Vietnam 4: Hang En Cave

Camping in Hang En Cave: third largest in the world

New tactic: shorter posts  - as the last few have ended up way too long!

Tues 23 Jan
Our bus journey from Hue to Phong Na ran without hitch, and we walked from the bus drop-off along this seemingly one-horse town about a km out to “Applebee Homestay”. I haven’t quite fathomed out this homestay concept; it’s basically a house with guest bedrooms (ensuing shower) like a B&B, but then a full cafe in the entrance area. There are family or ‘non-tourists’ in residence, but never know quite who they are as don’t meet them. Anyway - cheap and clean and friendly, and in this case with a  stunning position overlooking the river.    

River in Phong Na

We had an “admin afternoon” at a new smart hotel up the road, sorting out Myanmar hiking plans for next month, and then wandered back into town for a mediocre supper.

Weds 24 Jan
Tour company Oxalis collected us efficiently at 08.30 and we had a thorough briefing with the rest of the group at their offices. Once luggage sorted (porters carry your overnight kit) - we drove an hour via the Ho Chi Minh road (i.e. what was once the “Ho Chi Minh trail”)  into the Phong Na National Park.

Proper jungle, with main road along what was the Ho Chi Minh Trail

Off the bus, and we commenced our journey into the jungle to Hang En, the third largest cave in the world, which was to be our home for one night! Our group consisted of 14 “tourists” (US, Norwegian, Belgian & Brits), three guides (two of whom spoke very good English), three porters, and then a field team of cooks etc already at the camp.

The walk in took four hours, through stunning scenery and may river crossings. The recommended attire was long trousers and shirts, trainers to let the water run out (not gortex hiking boots) and long socks to tuck trousers into as an anti-leech fashion statement.

We reached the village of Ban Doong where we had a tasty lunch underneath one of the stilt houses. Population 41, with a small school (teacher on a weekly rotation from Phong Na) and electricity reached here last year thanks to a Korean funded solar power project - so music was thumping out of one of the huts, and they have satellite TV now!

Ban Doong village

A couple of hours later we saw the entrance to Hang En, as we made our way across more rivers (luckily only thigh deep at the most) and through bamboo thickets.

First view of Hang En cave  

 

Time to done Petzl caving helmets and head torches, and we made our way into Hang En - but not via the big entrance as this is too dangerous with large rockfalls and slippery surfaces. We took a ‘small’ route in, and came upon the colossal. main cave and ‘beach’ from above, where our camp was set up

Entering Hang En 

First view of Hang En camp (the green and red blur is the inflatable raft crossing the water) 

Down to the river, across on a raft (the bamboo bridge was swept away by 30m high floods in 2010!) and selected our tent, then enjoyed coffee at the dining table!  Quick swim / wash and then we were served a very impressive supper from the camp kitchen as dusk arrived and the cave dropped into darkness.

Kitchen and porters tents.                 Dining table.                    Guest tents

  

After supper, the guides introduced some fun games around the table, and we showed everyone how to play “bouchon” (simple passing of cards and grabbing stones in lieu of corks) - which was a big hit!  Bed at 9pm and a surprisingly good night’s sleep in our 2-man tent.


Thurs 24
Up at 7am for pancakes and French toast and coffee  - then caving kit on and a full tour of the incredible Hang En cave, but not before we were lucky enough to experience a giant sunbeam pierce into the cave as the morning clouds parted.

One of the guides caught in the sunbeam

We were camped in the main section with beach - but hadn’t realised that by scrambling up the steep rock strewn slope at the back of our cave gave us access to an even bigger area, with stalagmites & stalactites and amazing pool formations - but very difficult to capture on camera.

We then made our way out to the second massive opening; the scale of the cave is impossible to capture with photos. I will edit an upload some video sequences when back in Hanoi next week.

Group with head torches at bottom of pic give some idea of scale as we head towards second entrance to Hang En

Hang En 2nd entrance: look very carefully bottom left
 and you can see Jess & guide sitting on a rock 

Then we retraced out steps into the cave, and took a new route along a river with only about 3m of headroom that lead into the back of the camp.

Currently considered to be the third largest cave in the world, Hang En stretches for over 2km into the karts of Phong Nha-Ke National Park. There are three entrances to Hang En, with the largest one over 120m tall and 140m across. The internal chambers in some places are 100m high and 180m wide.

The kitchen team rustled up a delicious lunch (unbelievably good food in a cave 3 hours from a road by foot!) and then we hiked back out for four hours - taking a tougher route up a steep hill for the last hour, and collecting quite a few leeches between us!

Back to Phong Na, showered and supper at Oxalis - then 9pm sleeper bus to Hanoi, which we finally boarded at 10pm - and some swift action by Jess to bag adjacent upper ‘seats’ towards the front.

PS Happy birthday Dad !! 29 January :)