Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Caving in the Table Mountain with Grietje

Last Saturday, I accompanied Grietje and Ani to Table Mountain. Actually Shanti and Dorthea, volunteers from YAT, also came with Grietje and Ani. But Shanti gave up at the beginning of the hiking so, Dorthea had to go back to YAT before climbing the steep hill leading to the flat top of the mountain  that is covered with big trees of tropical rainforest. I, Nico, Grietje, Ani decided to continue hiking and caving in the Table Mountain. We started our trip in the morning from Xavier bookstore. Besides hiking, we did some caving. It was a challenging experience because at that time Manokwari was in the rainy season. We went to a cave in the north of the Table Mountain, the largest cave where small and large bats live side by side. The  ground of the cave was sticky due to the mud that had been formed for several days during a-one- week rain before we arrived. When I was taking pictures of the flying bats, one of the big bats flew towards me. I thought it was going to hit me but suddenly it turned back and only flying in circle.


I used my digital camera Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W30 to shoot the following photographs. I was not so sure whether the results would be good or not as the interior of the cave was very dark. I set the dial mode to P because based on my previous experience the photo quality was better than the automatic and ISO settings. After they had been optimized in Adobe Photoshop CS3 where I reduced the file size and added some explanation at the bottom of each photographs, I uploaded them to this post. I am satisfied with the result because the images are quite bright.
There are several caves in the Table Mountain of Manokwari. If you are interested in caving, you can contact me. Don't forget to bring boots, apply mosquito repellent lotion, and binoculars (for bird watching). You might also need a hat and a rain-jacket if you go to Manokwari during the rainy season. If you are already in Manokwari, you can call me 081332245180. by Charles Roring
Also read:
  • Cave exploration inside tropical rainforest of Manokwari 
  • Photographing bat in a cave 

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