Buniayu Adventure

(10-11 Mei 2013) http://iwing.wordpress.com

Cave Buniayu located at Kerta Angsana village, Nyalindung, Sukabumi West Java. Buniayu means perfectly covered beauty, our instructor (Mr Ferry a.k.a Usro) said Buniayu once held a title as the best cave system in South East Asia.

(Picture taken from, ref: http://www.buniayucave.com )

The character of this cave is a combination of vertical and horizontal cave, to enter the cave terrace we must rappeling to the bottom, to reach the Buniayu cave requires bravery, especially for first timers. But not only bravery you needed but also a bunch of equipments such as Carabiner, Rope (Caremantel),Croll, Hand Ascenders, Stop, Seat Harness, Omni, Helmet and Head lamp, Dry Bag, Boots etc.

(Varios type of carabiner, ref: http://www.petzl.com)

(a). Croll

(b). Hand Ascenders (a,b,c ref: http://www.petzl.com )

(c). Stop

(d). Seat Harness

(f). Omni (d,e,f ref: http://www.petzl.com )

(g). Helmet and head lamp

This pictures below illustrated how using standard equipments: The adventure begins by using rope down the cave 18 meters deep, after our instructur (Mr Eman and Mr Sholeh) check all equipment, the journey to the bottom of Buniayu cave begun. The first volunteer from our team was Boa, second was Dame, third was Dita a.k.a Mbode, the fourth was Henny and the last was me. Remember always keep in our mind that these phrase trust the intructor, trust the equipment, trust the belayer and trust your self. And now we can yell as loud as we can cowabunga, jump now, think later.....auo...auo..auo. For Mbode this was a shock teraphy because she is Acrophobia.

Our guide/instructor are certificated professional cave guides which also a member of HIKESPI / FINSPAC (Federation of Indonesian Speleological Activity), member of UIS (Union International Speleological), So they very concern to apply the international standard for cave rescue and equipment, make this caving become very safe and comfortable.

(The enterence of the cave)

The cave is a natural phenomenon. Like the museum with the arrangement of the showroom, the cave also provide beauty with ornaments in the form of various layouts are created by natural processes over a period of thousands of years. The speleologist see the cave as a natural laboratory with all the phenomena circle of life in the cave and the surrounding environment. ref [2]

We saw an underground river, lakes, and waterfalls in the cave, as well as to see the cave with water to form fossil halls and millions ornaments.

(Curios about waterfall)

In the journey we also saw some incredible animals such as Kalacemeti (picture-a) (http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kala_cemeti), Bat (picture-b), Cricket and if you are lucky you can found spider-cave, frog-cave, prawn-cave etc. (a) (b)

We learned about speleology from our Instructor/Guide, they explained what is stalaktit, stalagmit, gordum,pillar etc.

After several of hours walked we stopped to take a rest, ours first pitchstop called Beng beng resort if i not mistaken. The place quite big and comfortable to take a rest.

Some of team member make a good coffee inside the cave.

Zoning in the cave took us to see a natural process that we never see except in the cave.

In the beng-beng resort we took moment of silence for a while, we agreed to turn off all light to enjoy the sensation of eternal darkness. The sensation of eternal darkness we realize the greatness of the Creator with all unique creations and a chain of life that we can feel the experience in the eternal darkness

After take a rest for a while, the journey was continue. We continue walked to underground river at the Buniayu.

In the middle of the journey we must doing some technique called chimneying, the clearest way to interpret this technique is that you push your back againts one wall of the chimney while your feet push against the other and you use these opposing forces to hold you in the possition. The classic technique is called back-and-footing.

After several time cross waterways and doing chimney technique another challenge before we out from the cave was the mud, we struggling the mud and all ours body covered by mud. finally all caver out from the cave, next destination was waterfall Bibijilan, We can clean ourself there, took a bath and anything we should do before enjoying the food and beverages in the evening.

Caving Buniayu has been finished, see you in another adventure.

(Heny, Dita, Boa, Iwing and Dame)

Ref: [1]. http://www.petzl.com [2]. Our parther in adventure: http://www.buniayucave.com/ Spesial Thanks to our instructor Mr Ferry a.k.a Usro, Mr Eman and Mr Sholeh

Ps: dont took anything except pictures, dont leave anything except footprint, dont kill anything except time and dont tell my mom because she would said Harry what the hell are you doing!!!, peace mom b^_^d.

Bonus picture: