Final days in Phong Nha

So that's it! We've done our final Hang Son Doong tour and now we have a day left in which to clean up and pack.

Rainy Phong Nha

This last month has really flown by, we've done two Son Doong tours, plus a couple of exploration trips (which I've already blogged about). Below are a few pictures from the last month.

Nhia, resting at our lunch spot.

It's been a month of sunshine and showers, and our first tour of the month was no exception.

Here comes the rain again

Shortly after lunch the heavens opened and we took shelter for a short while at a convenient rock over hang.

Second river crossing in Son Doong, bridges now permanent

After the rain, it was an uneventful trip into Son Doong, although it was different as six of the customers were a film crew from Singapore who were doing a travel show 'Adventure Duo' (only on 5).

Doline One from the top of the Hand of Dog

It was my turn to climb the Hand of Dog to pose for pictures and as I arrived at the top I climbed through a layer of mist to clear views.

Plant life, enjoying the sun

One advantage of the filming was that we were a little slower than normal, meaning that we were at the top of the doline when the sunbeams arrived.

Doline One, more sunbeams

At this time of year the sunbeams last for a long time so we still made it down to the bottom in time for the 'show'.

The only way is down

This bat was crawling around at the bottom, I think it might have been ill, which is why it was not moving much.

Pardon, please speak louder

However, it did perk up for long enough to pose for this picture.

Sometimes we walk at a snails pace, this chap overtook us

Nothing else to note on this tour, except that the drone pilot had done a crash course in flying, except that he had not managed the landing part, and kept crashing.

Hmmmm

In between tours we tried out a new method for controlling foot rot. Sweeny had discovered that Potassium Permanganate solution was reckoned to be the most effective cure, so we gave it a go with some Pot parties for Watto, Sweeny and myself.

The ultimate butterfly picture

Our final tour continued in a similar style, Ruth has been taking pictures of butterflies all year, she finally managed to get probably the best ever.

Not quite pearly white

I went slightly off route between the two dolines, and found some perfectly round pearls, they were quite big too.

Village Chieftans

As we passed through the Bru Van Keo village we said our final goodbyes, until next year.

Monster Exploration

We've done a couple of trips recently to explore new caves.

Tan Hoa valley

Both trips were to the Oxalis Tan Hoa centre, the first was a day trip to explore a cave called Hang Monster.

Second valley on walk in

This had already been looked at by the Vietnamese, but they hadn't surveyed it so it wasn't known how much they had explored.

Jungle bashing

The walk to the cave took about an hour, along a valley, up a small hill into another valley, followed by another short hill to a col where we turned off the path for fifteen minutes of jungle bashing to get to the entrance.

Stop monkeying around

The cave itself was big, but predominately large breakdown (boulders) which made for tricky going at times.

Hang Dinh Mot exit, Hang Dinh Hai in the background

There were a couple of side passages which ended after a few hundred meters, one of these had a calcited monkey skull at the very end.

First rickety bridge

At the far end of the cave we could see daylight and emerged into sunlight. Ten metres to the right was another entrance so we surveyed this cave to an exit. Fortunately it was short as we were running out of time at this point and had to turn around, even though another cave was visible 100m away.

The new caves were named Hang Dinh Mot (1) and Hang Dinh Hai (2), Hang Dinh Hai had to be left for our next trip. In total, we surveyed about 1.2 Km of cave.

Rickety bridge number two

The next trip was planned as a two day affair, staying overnight at the Tan Hoa centre.

Busy surveying, do not disturb

On arrival at Tan Hoa for our two day trip, we were pleased to see we had the same guide, Dinh, who is probably the best jungle man in Tan Hoa, no English spoken but a good chance for me to practice my limited Vietnamese.

He knew a direct route to Hang Dinh Mot so we were able to get there without going through Monster which saved us an hour. In Dinh Mot we found another passage which led to another exit n then we moved on to our main event, Hang Dinh Hai.

Formations in Hang Dinh Hai

The cave was large with breakdown and some very well decorated sections, we surveyed to an end at an incredibly beautiful grotto which felt like it was close to the surface. Lunch was served here before we carried on with our exploration.

Aid climbing, push harder!

We continued until we were nearly out of time (we had to get back before dark) but fortunately we came to an exit where daylight was seen. Unfortunately it was a boulder choke and we couldn't get out.

How does it get so muddy?

A hasty retreat got us back to the road end as it began to turn dark, walking through the village and past buffaloes was pleasant, even if it did seem to drag on forever.

Ah, that's how!

Ruth managed to blag a lift back to Tan Hoa on the back of a motorbike, running over a dog on the way. Back at Tan Hoa we were served a six course meal, which we washed down with plenty of beers from the fridge, hard jungle camping indeed. Adding up the stats later showed we had surveyed another 1.1 Km of new cave.

Roughing it in the jungle

The next day Dinh had another cave for us to explore, in a different area of Tan Hoa. We started the day with a bike ride over the fields (see video above), then through Rat cave, along the La Ken Valley and up and over into Hung Dung.

Valley walking, very pleasant

In Hung Dung we were shown a cave which was large but was very loose, and although we could hear a river we could not get to it. When we had finished, the porters had found another entrance 200m away. This was more stable, but again, no way on could be found, even though it was vary complex with at least four entrances. In total, another 500m or more surveyed.

Rickety bridge number three, will it take my weight?

By now it was time to go, even though the porters had found another two caves, one of which was a large and promising entrance with a big stream issuing from it. Oh well, next time!

Odds and Sods from July

The river's up, how do I get off the island? Oh, hang on, I'm a water buffalo!

Here's a few pictures that haven't made it into other blog posts this Month.

Ruth, wondering if our next Son Doong trip will be another washout

One day, we went to Khanh's for breakfast and were asked to help put up a traditional Vietnamese house for Bo'm (one of the porter cooks who is planning on opening a restaurant).

Many hands make light work

Minh and Bo'm, different Health and Safety rules apply here 

Balancing act with mallet

Job done, just needs a roof

With about twenty of us, the house was erected by the end of the morning. A good team building exercise, followed by male bonding lunch at Minh's.

On a Hang Va/Nuoc Nut trip, I saw the fellow below, trapped in a small pool. Hope he makes it through to the next flood.

Nuoc Nut

Life's a beach

Life's a beach?

We just went on a short road trip to Dong Hoi.

John, motorbike taxi driver and one of our drinking partners

We traveled by motorbike via some back roads and stayed overnight.

Denise, our other motorbike taxi driver and drinking partner

After getting to Dong Hoi, we couldn't find our accommodation so we stopped at beach-side bar to get directions.

Gone fishing

Eventually we found our accommodation, the Beach Side Backpackers, where we had a beer while we settled in.

Boat on beach

After another beer, we went out for a meal, when we got back the moon rise over the ocean was spectacular.

Moonrise

A late night for some but Ruth and I sneaked off early(ish) then got up for an early morning beach walk.

Early morning stroll

The weather was great and we had the beach to ourselves.

Beach Side Backpackers

Well, except for a fisherman or two.

Crab fisherman

Mighty Minh saves the day

Phong Nha river in flood

Having been fried alive for most of April, May and June and baked slowly but very surely in our house the weather took an about turn towards the end of June. Although it was, and still is, warm and humid (t.shirts and shorts temperature) it started to rain . This caused Dave and l to have a very interesting trip into Son Doong. Whenever flooding has been mentioned it has always been with regard to being trapped in Son Doong for a while, never being "trapped" out of the cave. In other words we were unable to get across the river in Son Doong, which is not very far into the cave at all.

On the way into the minority village. Muddy and wet!

On arrival at Hang En it was obvious that the river has risen a reasonable amount, but nothing to get too worried about and on leaving Hang En the following day we saw lots of waterfalls coming into the cave near the exit which are not normally flowing. We decided to walk to Son Doong by the jungle (high level) path due to the increased level of water in the river.

The first river crossing in Son Doong

At the entrance to Son Doong, Minh, our porter leader, informed us that the river in Son Doong was up to his armpits in depth and not safe to cross. Given that it is normally knee to mid thigh deep this was a significant increase. Dave and Minh went in to check and this was still the case. Much debate followed as we ate lunch in the shelter of the cliff just before the entrance to the cave. We considered camping at the entrance as no one really wanted to retreat, but this would have been a poor decision given that there is no room under the sheltered part, our tents are not waterproof and it showed no signs of stopping raining. A final check of the river by Dave and Binh, our guide, confirmed the water level was rising.

Working on the first bridge. We crossed further down river where it was narrower.

Back to Hang En, where there was a Hang En tour of sixteen people plus porters arriving. Good job it is a very large cave. The next morning we set off for Son Doong at six thirty. This time we decided that we should all go down to the river crossing regardless of whether we could cross it or not. At least that way our guests could see the problem and do a little bit of Son Doong.

The bridge is in, can we cross now?

Before we arrived at the river we could hear the roar of water, much louder than usual. There was evidence that the water level had been even higher since Dave and Binh had last checked it but was now back at the level it had been when Dave and Minh had been in to check. We estimated this to be at least three metres higher than normal.

Porters patiently sitting out the flood

Twenty four Vietnamese porters, one Vietnamese guide and two cave "experts" led to an interesting, lively and lengthy debate on what to do next. Basically Binh was piggy in the middle while he translated both sides of the debate. Summed up as : Minh "l'm going to go across the river by going into the water"; Cavers, "No one is going in the water"

Here we go

At one point Minh appeared to berate some of the porters and they immediately took off out of the cave. Half an hour or so later they arrived back carrying two logs of about six inches in diameter and of exactly the required length to span the river.

The first customers start to cross

A bridge was then constructed over the river by holding one end of the log and lowering the log into position with the rope tied to the other end. Once the log was balanced across the river the rope was tied off high at our side of the river using a natural belay.

It's a bit of a tricky traverse at first

One of the porters walked across the log, crouching lower and lower as he reached the other side as the rope at the far side was still tied to the log. Once across he tied the far side rope higher up and there it was - a bridge that guests could use while remaining safe.

Tired?

However, before we could complete the first crossing, we had to find a way of crossing the river a second time. Initial attempts to lasso a rope onto a spike of rock on the opposite bank failed to work so one of the logs from the first river crossing was borrowed and placed in the same way as before, with a porter able to cross and place a rope.

River crossing on our return

Back to the guests who had been waiting very patiently whilst all this drama unfolded over a period of five hours. They were successfully helped over both river crossings to great cheers and applause. We then had to pack two days of caving into one in order to get us back on track with tour times, finishing at nine pm. On the return journey we were able to cross the river actually in the water, though the levels were still greater than normal and very sporting!

River crossing on our return

All pictures by Ben Wong (except Phong Nha river in flood.