PCE 2000 - Perlis Caving Expedition

Lo Po Sang Team on 26/12/2000

           Team Members

Leong, Yoke Chuan, Chun Wah, Tony Yap 

     The day’s objective for this team is to go back to the Baba entrance and exit out at the Lo Po Sang entrance, collecting back all the ropes and equipment along the way.  Since me and Tony have heard so much about the beautiful formations and talk of how challenging the cave is technically, requiring the use of SRT (Single Rope Technique) equipment, we decided to take over Min Er and Darren’ place.

     Knowing well in advance that it is not possible to reached back to the car to drive back to base camp, we had to prepare our selves for a night of camping in the jungle once we exit from the cave.  As such after preparing ourselves accordingly we were ready to face the day’s challenge.  By the time everybody had their food and got ready it was already almost noon.   The entire group travelled in two vehicles to the Baba entrance.  Thereafter the two vehicles went on to the start of the Lo Po Sang trail to leave Leong’s 4X4 for the return journey.

     The whole group started to move into the cave at 12:10 pm.  Again, I seem to sense that the water level is slightly higher than the previous day.  Even when we went through the second swim area, I realise that I only needed to climb over the beams across the water once compared to the first day when I had to climb over 3 times.  The other two beams I seem to have just swam over it.

     Taking a short time to admire the “Milkyway” since not everybody had a chance to see it earlier, we soon carried on our journey further into the Lo Po Sang section of the cave and soon reached the waterfall junction leading to the first pitch upwards.  We had a quick lunch break here and the time is 2:15 pm.

    We soon reached the base of the first pitch upwards.  There was a tall broken ladder reaching to the top. Together with us there was also Darren, Colin & Hooi Lan who were there to check out whether there is a pathway or climb that connects to the top of the first climb upwards without using SRT.  This is because at the top of this pitch there are signs of people digging into the walls of the passage for crystals.  Leong, when he visited the crystal shop at Selayang Mall and enquired where they get their crystals from, was given the reply that some of them comes from Perlis.  Could some of these stuff came from here?  If so, how did these people get up here to dig for the crystals without using SRT gear.  Is there an unknow passage they are using to get up here.

     Anyway, Darren’s team did not managed to get up although they located some possible leads up.  While the team was gearing up for the climb we found a little frog in the waterway.  Time check – 3:10pm.  Checking and double checking each other’s SRT gear we were soon ready.  First up was Leong, followed by Tony, me and Yoke Chuan.  This climb is very challenging as it requires you to climb up against running water.  You literally climb up against a mini waterfall and the water is soooo..  cold.  Halfway going up, you just had to stop and try and push yourself out of the way of the falling water to catch your breath.  The same experience you get when you stand under any waterfall. The falling water makes it so difficult to see that you just climb up with your eyes close.  Once up there you are in a small area with a pool of water with a short calcited staircase at the back.

     After we de-rigged the ropes, we threw it down to Darren for him to take back out thus allowing us to take less stuff out this way.  It was already 4:10 pm.  We soon reached the section of the passage where the crystals mining activities took place.  This was also the place where the team sleep on the first night when they were making their way down.

     The next climb up was also against a waterfall.  There was also a broken ladder here whereby the top of it is fully calcited.  Trying to avoid abrasion against the ladder, the rope was rigged in such a way to avoid it.  Thus requiring you to change over halfway.  I had a tough time here as the rope did not move through the chest piece when I stood on the leg lope.  Yoke Chuan had to come down and help by taking my tackle bag from me thus making me lighter.  Thereafter he adjusted the change over point higher to allow the others to stand on the ladder to make the change over easier.

     Once to the top, you are in a pool of water with a short calcited ladder to the right.  The setting was beautiful.  The last up was Leong and he was bring up the rope up along with him.  Once everything was taken out, we move on to the next climb.  The next part up was the use of a fully calcited tall ladder up.  Taking our time here to admire the formations, Leong discovered the presence of a crab in the waterway.

     From the bottom to the top, it was a beautiful climb up along a fully calcited ladder about 25 to 30 feet high, leading on to a climb upwards a flowstone tunnel with running water.  The passage is narrow. As such you need to push or drag your bag up with you or play a bag passing game until you reach the top.  BY the time we reached here it was already 6:00pm.  We stop to take some food as this is the last pleasant spot where there is running water allowing easy washing up before proceeding on.

     Moving on we soon came to a short climb up.  The water that was flowing down disappeared under a tunnel.  From the top of this short climb up it was a muddy and dirty journey onwards to the exit.  I really missed the running water.  The handy tip for the trip is to bring enough plastic bags to keep the muddy ropes so that it doesn’t mess up the rest of your gear when you keep the rope in your tackle bag.

     We soon reached the climb up using an existing ladder.  However since the old ladder cannot be trusted, we were hooked onto a rope using out chest piece as we moved up the ladder carefully.  The tackle bags were hauled up using a rope.  The next part up requires SRT as the ladder is already gone.   Yoke Chuan and me went up first and then he rigged up a pully system to haul the bags up.  And that was the end of the journey requiring the use of ropes and SRT equipment.

     We have still not reached the exit yet.  The next couple of climbs is basically making use of the old ladders found in there.  In years to come, when these ladders cannot be used anymore safely,  it means that whoever who wants to get into this cave will have to bring extra ropes to take over the place of these old ladders.

     Finally, at 10:15pm, we came up and out of the Lo Po Sang exit to a star filled night.  The whole journey, from one end to the other took about 10 hours to complete.  However our journey is still not over yet, as we still had to carry on and trek out of the valley to the top of the ridge where we intend to set up camp.  The exit is not a pleasant place to camp as it was infested with leeches and the air is still.  Fully prepared with Baygon, we quickly sprayed our boots with it to keep the leeches at bay.  Without wasting much time we quickly packed up our gear into the haversacks left earlier together with other stuff like spare water and food and we made our way up towards the ridge.

     It was a good thing that markings were made earlier as the team came in, otherwise we would have lost our way trying to find our way up to the ridge.  Passing by a zing hut which used to housed the generator set, we proceeded on until we finally reached the camp site at 11:15pm and soon settled down to spend our night there.  Since we can only carry a minimal amount of gear, our camp is an open air camp.  As such we are thankful that it did not rain.  In fact it has not rained for the past few days.  Otherwise it is going to be a very uncomfortable and wet night.  But it raises the question of why the water level has risen in Gua Baba.   Anyway that was the end of the day for the revised Lo Po Sang team.  What a way to spend Hari Raya eve.

Reported by Yee Chun Wah