The waters of the Underground River

The entrance to the river

Exiting the river

It's not 'Ponyo'

There’s always that one photo that brings back a figurative sea of memories: clear blue waters, a cool breeze and something faintly prehistoric.

For me, it’s this picture of a fish taken with a pathetic little digital camera that takes me to Puerto Princesa Underground River.

I took this photo at the bank of the river waiting for a canoe and guide. We were splashing around, donned in hardhats and life vests, and were suddenly shushed into silence by the beauty around us. It sounds like a line, I know, but there ARE those moments...and this was one of them.

Puerto Princesa Underground River is 8.2 kilometres long, said to be the longest in the world after that in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, snaking through a cave before meeting the South China Sea.

In the canoe, the warmth of the sun gives way to the cool of the cave, and the waters go from a light blue to a rich turquoise. And silence.

The guide, from the back of the canoe, stroking the bottom of the river with a long piece of bamboo points out stalactite/mite formations in true Filipino style (they either look like food or a religious figure) and I obediently shine the torch in the right direction.

“Look up,” he says, “but keep your mouth closed!”

Above us are thousands of little bats.

“That’s not rain falling,” he warns.

A gentle journey through the cave for 1.5 kilometres and we turn around, heading back to the cave’s entrance.

Perhaps it’s the silence in a country otherwise noisy that encourages reflection, or it’s the similarity between a cave and an ancient stone church, but here I feel that everything within is sacred.

It is not until outside, blinking back the calm of the cave, that I realise none of the pictures from the aforementioned pathetic digital camera will turn out...and in some ways I’m glad.

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