Caving Adventures, Water Caves, Questionable Shoes

We have spent the past 2 days exploring 4 different caves!

Paradise cave:

This cave is the 3rd longest cave in the world at 31km long and finishing across the border of Laos. It is a dry cave meaning no river flows through. We entered through a small gap in the ground and were immediately greeted to a huge well lit cavern. The formations were unlike anything we had seen before. We were able to walk 1km on a boardwalk into the cave before our tour finished and we walked back. It was discovered by a local hunter who felt a temperature change in the jungle one day. He knew that meant a cave was nearby. He found a small 1m by 1m opening and shouted inside. The way his voice echoed he knew it was a very big cave and so went back and told the government. British caving association then came and helped survey the cave.

Dark Cave:

This was our first wet cave. To get there we had to zipline across the river for 400m. Robin and I stuck the landing now being zipline pros from all the adventures so far. Then we jumped into the cold water to begin floating into the mouth of the cave. At some points it was quite shallow, but better to swim to avoid the sharp rocks below. After 500m we reached a sand bank where we got out and began walking deeper into the cave. Soon a brown muddy River appeared at our feet and we followed it until a huge chamber of muddy water. This was a mineral mud bath. We exfoliated our skin before trekking and floating out of the cave.

Golden Cave:

This was a really tough cave to get to. We were first advised to wear special trekking sandals. Big mistake. They were flimsy plastic jelly shoes with no support at all. The grip on the bottom was good but we would’ve had similar grip with our hiking boots. We trekked through muddy jungle whilst scrambling and climbing over rocks for 2 hours to reach this cave. The inside was huge with gold coloured stalagmites and stalactites from the mineral pyrite or fools gold. This is what gave the cave it’s name.

E- Cave:

Another water cave. British explorers discovered and surveyed this cave and named it E cave- standing for English cave. We hopped onto paddle boards and floated 1km into the cave. We had to duck under rock formations and paddle around under water hazards all whilst shrieking and screaming at the bats flying around us. The water was a magnificent blue colour and we warmed up with some ginger tea once out.

Overall we have a had an action packed two days exploring the caves of Phong Nha. We will never wear trekking sandals ever again.

-M