UKM Mapagama (Mahasiswa Pecinta Alam Gadjah Mada), UGM’s Nature Lovers Student Club, successfully completed a cave exploration in Maros Regency, South Sulawesi, through Team Siruleang as part of the Gladimadya Caving 2026 activities. The 13-day expedition, running from July 22 to August 3, 2026, aimed to explore Leang Pangngi and to explore and map Gua Bidadari, both located in the Maros–Pangkep Karst Region, the second largest and most beautiful karst landscape in the world, recognized as a UNESCO Global Geopark. Team Siruleang comprised two participants, Saida A. Haniya (Pharmacy, 2025) and Muhammad Rafa R. (Engineering, 2025), with Bagus Dwiputra W. (Economics and Business, 2023) as their supervisor and Ilyas Omar O. (Philosophy, 2024) and Saphira Dhiyaa A. (Geography, 2022) as additional team members.
Physical preparation and planning had been underway since March 2026, well ahead of the team’s departure to the field. To ensure smooth operations in a terrain unfamiliar to all team members, the team collaborated with Mapala PNUP and Mahacitaka from Makassar. Hani, the Team Coordinator, highlighted the importance of thorough preparation when facing the unpredictable conditions of underground environments. “As preparation for facing field conditions that were unfamiliar to the team, we had been conducting physical preparation and planning since March 2026,” she said.
On July 26, 2026, the team successfully reached the bottom of Leang Pangngi, a vertical cave reaching a depth of 110 meters, divided into three levels or pitches of varying depths. Despite the expedition taking place during the dry season, the team still encountered a small flow of water from pitch two through to pitch three, adding a layer of technical challenge at every descent. The mapping of Gua Bidadari was completed on July 30, 2026. This horizontal cave features a main passage 246 meters in length, with several halls and three branching corridors. The cave’s formations are dominated by living speleothems with a striking white luminescence, while the team also encountered rare fauna including the batik-patterned bent-toed gecko (Cyrtodactylus batik) and the whip spider (Phrynus longipes).
Rafa, the Field Coordinator, noted that the greatest challenge during the mapping process was the limited number of personnel amid the highly variable width and height of the cave passages. “The main challenge for the team during the field activities was the lack of personnel, particularly during the mapping. The highly variable width and height of the cave passages extended the time required to complete the mapping of Gua Bidadari,” he explained. Bagus, as the team supervisor, added that this Gladimadya expedition also served as an opportunity to revisit and reinforce knowledge from Gladimula (the basic education phase), while deepening more specialized technical competencies from the Caving Division, such as speleology and Single Rope Technique (SRT), the technique used for ascending and descending vertical cave passages.
This expedition served as the final field activity in the Gladimadya series, the advanced education program through which young Mapagama members work toward full membership. By conducting direct exploration in one of the world’s most significant karst regions, Team Siruleang not only successfully tested and developed their technical and managerial capabilities, but also contributed to enriching the speleological data of the Maros–Pangkep region, which holds considerable scientific and conservation value.