Song Hong II expedition - nice way to spend your birthday :D

Mixaddict

Mike and Matt,

Great writes ups from both of you. This sounds like a lot of fun as well as work logistically. I wish you both many more safe expiditions! Have some green to both of you!

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Randy Thornton (MixAddict)
Inspiration, Evolution,Hammerhead & Sentinel
CCR Instructor

Tom Mount

nice

andibk

You guys are right this is a humongous cave. I have been wanting to dive it for a long time but never got down here. Amazing when you look around in there on how large it actually can be. Next time will bring the Rebreather and do more exploring, not quite as much as what Mike did. Great dive you did Mike. Is that your large reel at 100 meters? One of the other guys said they see a line at 100 meters all buggard up.

andibk

Drmike

yeh i carried two large home made reels (can see them in bottom of pic here: Drmike : photos : Song Hong II expedition (-140m) - Thailand NOV 07- powered by SmugMug) but one unreeled itself in a right damn mess so I left that one on the line and continued on with the other reel. ill clean it out on next visit

Thai caves are a heck of a lot warmer than Japan Im freezing my nuts off here!

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Get a girlfriend you sad twat - a Rebreather is an unfaithful mistress - dont blind yourself to her faults just because she goes down on you

andibk

Mike
That's funny you said Japan. After we dove Song Hong we took a trip over to Sre Keow, while there met a guy who lives Japan and does dry caving trips. I was thinking this guy would have been a great source for some future trips. I will be back in the PI exploring here again quite shortly.

andibk

Drmike

theres a shed load of caves in japan. best is to contact one of the caving clubs - a lot of time they (dry cavers) often stop exploration when they come to water... which is good for us

from trip:-

Drmike : photos : Rokon Do & Sora Ana cave - Japan, Dec 07- powered by SmugMug

__________________
Get a girlfriend you sad twat - a Rebreather is an unfaithful mistress - dont blind yourself to her faults just because she goes down on you

andibk

Drmike

Just some info I got about some cavers in PI.


Cave explorer killed, 5 others rescued in Cebu
By Jolene Bulambot
Visayas Bureau
Last updated 01:12am (Mla time) 12/03/2007
CEBU CITY -- A cave explorer died while five others, including a foreigner, were rescued about 20 hours after they were trapped inside the cave in Barangay Gaas, Balamban town, 63 kilometers west of here.
The spelunkers went inside the cave shortly before 9 a.m. on Friday for a three-day mapping and exploration of the still unnamed cave in Barangay Gaas, 10 km from the town proper.
One of them, Dr. Adolf Espina, fell at around 6 p.m. as his equipment malfunctioned, according to Merks Certifico, one of the explorers.
The five-member team, all members of the National Speleological Association of the Philippines, and their American guest, was trying to determine if it was the deepest vertical cave in the Philippines, Certifico said.
Each member carried a 400-meter rope and they were down to 81 meters when the accident happened, he said.
Espina, 36, an ophthalmologist who had been into spelunking for more than 10 years, fell 56 meters onto a ledge, 137 meters from the mouth of the cave.
Rescue
Rescuers found the body of Espina, who was also a spelunking trainer, shortly before 6 a.m. on Saturday.
Right after the accident, Certifico, a Manila-based caver, decided to climb out to get help from villagers. The cave’s mouth is about 500 meters from the national road.
Barangay officials immediately alerted town officials who, together with officials of Cebu City, organized a rescue team of personnel from the Cebu City Fire Protection Office and volunteer mountaineers and spelunkers.
The rescuers went inside the cave at around 11 p.m. on Friday. The first to be brought out shortly before 7 a.m. on Dec. 1 was Charles Festersen, an American who has been in the Philippines since last year, exploring various caves in the country.
Festersen, who was in shock, declined to talk to reporters waiting at the entrance.
The other rescued cavers were identified as Jolina Asis, Dondon Dimpas, and Kublain Espina, a distant relative of Adolf Espina.
Deepest cave
Certifico said the spelunkers decided to explore the cave because it could be the deepest cave in the Philippines and not the 161-meter Sagada cave in Mountain Province.
Certifico said he, rig team member Dimpas and Kublain, the team leader, were the first to descend, followed by Adolf’s team, composed of Asis, a schoolteacher, and Festersen.
He said his group was already down on the first ledge, 81 meters from the mouth, when Adolf’s karabiner, a descending device attached to his rope, malfunctioned.
Certifico said he heard Espina shout and when he looked up, he saw Espina falling down to the ledge below him.
“When I heard him fall, I decided to ascend to ask for help. In my assessment, it was really a bad situation. Charles followed me while Jolina and the others stayed with doc. I couldn’t tell if he was unconscious because I have to ascend,” Certifico told reporters past 11 p.m. on Friday.
No permit
Rescuers had difficulty extracting Espina’s body because only a two-meter vertical opening led to the ledge, which measures five meters wide.
The rescuers reached him shortly after 5 a.m., but he was already dead.
He broke various bones in the body, his arms and knees, according to Senior Fire Officer Bernardo del Mar of the Mabolo (Cebu City) Fire Unit, who took part in the rescue operation.
Espina’s body was immediately brought back to the city, together with his spelunking companions.
Balamban Mayor Alex Binghay said town officials would investigate the incident since the cave mapping was done without the knowledge of the municipal government and of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.



andibk