Calbiga Base Camp, domenica 17 Aprile 2011 ore 3:12 (ore 21:12 in Italia)
Ieri per il gruppetto dei fantastici di Calbiga giornata di riprese lungo il fiume, dalla prima rapida dopo Otoc fino alla foce sul mare. Un bel racconto scritto lungo le rive, storia di gente ed acqua in simbiosi ma ho ancora le orecchie che piangono per il rumore della bancas…
Oggi invece siamo tornati a Dimagbaha, una delle sorgenti di Balogo appartenenti ad un sistema parallelo a Langun dove un bravo e finalmente sorridente Marc, bussola alla mano per visibilità di 1 metro, è riuscito a trovare la prosecuzione oltre il limite americano-tedesco: è sceso a -19 a circa 150 metri lasciando la porta aperta a Gigi per domani. Belle ed angoscianti le riprese fatte con la Gopro montata sul casco! Come del resto bello ed angosciante il nostro operatore Gattone in slip e pinne…
Incredibile, nelle ultime ore la pressione si è alzata brutalmente e la pioggerellina che cade nelle ore pomeridiane non da più nemmeno fastidio!
Anche dalla foresta arrivano notizie positive malgrado la Mama Cave non sia saltata fuori: la squadra tornata alla grotta dove Davide nei primi giorni aveva provato a sorseggiarne l’attivo, ha rilevato circa 1 km di bellissime gallerie. Dopo due giorni di battute finalmente raggiungono anche la grande perdita di Antol (Mainoswagon, uno degli obbiettivi della spedizione) senza però superare i 100 metri: sifonaccio…
Domani i ragazzi, senza Rok e Marija che sono rientrati, dovrebbero fare l’ultimo sforzo e raggiungere una grande grotta segnalata dai locali. Sempre abbiano ancora la pazienza di inseguire le loro labili indicazioni…
Ma lasciamolo raccontare per bene da Rok di ritorno da questa full immersion in foresta:
Just returned from the 2 nd jungle three day trip. Again the main goal was our most wanted Mama cave. This time team members slightly changed: instead of Mark who had focused on diving in sumps saraunding, Calbiga Lillo and Tristan joined to the “forest” group, and of course Joni , who took the position of local speleo guide. His mate Dodo, very active and fit 65 years old retired school teacher, couldn t be present because of some mountain bike race somewhere in samar….so on Tuesday 12.4 we were again on the way Panasanan-Canlobo, this time at least half of the path night be considered almost Sunday afternoon easy stroll. Mud of previous trip disappeared?? Not exactly…Short rain and the rest of the road quickly transformed in the ditch like path as we were used from previous trip…slippery and muddy to the knee….well anyway walking time seemed pass faster, and again Canlobo welcomed us. After good sleep without disco music, which fulfilled our first night in first Canlobo trip. Next day jungle trip begun. We were all very keeny to find mitic Mama cave, but after all day hike only 150 m long cave with small outlet stream was our biggest discovery. Some of us had possibility to meet Mr.Ibingam alias cobra filippino, who usually greets visitors inside tropic caves, well in this ocasion the meeting was far away of the underground, in the field on the margin of forest. An isolated rock shelter became our camping site for first forest night , it revealed dry and quite comfortable . So new day arose and new hope for Mama cave. Again walking up and down, to the river of previous jungle trip. This time level of water was at least two times lower than previously. The sinkhole of the river, found on first trip was possible to descent, but again exploration finished quickly in the sump after only around 70m. So again hiking ,hiking, hiking up to the slopes and down to the valleys, and even most reliable Five ten shoes start to strike what some of us felt as more or less painfull blisters, mostly located on dr.”s feet, who was also most frequent user bandages and iod tincture. Instead of lunch time siesta ,we had sort of rain shower wet time out beneath the bush. In the end of 2nd day found ourselves again on the entrance of the first cave of first trip, where Davide had a chanse to taste unwillingly pure Filipino underground water. It was also time to set up camp. The only place available was muddy field in between two entrances of the same cave. Not to be enough, again rain and it looks like more pig party ground. Tristan and JP very quickly established their hamac quarter enough dry and confortable to rise a bit of envy in rest of us. But never the less with leaves, plants and big tent the rest of team had more or less dry and confortable shelter. Menu offered same combination of rise with tuna and dry mango for dessert for dinner, after that night caving trip with twice less water weak river stream and around 980m of surveyd and explored galleries. But this is not mama cave! Next morning two new local guides showed up who supposed to now the Mama cave, but they could n t find the entrance as well! So it will be a mistery cave, maybe one day solved with the help of Bulalacao…who nows? return to Canlobo was not so sad anyway..Nice, friendly and honest local people in remote village benath wonderfull night with sort of cloudy halo around full moon, tasted with bit of Generoso closed this 2nd Canlobo trip. Next day brif visit to Antol sinkhole which again showed up as less than 100m long cave. Here team split, Mariia, Joni and Rok returned to Calbiga, while other guys stood in Antol for another cave chek up, far in the forest.
Members: Marija “La bella principessa”, Guido “il professore”, Joni “the Mama cave leader”, Jean Paul “JP”, Tristan “the tropic hiker” , Rok “dr.blister foot”, Davide “Mr.allegria”, Lillo “the tropic panzer”
Rok Stopar (alias Rocco Stoppaglio)
Ricordiamo che è possibile inviare sms al satellitare della spedizione collegandosi alla pagina iridium ed inviando i messaggi al numero: +881632529859
Aquila delle Filippine
Calbiga vista dal fiume
Il campo tra Canlobo e Antol
Il carso di Canlobo
Fast-foot in foresta
Grand Hotel Canlobo
Inghiottitoio vicino ad Antol
L'inquietante strega inventata dal Gatto per terrorizzare i bambini
Lottatori di sumo locali
Maanghit cave
Marc nel sifone di Dimagbaha, una delle sorgenti di Balogo
No Five Ten? ...hai, hai, hai, hai!
Scialuppa di salvataggio in banano...
Verso Balogo Spring
Verso la sorgente di Balogo
English summary
Yesterday for the Calbiga team filming day along the river. Today we moved back to Dimagbaha, one of the Balogo springs where Marc, by compass only because of zero visibility found the prosecution beyond the American-German limit.
From the forest too good news even if no Mama Cava: The team back to the cave seen by Davide has mapped about 1 Km of beautiful galleries.
And now the news directly from Rok:
Just returned from the 2 nd jungle three day trip. Again the main goal was our most wanted Mama cave. This time team members slightly changed: instead of Mark who had focused on diving in sumps saraunding, Calbiga Lillo and Tristan joined to the “forest” group, and of course Joni , who took the position of local speleo guide. His mate Dodo, very active and fit 65 years old retired school teacher, couldn t be present because of some mountain bike race somewhere in samar….so on Tuesday 12.4 we were again on the way Panasanan-Canlobo, this time at least half of the path night be considered almost Sunday afternoon easy stroll. Mud of previous trip disappeared?? Not exactly…Short rain and the rest of the road quickly transformed in the ditch like path as we were used from previous trip…slippery and muddy to the knee….well anyway walking time seemed pass faster, and again Canlobo welcomed us. After good sleep without disco music, which fulfilled our first night in first Canlobo trip. Next day jungle trip begun. We were all very keeny to find mitic Mama cave, but after all day hike only 150 m long cave with small outlet stream was our biggest discovery. Some of us had possibility to meet Mr.Ibingam alias cobra filippino, who usually greets visitors inside tropic caves, well in this ocasion the meeting was far away of the underground, in the field on the margin of forest. An isolated rock shelter became our camping site for first forest night , it revealed dry and quite comfortable . So new day arose and new hope for Mama cave. Again walking up and down, to the river of previous jungle trip. This time level of water was at least two times lower than previously. The sinkhole of the river, found on first trip was possible to descent, but again exploration finished quickly in the sump after only around 70m. So again hiking ,hiking, hiking up to the slopes and down to the valleys, and even most reliable Five ten shoes start to strike what some of us felt as more or less painfull blisters, mostly located on dr.”s feet, who was also most frequent user bandages and iod tincture. Instead of lunch time siesta ,we had sort of rain shower wet time out beneath the bush. In the end of 2nd day found ourselves again on the entrance of the first cave of first trip, where Davide had a chanse to taste unwillingly pure Filipino underground water. It was also time to set up camp. The only place available was muddy field in between two entrances of the same cave. Not to be enough, again rain and it looks like more pig party ground. Tristan and JP very quickly established their hamac quarter enough dry and confortable to rise a bit of envy in rest of us. But never the less with leaves, plants and big tent the rest of team had more or less dry and confortable shelter. Menu offered same combination of rise with tuna and dry mango for dessert for dinner, after that night caving trip with twice less water weak river stream and around 980m of surveyd and explored galleries. But this is not mama cave! Next morning two new local guides showed up who supposed to now the Mama cave, but they could n t find the entrance as well! So it will be a mistery cave, maybe one day solved with the help of Bulalacao…who nows? return to Canlobo was not so sad anyway..Nice, friendly and honest local people in remote village benath wonderfull night with sort of cloudy halo around full moon, tasted with bit of Generoso closed this 2nd Canlobo trip. Next day brif visit to Antol sinkhole which again showed up as less than 100m long cave. Here team split, Mariia, Joni and Rok returned to Calbiga, while other guys stood in Antol for another cave chek up, far in the forest.
Members: Marija “La bella principessa”, Guido “il professore”, Joni “the Mama cave leader”, Jean Paul “JP”, Tristan “the tropic hiker” , Rok “dr.blister foot”, Davide “Mr.allegria”, Lillo “the tropic panzer”
Rok Stopar