Balincaguin Conservancy Grotto

Posted in NSS cavechat.org (10 Feb 2010): Nothing like Xmas in February (36°C/96°F)!

6 Feb 2010 - As part of the SoCal Grotto’s Christmas party, Incoming Chairperson Betty Farfan, Daniel Veelik and Charley Nelson ask their fellow SoCal Grotto members to donate used but serviceable caving equipment for the newly formed Balincaguin Conservancy (BC) Grotto. They had planned to bring the donated equipment to the BC Grotto when they go back to the Philippines in early 2010.

Posted in NSS Cavechat (11 Jan 2010): A quickie got our thighs deep in muck

It’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve been underground so one Sunday afternoon our grotto president, Rawen Balmaña and I decided to do a quick pilot trip to some local haystack hills. These hills are at the southern end of a small range of haystack (limestone) hills with the Hundred Islands National Park at the northern end extending to the sea. I know of a dozen sea caves within the national park so why not in the southern portions. Below is a photo of Cathedral Cave I took maybe 5 years ago.

4-5 Dec 2009 - At the request of the Municipality of Sison, Pangasinan, BC sent a reconnaissance team to explore Sison's caves to determine their potential as tourist destinations. The pilot trip was a demanding hike following the Sapid Creek involving boulder hopping, many stream crossings and a ridgewalk with an elevation gain of 500 meters in a short distance!

Day1 was a hike that our guides do in two hours; we did it in three-and-one-half grueling hours. The first cave, Guesset Cave, was 3.7 kilometers (GPS distance) with the most elevation gain. The cave has a vertical entrance with an 8-meer drop and our guides rigged vines, Tarzan style, and made the drop but the BC members declined. We were able to use our new phrases, "ON VINE!" and "OFF VINE!" According to the guides there is a second short drop from an overhang then goes horizontal for about 100 meters and houses lots of bats (2 species captured).

Photo gallery...

2 Dec 2009 - Bani Mayor Marcelo E. Navarro, Jr. presented his Plaque of Appreciation to BC President Rawen E. Balmaña for the survey and exploration of the Nalsoc Cave System, located in Brgy. Colayo, Bani. The data, survey map and photos will be used in the development of Bani's Eco-tourism Program. The survey map will be printed at poster size so it can be displayed in town center and the photos were used in a multimedia slideshow during the town fiesta.

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31 Aug 2009 - A new exit was discovered by BC's Cave Survey Committee during their exploration of Nalsoc Cave's Branch1. The local guides, residents and leaders did not know of  its existance and were surprised and pleased with the discovery. It would be considered a young cave because of the presence of intact and uncompressed coral fossils and a giant clam protruding from the breakdowns and walls. It has been named "Mel-let Cave" since Mel-let is the Ilokano equivalent to the Giant Clam (Tridacna gigas).

During this exploration a known exit, "Abot Aso" meaning "Dog Hole," was reached and GPS measurment shows it is 133 meters from the main entrance. Mel-let Cave is about 222 meters from the main entrance and is found in an obscure sinkhole. Between the two exits is a network of branches (always a choice of left or right branch every 50 meters or so) and a large chamber.

Gallery photos...

Serveral BC members have recently joined and started posting their cave photos on the NSS OnlineCavers.com website. The site is a social network for cavers (NSS membership is not required to register) worldwide supporting safe caving and cave conservation.

It currently has 1,700 members, 25,000 caving photos, 430 photo albums and caving videos. At this site you can virtually go caving at caves all over the world; great for us armchair cavers!

Featured photographer:

Dave Bunnell

Find more photos like this on NSS Online Cavers

More of Dave Bunnell's photos are in his websites Under Earth Images and Virtual Cave.

Click Read More... to view BC member's Online Cavers albums.