Vietnam: Phong Nha NP – Hang Va Cave
Hang Va Cave is a true adventure if you ever dreamed of on. After a night sleeping in tents deep in the jungle at the mouth of the cave, you descend into the cave nearly vertically down – there is no entrance per se, but just a sinkhole, so you with a harness and hooked to ropes you have to navigate some serious near technical down-climbing on slippery rocks. Sounds extreme? It gets only better from here. The cave is very narrow in places and full of water – you have to squeeze through narrow openings and hole, holding on to craggy wet limestone and waist-deep in water (in fact, you almost never step out of the water). Bats fly right above your head, and massive spiders crawl on the walls. And then there is the climb to the upper cave level – about 50 meter traverse along the slippery ledge about 10 meters above the cave floor – not for the faint-hearted – and once again you are using your harness and hook and unhook yourself to ropes as you move along hoping not to slip down. Awesome! The true treasure awaits at the end of the cave – next post.
