The red/orange under-layer is nickel ore; get to it by taking all above

Image By Girlie Cervantes

I recently visited Surigao del Norte to report on tourism activities there, with a special focus on water sports. I found plenty of water sports and many new ventures in the pipeline. But what really took my breath away was the rape of Surigao over the past five years in the quest for easy money.

Jake Miranda, local hotelier and scuba diving fanatic, described Surigao del Norte as “presently suffering an identity crisis”: does it want to continue to be rapped by the global mining industry or does it want to embrace eco and adventure tourism. It cannot happily do both.

Image courtesy Martyn Willes

New Corella is known as the “water basin of Davao Del Norte” and for good reason – its rainforested limestone hills have for aeons imbibed the monsoon rains and slowly released them, through hundreds of springs and streams, onto the plains below. The same aeons have slowly eroded the limestone beneath, creating some of the most beautiful cave systems in the World. Adventure tourists and speleologists can access the caves by hiking along forest trails or trekking up rivers, brimming with crystal clear water – filtered and pure.

Recognizing that it is the custodian of this area of outstanding natural beauty, the municipality of New Corella has created a series of adventure tourist packages, designed to allow those with a passion for the beauty of Mother Nature to enjoy the gifts that she has so generously bestowed upon Davao Del Norte.

Image courtesy The Bat Camp

Monfort Bat Cave's, Bat Camp 2011. This Bat Camp event will educate and inform people of the unique role that bats play in our everyday lives and why it is important to protect & preserve bat habitats around the country. The Monfort Bat Cave was chosen as the venue for the start of Philippine Year Of The Bat activities because it is recognized as the location of the largest colony of fruit bats in the World (see “Samal Island Fruit Bats Into Guinness World Records”).

The Monfort Bat Cave Conservation Foundation (MBCCFI) in conjunction with Philippine Bat Conservation (PBCI) will organize a series of activities including research, exhibits, lectures, interactive learning experiences for kids plus special bat-emergence viewing and a donor's day.

Photo courtesy Aware Aventures

Across the Internet there are a lot of websites promoting adventure holidays / adventure vacations but there are actually very few companies focusing on Philippine adventure holidays, and even fewer that offer more than a couple of adventure sports within a given package tour, so Australian based Aware Adventures is somewhat unique and deserves a mention.

Aware Adventures offer Philippine adventure holidays, starting in the heart of the Visayas, and take adventurers from Cebu to Bohol Island to Camiguin Island to Cagayan de Oro and back to Cebu. Over a period of twelve days adventure sports included: white water rafting, ziplining, rappelling, climbing, swimming, trekking, camping, caving, abseiling, kayaking, mountain biking and snorkeling.

Photo courtesy Martyn Willes

The training of caving guides in San Isidro, Davao del Norte, is well underway ahead of the 10th National Caving Congress, Davao, in April. Experienced trekkers and caving / spelunking enthusiasts from Barangay Dacudao, San Isidro, last weekend had their caving guide skills honed under a training program initiated jointly by the: Davao Speleological Society, the Davao del Norte Provincial Tourism and with financial support from the Department of Environment & Natural Resources (DENR) Region XI.

Next weekend, further caving guide training (in advance of the National Caving Congress, Davao) will be offered for caving / spelunking enthusiasts in Barangay Igangon, San Isidro.

Photo courtesy John Smart

The PSS 10th National Caving Congress will be held in Davao del Norte amongst the spectacular near-virgin caves in limestone hills and mountains surrounding Kapalong.

Under the auspices of the Philippine Speleological Society, and organised in conjunction with the Davao Speleological & Conservation Society, the PSS 10th National Caving Congress's four-day caving event will introduce a dozen Kapalong caves to visitors from around the Philippines and from around the World. The primary theme of this 10th National Caving Congress will be “A Decade of Pursuit Towards Responsible Caving”.

Photo courtesy batsanctuary.org

13th January 2010; Samal Island - Philippine fruit bats that roost on Samal Island were officially accorded the Guinness World Record of largest colony of any fruit bat species. On any given day approximately 1.8 million Geoffroy's rousette fruit bats (rousettus amplexicaudatus) inhabit the Monfort Bat Cave on Samal Island.

The Monfort Bat Cave & Conservation Foundation aims to protect the Samal Island fruit bats through research programs that lead to better education and conservation of habitat. Education programs will foster a greater understanding of the role of fruit bats and dispel the myth that fruit bats compete with humans for food when the reverse is actually true. Samal Island and the nearby provinces of Davao would not enjoy such an abundance of durian and other tropical fruits if it were not for centuries of natural seed and fertilizer dispersal undertaken free of charge by the fruit bats.

Photo courtesy Davao Speleological & Conservation Society

The 4th Mindanao Caving Forum will be held at the Laak Camp site Comval Province, North of Davao, from 1st to 5th October, 2009. This is a new GetWet sport and a must for caving enthusiasts.

During the event you will: discuss caving in the Philippines in general and caving in Mindanao specifically; learn about the cave complexes around Laak; go caving through the Bongloy Cave & Vertical Cave, Anislag Cave 1 & Anislag Cave 2 and the Andap Cave System.

Posted in Adventure Sports, Caving Spelunking | Tags: Caving Spelunking, Comval Province, Davao, Laak, Mindanao, Philippines | No Comments »