The Sumaging Caves: Part 2

Today, 8 brave Monash-ians (Maxine, Eunice, Alia, Feeza, Grace, Temme, Max and me) with their 2 fun-loving student guides (Chinee and Rommel) embarked on a journey to the unknown aka the Sumaging cave. Most of us have never been into any serious caving before. We were excited but scared at the same time. With the exceptional of Temme since this is not her first experience. Maxine wanted to back out but thank goodness she did not for she would surely have missed out on one of the best times of her life.

It all started with us walking 45 minutes to get to the destination, later we climbed down a flight of stairs into the cave. We ventured deeper into the cave with the sound of bats echoing in our ears and the feeling of bat poop on both hands and feet. It was very disgusting for me. I shuddered just recalling the squashy texture on my hands. The path we took was not a smooth ride. It was filled with sharp edged rocks and stones and the bat poop just make the ground slippery which made the walk much more difficult than it already was. You really have to concentrate on where you were walking. It is a pity for I was not able to enjoy the scenery around me. Not that there was much to see for the cave was really dark.

The cave was lit only by two lanterns held by our two professional eco-guides - one in the front and the other at the back. Adventurers would not get to see what was ahead of them nor could they see anything behind them. Our vision was filled with plain darkness. After walking past the bat poop part, we were told to walk barefooted as it helped with our walking. Our arms and legs were smeared with poop so it was heavenly when we stepped into the cooling water and washed up. We have to climb down and wade through the chilling yet refreshing water (I don’t think many would agree with me on this as all of them screamed COLD the moment they got into the water). We passed by some interesting rock formations as mentioned in Feeza’s post.

However, the highlight of this entire expedition was Max losing his glasses. We had passed by a small yet deep pool in the middle of the cave. The two guides jumped into it and looking at them swimming around happily made some of us itch to join in the fun. Eunice was the first daring soul to leap into the chilly water. Max jumped into the pool and the force must have been too hard and his glasses came off from it's position. I must say that the two guides were really nice for they dived into the pool several times to search for it. It wasn’t an easy task for the water was freezing and it got difficult to go underwater.

It was quite annoying that after we were clean, we had to return to the surface using the same route. All of us got filthy again by the time we reached the starting point. It was truly an experience not to be missed. For those who told me that it would be difficult and tiring, they were wrong. The scrapes and cuts on my arms and legs are symbols of victory to me.

By Jojo