. All telltale signs that I had never done any proper caving preparation!

Onin coined a term for this: “Spebalintong, kay sige’g ka-balintong!” We all laughed at my awkwardness.

When Joan told us we were nearing the exit, I had mixed emotions. I was sad because the adventure was about to end, but happy that my ill-equipped and unprepared misadventures would soon become “lessons learned.”

Then my heartbeat suddenly went up when Joan described how we would exit the cave.

“You have to hold your breath, dive into the deeper portion of this river system, just below the chamber partition and almost touching the bottom of the lagoon, then emerge in the other chamber, where the man-sized exit hole is.”

“That long and deep? No other way?”

I suddenly questioned my life choices again. I mean, this was my first cave-diving experience, and I was doing it practically naked. No diving gear, no training, just pure guts and audacity.

I took a deep breath, dived into the lagoon, looked for that “light” below, and swam towards it like an eel wriggling into a hole. Then I swam back up towards a light coming through a hole in the cave.

I was so happy to see my friends’ faces. I mean, I had made it through that hole! That was no easy task for me!

I stared at the exit hole and watched my other friends emerge from it. They all seemed relaxed and confident. Me? I was screaming inside with fear!

But we all made it. I’m pretty sure I won’t be exiting through that hole again anytime soon!

We rinsed ourselves at a nearby household’s hand-pump water source. Imagine emerging from a cave right beside a water pump. “Crazy,” I said.

Then we hiked back to the highway, as it was already getting dark. We were heading to CEDAR to finally rinse off properly, but that is another story.

Note: Thank you Chris for lending your photos of this caving for this article.