We skirted a huge boulder just inside the entrance. The air inside was moist and cool, and the rocks were covered with algae. Apart from the light filtering in from outside, it was pitch black.

Glistening white stalactites reached down 15 meters from the cave roof. From below, marble white stalagmite stretched as high as three tall men. Where they met, they formed a giant beast’s jaw.

Was this a real cannibal hide out? It felt real. I shivered as my right foot slithered over something slippery in the alluvial clay. My eyes couldn’t see my path.

Uninvited came the repellent odour of bats. A single squeak from afar penetrated our brains. As we moved closer, the squeaking and screeching intensified from the cave roof above.

I couldn’t see an inch away without the aid of a mobile phone torch.

There was another burst of squeaking and chirping. Eek! Eek! Eek!

Then the sound of flapping wings just above our heads. Whap! Whap! Whap!

I closed my eyes. If they were vampire bats I would die of lost blood in the blink of an eye.

Something in liquid form was now dripping on our heads.

The guide told us it was fresh water but I had the strong feeling it was bat urine. It was a contrast with the beautiful rock patterns high above my head that I could see with the aid of my torch.

Someone in the group tasted the droplets of liquid. “Hey, guys, it’s pure water.”

I wanted to laugh but held back. The woman could have just tasted bats urine. She would survive if we got lost in the cave for a week.

Our tour guide stopped. There was a pool of water like a swimming pool just in front of us. He instructed us about how to cross the pool on some rocks that provided stepping stones. The bats continued with their deafening squeaks and squawks.

We saw light ahead. It was another entrance to the cave. And then we were outside in daylight again.

“This is the where Robinson Crusoe shot the leader of the cannibals in the movie,” the tour guide said. I stood on the spot. William Takaku, in the role of Friday, had been tied here waiting to meet his fate.

Right here in Madang Province, we had just experienced what we watched in the Robinson Crusoe movie.

And I had a new story to tell the fans of the movie.

Making our way through the woodland to the nearest village, I couldn’t hold back a smile.

I couldn’t wait to load my experience on to Facebook.