Safety helmets protect your security - Lumiang Cave expedition

The tour definitely isn’t for the faint hearted; you need to be relatively fit and unafraid of being trapped miles underground in confined spaces wading through water which, at times, reaches as high as your chest.  for safety reasons everyone wore boiler suits, safety helmets, head torches, boots and knee and elbow pads. By contrast, we headed down to cave in shorts, vests and flip flops with our local guide, Virgo, who was carrying only a LED lamp.
The journey continued ever deeper into the blackness. Virgo instructed us to take off our flip flops so we could grip the slippery rocks more easily; even with his help holding my arm, telling me exactly where to step and when to sit and slide down the most dangerous rocks, I was struggling to stay upright. I couldn’t stop imagining myself slipping over, my head cracking against one of the jagged yellow-brown rocks as I went. The only way to tackle the cave was to go one careful step at a time, testing each foothold before putting your weight down. To keep the panic at bay I tried to concentrate only on Virgo’s instructions and to copy his footsteps exactly.

I barely had time to recover as Virgo was now standing below a huge rock, slick with running water, gesturing for me to climb up onto his shoulders and hoist myself up into the narrow tunnel above. Pulling myself shakily onto his shoulders I clung to a rope, my knees scraping wet rock as I heaved myself upwards, cold cave water soaking through my clothes. It was a huge relief to slip through to the next part of the cave system, a series of high-ceilinged, echoey caverns filled with massive stalactites and stalagmites and vast underground pools and rivers, which Andrew dove eagerly into.
For most of the tourists visiting Sagada, one of the highlights is exploring Sumaging Cave, better known as the 'Big Cave'. However, for those who want more adrenalin, there's a lesser known offering - the cave connection. This is a 3-hour spelunking from Lumiang Cave to Sumaging Cave.

Egbert provided a helmet and brought a Petromax for lighting. From Poblacion, it's a 20-minute walk on concrete road to the trailhead for Lumiang Cave. From there, you go down a single-track to the mouth of the cave, about 8-mins walk. From that vantage point, you see the coffins of Lumiang. Unlike the hanging coffins to which Sagada is famous for, Lumiang has piled coffins (not hanging). The coffins are piled one on top of the other until it reaches the ceiling of the cave opening. It is said some coffins date back 500 years. Unfortunately, vandals and thieves have desecrated the coffins over the years.
There is a huge opening on the cave, but the actual entrance is deceptively small and narrow - just enough to snugly fit 1 person. The passage takes you down through tight rock formations before it opens up. Moisture is always present on the rocks. It's slippery. It's best to secure footing before proceeding. Most of the time, I was on 5-wheel drive - all fours plus my butt.

The scariest sections are the vertical climb-downs with no ropes! We descended a few of them, usually a drop of about 10 feet, where you jam your arms and legs on the narrow rock walls as you inch yourself down. This is the only way to get traction. A slip is catastrophic - there is no soft landing; just rocks.