Means off the crushed observe, as he typically tends to be, diver-explorer PIERRE CONSTANT seeks out cave-sites on a West Papua island the place Japanese forces as soon as burrowed into subterranean networks throughout World Battle Two
The primary island of the Biak archipelago lies in Cenderawasih Bay, close to the northern coast of the Indonesian province of West Papua. Whereas 90% of mainland Papua is Christian, 50% of Biak is Muslim, although it was initially animist, as a result of the Biak Numfor tradition is a Melanesian one.
The island was first sighted by Portuguese navigator Jorge de Meneses in 1526, and Spanish navigator Alvaro de Saavedra sailed by two years later.
Throughout World Battle Two, Biak was a stronghold for the Imperial Japanese Military. In direction of the top of the conflict, 11,000 IJN troops have been hiding in its jungle caves with loads of ammunition and 9 Sort 95 HaGo mild tanks, ready for Normal McArthur’s US forces.
Gua Jepang (Japanese Cave), 5km from Biak Metropolis, was a part of a system that prolonged 3km in direction of Parai Seaside and offered a refuge for 3,000 Japanese troops. Nonetheless, after a US aircraft had been shot down by a missile fired from there, the People began bombing the location, massacring these inside.
By the top of the Battle of Biak, which lasted from the US touchdown on 27 Could till 17 August, 1944, the USA had suffered 3,000 casualties and 474 useless, whereas the Japanese forces had 6,100 useless and 450 captured. Their commander Col Kizume Naoyuki dedicated hara kiri.
Japanese Bay
After a two-day journey from France by way of Jakarta, my aircraft lands in Biak at 5.30am. I’m jet-lagged, and can take two days to get better.
I head for Gua Jepang (Japanese Bay) on the again of a bike belonging to Jake, the Asana Biak Lodge’s receptionist. Coated in inexperienced moss, a cemented path results in a stairway that disappears underground in a zigzag.
Moderately moist, the archway entrance is like that of a cathedral, with water dripping from the ceiling. The large chamber reveals an exit to the fitting and one other gigantic one to the left. Damaged bottles lie all over the place.
I uncover a golden-brown bone embedded within the cave-floor. A powerful curtain of vines and roots runs down the wall on the left, which opens into a big sinkhole. The location is atmospheric.
Slim pandanus timber with their crowns of lengthy spiny leaves stand erect in the midst of the sinkhole, including a contact of Jurassic Park to this eerie surroundings. Previous rusty Japanese barrels will be discovered on the foot of the hanging vines.
The path loops across the inside, climbing slowly to an increase overlooking the core of the opening. Instantly, Jake factors out a copper-brown snake, about 1m lengthy, resting immobile straight forward of me. “Mangabasio!”, he warns, taking a step again. “Toxic!”
I take a number of photographs earlier than the snake ventures up the cliffside with superb facility. The open-air museum shows machine-guns, mortars, shells, bombs, rockets, a group of Japanese canteens, helmets, bottles and even previous 4x4s and a propeller.
It’s market day in Bosnik, web site of the amphibious US touchdown of 27 Could. The stalls promote typical Papuan meals equivalent to areca nut, cassava, candy potatoes and sago desserts, in addition to smoked octopus and beads of smoked shells, recent fish, papaya leaves, beans and bananas.
Everyone chews areca nut all day lengthy and greets me with a vivid red-mouthed grin as I stroll by, a stranger in an odd land: “Good day, mister!” Bosnik is the departure level for public boats to the close by Padaido Islands, identified for providing engaging dive-sites.
Coated in jungle, a 40m-high limestone ridge runs like a backbone alongside the south coast, all the best way to Tanjung Barari, Biak’s jap cape. It’s an previous fringing reef that advanced right into a karst surroundings, with caves and underground rivers. I plan to discover it over the following few days.
Opiaref Cave
Nonetheless jet-lagged, I rise up at 3am. Divemaster Yulius pops spherical afterward his motorcycle, frowning on the sight of my pile of baggage. We head for the village of Opiaref, past Bosnik. I’ve heard of a giant cave with swimming pools of water, a playground for the schoolkids, and am anticipating some cave-diving, though Yulius just isn’t a cave-diver.
To be politically appropriate we pay a go to to the ‘bigman’, who doesn’t have any objections to my go to. He’s wanting to know if I’ll uncover something.
Behind the elementary faculty, a path results in a large opening within the limestone cliff, sufficiently big for a subway tunnel. Gua Serumi (Opiaref Cave) appears like an underground river. Past the rockpile on the entrance, the water swimming pools are stunningly clear. That is the freshwater reservoir of the village.
Donning my tools on a slippery rock lined in bat guano, I leap in.
The primary pool is 2-3m deep, however I discover a passage to the fitting beneath the rock that plunges right into a slender tunnel. Some fish come to satisfy me – they’re slate-grey with a double dorsal fin, opaque cobalt blue eyes and a protruding decrease jaw. Giant, inquisitive shrimps with lengthy blue pincers are attracted by the torch-beam.
I make my strategy to the second pool. Simply 10m excessive, the principle tunnel ends with a rock wall, about 60m from the doorway. Climbing over the rocks in the midst of the cave, I discover that the depth will increase on the opposite facet. One other passage opens on the fitting, narrower and snaky.
The rock wall nonetheless in entrance, I discover the stark distinction between the white limestone and a few conspicuously dark-brown sedimentary rock. A vertical oval-shaped slender hall opens up on my left and results in a facet chamber, rectangular and parallel to the principle tunnel.
The underside is roofed in extremely unstable, high-quality silt {that a} fin-kick can disturb in a second. The superb visibility is a plus. Gua Serumi is small and has a most depth of just below 9m.
Yulius introduces me to Salmon, a bearded, jovial Papuan farmer. Additionally a diver, he is aware of of a freshwater lake close to Samares Seaside on the north coast: “Let’s go!”
The street meanders for some time, then turns into a mud observe carved with gullies by the rains. It’s a mountainous space of thick jungle with huge timber.
Leaving the automobile behind, we proceed uphill on foot, then steeply downhill for the following 45 minutes. The terrible sound of chainsaws confirms that logging is happening within the space, and silences the joyful shrieks of sulphur-crested cockatoos, Eclectus parrots and black-capped lories.
Pantai Samares is a abandoned Pacific seashore. A path climbs up into the jungle between giant buttress-root timber and nipa palms. Opsnundi (Leaping Man) Lake seems in a clearing, a magical, turquoise pool of water. Huge logs have fallen into it, however the water is gin-clear and it’s a visible enchantment.
My feelers inform me of a gap within the center, however I gained’t know for certain till I enterprise beneath the floor.
Air Biru Cave
Within the village of Anggraidi, we examine the cave of Air Biru. The massive opening appears like a gargantuan mouth with fangs – bulging, rounded stalactites. It’s a clearwater pool. An enormous fish checks me out on my 15-minute dive however I fail to search out any leads.
Seen from beneath water, the massive stalactites encourage artistic images. I discover the dark-grey fish with its yellow-rimmed fins in a nook – it’s the identical species as in Opiaref, although this one is 25cm lengthy. An eel emerges from the darkness into the sunshine, solely to vanish in a flash.
Snermus & Snermas Lakes
A tar street hyperlinks Biak Metropolis to Korem on the north coast. Three freshwater lakes give the phantasm of sinkholes, however their apple-green color takes away any hope.
Snermus and Snermas Lakes present first rate swimming-pools for the native youngsters with their floating rafts and logs however beneath water the visibility is hardly 50cm, and most depth 12m to the silt. Disappointing.
Cradled in a U-shaped bay, Korem Seaside was the location of a devastating tsunami in 1996. Tanjung Saruri, on the north coast, is a cape with uplifted coral terraces. It’s a really photogenic shelf, with swimming pools of water at low tide.
Additional west is the village of Warsa, and past it lies the bridge that gives the gateway to Supiori island, which is extra mountainous than Biak. There the street divides between north and south, main all the best way to Korido.
Some 45 minutes south of the bridge is the fascinating cave of Mankruro, which was additionally utilized by Japanese troopers.
Opsnundi Lake
With a burst of braveness, I return to Opsnundi with all my gear. Salmon volunteers to hold the tank: “No drawback, Papuans are sturdy males!”. I’ve sufficient to hold with my backpack, the gear in a mesh bag and the digital camera at arm’s size.
Regardless of the shortage of sunshine, the dive proves to be an exhilarating expertise. In blue water, I marvel on the jumble of logs draped in mosses and hanging algae, and fish which have by no means seen a diver earlier than.
With a most depth of 13m, I additionally discover a small limestone cave, however by the point I end the 52min dive I’m shivering.
Simpson’s Cave
An fascinating spot lies at Ruar village, the place a stream flows out of a cave within the cliffside. I poke my nostril inside and, after progressing 10m within the underground tunnel, discover that the water emerges right into a deep vertical pit with sharp limestone throughout it.
I dive in with my torch and a robust line hooked up to a rock above the opening. At a depth of three.5m the hall is stage however I face a useless finish, with nowhere for me to squeeze via.
Simpson, the ‘bigman’, reckons I will probably be eager see some Japanese caves within the jungle behind Ruar village. He appears doubtfully at my flip-flops however says reassuringly: “It is just 200m away!”
It seems to be a steep uphill trek, slippery via the jungle and an hour there and again. We attain the gaping jaw of the cave, on the foot of a steep cluster of boulders, however there isn’t any means in there with flip-flops.
The next Sunday morning, wearing white shirt and black tie, Simpsons is prepared for church. “I’ll be again in an hour,” he says. I’m quick asleep on a chair on his balcony when he returns – 5 and a half hours later.
Again on web site. Simpson swiftly chops down a few slim, straight timber and turns them right into a ladder that can permit us to barter the cave entrance.
The cave is large, with hidden chambers, stalactites, shawls (calcite crystal formations), large columns and skinny pillars.
The ground is suffering from damaged bottles, rusty cans and sq. biscuit-tins. I can barely think about the dreadful circumstances by which these Japanese troopers lived within the darkness, like rats. It should have been depressing and mentally miserable.
Some stays of a gasoline masks’s spherical spectacles lie on the bottom outdoors the doorway. I title the location Simpson’s Cave.
Lima Kamar
Hidden downhill on the left facet of the street lies a humble Japanese memorial with an previous picket pillar carved with Kanji inscriptions. Close by is Lima Kamar, a subterranean cave with 5 chambers. “It was a Japanese hospital in the course of the conflict,” explains Simpson.
It’s a cluster of small chambers linked collectively by slender passages, with medication flasks and empty bottles mendacity scattered in a nook. This rat-hole offers a chilling dimension to the horrors of a bygone previous.
Owi Island
One night I meet the Bupati, Yusuf Melianus Maryen, who was the political chief of the Biak Regency for greater than 10 years. A heat, affable man, he greets me heartily with a standard ceramic plate displaying the Cenderawasih fowl of paradise.
I clarify the character of my work and Bupati provides to take me to Owi Island along with his boat. Salmon has revealed the existence of caves containing “blue water” there.
The crossing on a flat sea takes half an hour. Owi Island’s white-sand seashore is fringed with swaying coconut timber; a child paddles his dug-out outrigger canoe.
A Catholic church shows a signboard inscribed Rarama bebye: “You might be welcome”. We pay a ritual go to to ‘bigman’ Pete Demaras, a white-bearded fellow with a crimson ring of areca-nut juice across the chin.
We climb on prime of a ridge and a brand new cave opens down a slippery slope. “That is Funfundei, which implies ‘Feelgood’… In the course of the conflict, the American troopers got here right here to gather water”. There had been a US airfield on the island.
Switching on my headlamp, I sneak in. I must be acrobatic via the slender passages with stalactites overhead. I come throughout a clearwater pond and assume: I’ll examine this one out! Quickly I’m marvelling at two beautiful underwater chambers with stalactites, stalagmites, shawls and straws (tubular stalactites).
I additionally discover a number of fossils. There’s a combshell with 5 fingers, some Trochus turban shells and clams. The utmost depth is 5.5m and it’s solely a 20-minute dive, which doesn’t permit exploration of any additional passages. Fashioned above water, Feelgood Cave was later flooded by rainwater percolating via the rooftop.
Earlier than leaving the island, Salmon reckons I needs to be inquisitive about some plane wrecks. “Not far!” he guarantees. The 25min stroll via a coconut grove into the bush of Owi Island results in an overgrown tar freeway – the US airfield.
I wipe the sweat from my brow with the again of my hand. “How concerning the wrecks?” I enquire, nonetheless craving the true stuff.
“The airplanes? Oh… they’re gone already!”
