Italian research group Laventa visits Daluyon
Scientists from the Italian group Laventa Esploriazoni Geografiche recently visited Daluyon to set up a mini weather station at our grounds to assist in their exploration project of the Puerto Princesa Underground River (PPUR).
The La Venta team organizes and runs various geographical-speleological and environmental exploration projects in remote areas with difficult access.
Since 1989, Italian cavers from various places alternate in the exploration of the PPUR’s extraordinary karst system. After the first explorations of the Australian cavers in the 1980s and 1981, it was started a first exploratory project from 1989 to 1991, under the auspices of the Italian Speleological Society, that led to the discovery of new large branches, making this cave the most important of the Far East.
In 2000, a group of La Venta team returned to the island with the aim to make a documentary about this extraordinary cave. From that expedition originated the new project “Palawan” that can be considered as one of the most important Italian caving projects outside of Europe.
Since 2007, La Venta Association has resumed the study and exploration of this unique karst area, thanks to the efforts and the invaluable support of the administrators of the city of Puerto Princesa, concentrating our efforts on the documentation work. With this new project has begun the search for other caves in the upper parts of the limestone massif, leading to the discovery of two deep and active cavities. New and unexpected discoveries inside the Underground River ended up with a development of more than 32 km of tunnels explored, including a new sector, characterized by large galleries full of concretions of spectacular beauty.
The 2011 expedition resumed the exploration of the Little Underground River, a cave that opens onto the cliff just NE of the PPUR. Furthermore, we reached for the first time the summit of Mount Saint Paul, 1028 m high, discovering an absorbing zone that would lead to the exploration of new caves of vertical development.
In their last expedition, the group made a full photo shooting of the whole area and of its caves. This material has already had an editorial output on the Italian edition of the prestigious magazines GEO and Oasis. In 2013, it was finally published a monograph entitled “The River of Swallows” dedicated to this extraordinary karst area.
