Exploring Hang Bom

The path's here somewhere

In between tours, we managed to squeeze in another day of exploration. This time we had a big team of six of us.

The Bomb of Hang Bom

We had been told that we were looking for a 20m shaft with a river at the bottom, after about 40 minutes of walking we were told to wait while our guides searched for the cave. After five minutes they showed us a small muddy hole which I looked into. This was a descending rift which drafted out, but was not the promised shaft so we moved on.

Main streamway

After another 20 minutes we arrived at another cave, another small hole which I squeezed into, once I was in it was pointed out that the rusty tin can I had crawled over was in fact a fragmentation bomb. It was moved before I came out!

The start of the high level passage

Once through the squeeze, I soon met a stream, upstream was another entrance which was a pitch. I left the cave to discuss what to do as this was still not the promised cave. Once outside we discussed what to do, as it seemed that we were not going to get to any other caves we decided to explore this promising lead.

Calcite river

The other entrance also had the remains of the main part of the Fragmentation Bomb. Ruth, Dan and I surveyed down the small entrance while the others surveyed down the pitch.

Formations in the high level passage

We all soon met up at the stream way and followed a magnificent stream passage down to a junction with a high level passage where we split up again, with our team taking the high level passage.

The end of the high level passage

This started small but soon grew in size and had some fine formations before reducing in size again and following a fantastic "moonmilk" floored passage.

Main stream way

After about 100m this ended as we entered another large section of passage which unfortunately soon came to an end when the only way on was a pitch down to the main streamway.

Dan admiring a stalagmite

The other team followed the (lower) stream route to a point where there was a swim and duck through deep water with a strong draft into the cave. With no lifejackets and time running out they had to turn around at this point. We all met up on the way out before the walk (a shorter route) back to the road, not quite making it back before a thunderstorm.