Flood!

A wet start to the day

What a difference a day makes! A lovely day yesterday on the walk out from Hang En, but an overnight thunderstorm of almost Biblical proportions has changed things somewhat. Many of the roads on the way over to Tu Lan were very wet,  and the road through the village of Trooc was under thirty centimetres of water. The streams were orange with mud and in full spate.

Have we got to cross that raging monster?

The situation was no different at Tan Hoa but the guides and office staff assured me that the rivers would be ok to cross, one tour had already left so I assumed that if things were bad we would see them before we got to the first river crossing.

First river, deep and nasty, should have got the safety line out - or even a boat!

We managed to cross the first river, three at a time holding hands, but it was nearly chest deep with a very strong current, Personally I thought it was a little risky and we would have to take more precautions for our next crossings.

A stormy La Ken valley

After lunch in Rat Cave, the weather had improved, but it was going to be some time before the water levels dropped. We made our way to the crossing which would enable us to get to Gibbon Cave (and beyond). Vū (the guide) had one attempt at crossing before I pulled 'the plug' and decided that it was not going to be safe. We moved on to where the porters cross, but that to was far too dangerous so we moved on to a final location, after that I wasn't sure what we could do.

River deep, mountain high

The final crossing location was still not possible with the equipment we had, but we were able to make a call to the office for life jackets and a floating rope. As the water was deep and not so fast here, with fewer dangerous obstructions in the water, we figured we would be able to cross once we had the safety equipment.

Second river crossing.

While we were waiting for the life jackets, some porters came back and crossed exactly where we were. Coming towards us it was a wade, followed by three metres of swimming across the current to a tree, once at the tree they walked on submerged branches to our side, we had a route across!

Third river crossing

Having crossed into the La Ken valley proper, we only had one more river to cross before our camp in Hung Dung for the night, and with the equipment that we now had I was confident we could make it although we no longer had time to visit Gibbon Cave.

This is normally the swimming pool at the Hung Dung campsite

Once at camp, I immediately spilled a cup of coffee over myself, this was not going well. By the next morning the water level had dropped by over a metre, although it was still high I thought that there was a good chance that we could get through Bat Cave.

Bat Cave, way too wet for safety

How wrong I was, the water was still way too high so we had to retrace our steps, back to the Hung Dung camp for a swim before continuing on to the La Ken campsite.

A much improved Hung Dung Swimming pool, still wet though

With the water levels dropping, everyone was more relaxed and happier, knowing that we should at least be able to complete our itinerary for the next two days.

Monster card game?

The walk over to the Tu Lan valley was uneventful and we arrived in time for a swim before lunch. The water levels were high but manageable.

Butterflies in the sun

After lunch it was Tu Lan cave, no problem for us but the porters had fun getting the boats into Tu Lan. Crossing the bridge between the two camps is easy, but in high water there is not much room to get a boat beneath it!

Boat limbo dancing

At the entrance to Tu Lan we saw a baby bird that had obviously jumped out of its nest just a little bit too soon. Hopefully it will survive.

Bird is the word

After Tu Lan, we went to Hang Ken before dinner, there was some more rain overnight but this had no effect on the water levels. On the downside, I seemed to have developed my first case of foot rot, hopefully I can get rid of it before my next tour in three days time.

A nice night for an evening

By the final morning, my foot rot was no worse, which was a good sign, so we set off to swim through Hang Kim and Hang Hung Ton.

Hang Kim, before the swim

Thankfully the swimming was uneventful, leaving just Secret Cave to go. I saw the little chap below right beside the entrance, not the neatest spiral in the world, but not a bad effort.

Spider spiral

The picture below shows the river outside the Tan Hoa office before and after our tour. Next up for me is Hang Son Doong, passing Ruth on the hill. but before that there is the small matter of two weddings.

Same spot, before and after the tour

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