Students of Nature Enthusiast UGM (MAPAGAMA) is getting ready for exploring a cave in Thailand on April 29, 2017. Several preparations have been performing to get ready for the 4th international expedition entitled Cave Exploration: Under the Sacred Land, including field training.
The manager of MAPAGAMA athletes, Naufal Ahmad Dwijaputra said they will send 7 athletes for the expedition who have been trained routinely in order to conquer caves in Santun karst area.
The athletes started their field training since last March in Mount Sewu karst area which is Gunungkidul, Wonosari, Wonogiri, and Pacitan. All this while, they had accomplished four out of seven trainings. Therefore, they will conduct three other trainings this April.
Before conducting field training, the athletes were quarantined. They also received knowledge on flood risk analysis, map interpretation, cave documentation as well as cave exploration technique.
Fahmi Arsyad, one of the athletes, said the field training is not only used to evaluate the athletes’ skill but also implement their knowledge.
“We are facing accidental risk or many things outside our expectation when we are inside the cave. Therefore, through the field training, we learn how to minimize the risk and how to face various challenges inside the cave,” said Fahmi.
MAPAGAMA had held UGM International Expedition for three times. The first expedition was River of Gold in which they sailed Sun Koshi River in Nepal as long as 282 km using a wooden boat in 2013. The second expedition was Rock of Pyramid which was Pussa Yan rock climbing as high as 180 m in China in 2013. Then, the third expedition was Peak of the Ancestors which was Stok Kangri Mount climbing 6,153 meters above the sea level) in India in 2016.