Sohoton Cave

Useful Information

Location:	Sohoton Natural Bridge NP, West of Basey, Samar. Departure by boat at Basey harbour.
Open:	All year daily 9-17. [2023]
Fee:	Adults R 4,400. [2006]
Classification:	Karst cave
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	Sohoton Cave.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

2010	developed as a show cave and opened to the public.

Description

Sohoton Cave is not the most impressive cave at Sohoton Natural Bridge NP, but it is a beautiful and well visited dripstone cave. Tours start at Basey pier, where a pump boat, tour guide, and light men are rented. The fee includes the boat rent, the guide, the light men, and the entrance fee. The boat brings visitors upstream to the cave entrance, which is a little uphill and reached after a short walk.

In respect to the "spirits" that hover around the cave, permission to go inside is requested by tapping or knocking the entrance sideways three times. The entrance is really impressive, a huge archlike portal. Behind the portal is a entrance hall with level floor, which is 20 m wide and 50 m long. Then follows the main chamber, a huge dome which is up to 50 m high. At the far end of the chamber is a sort of window with a balcony overlooking the pool below.

As the cave is a dripstone cave, there are numerous named formations. However, it seems the names are a bit above average. There are Banaue Rice Terraces, the Great Wall of China, a Harem Pavilion, an Amphitheatre with natural built-in acoustical system, and Seductive Courtesan's Boudoir, refreshingly cooled by Mother Nature. Some formations resemble human appendages, women's breast or men's phallus.