Exploring Caves

Our home village is littered with caves and hangovers. Walk two minutes into the jungle, and you'll stumble upon one. From what we know, there are no actual large cave systems in our tribe, but just many small individual caves.

We have explored most of these. We haven't found anything living in them, besides a few small spiders and an occasional swiftlet nest. They are mostly made up of a type of rock that is very weak and crumbly. They were probably formed by some of the many earthquakes that disturb the peaceful mountaintops.

Back in the day, before our area was populated and had an airstrip, tribal hunters would use caves like these to spend the night in. They still do this because it's a lot quicker to get ready for the night in a cave than to have to build a shelter. Once, we were exploring and found a rock hangover. We discovered a fire pit with ashes still in it. It was a "hunting lodge"!

Another cave we found has a large crevasse in one area that goes straight down. When we discovered this cave, we were looking for a good water source, and we thought that there might be a spring down at the bottom of the hole. One of our friends, Liku, decided he would check it out. He tied a rope to himself and started to climb down. He was down for a while. After a bit, he came back up, saying that there was a little water at the bottom, but it was much too far down to pump out. So we gave up on that idea.

The caves of the jungle are very interesting and probably hold many discoveries. Although we've been in many caves, there are probably lots more to be discovered.