Tony Jarratt’s Caving Log Volume 5, 1992-1994 Page 1 VIETNAM Hang Vom 7h 40m Chay River See below Quáng Bính 1/4/92 Major Paul, Carl, Rupert, discovery Simon, Noddy Dany, Pete and Nh ượng went back down to Phong Nha to get the correct stove fuel. The rest of us swam into Hang Vom, with two sets of survey kit as far as the impressive and unscaleable c.10m daylight shaft. From here Rupert, Nod and Simon continued upstream to explore and survey at least another kilometre of huge and sporting river cave with lots of swimming sections and climbs over boulders. Carl, Paul and I doffed our wetsuits and wearing shorts and T-shirts followed the huge, previously explored dry passage entering on the LH side at the daylight shaft. We passed through massive galleries and chambers with spectacular gours, flowstone and bosses to reach an incredibly wide chamber (c.100m diameter) with an enormous stalagmite boss in the centre – one of the world’s largest. This area was named Confucian Chamber and it took 400m of surveying to close a loop around it! The floor was composed of ancient gours and dunes of sand and a dry streamway showed that there would be a good flow of water here in wet weather. A hairy climb in one corner led to some 20 metres of well-decorated passage, closing down. In another place a 30-40 m wide gallery with a flat sandy floor bored off for 120m to a static pool. Here I stopped, not having my lifejacket but Carl amd Paul swam through (15m) to find the passage continuing bigger than before. They surveyed another 640m – still going – huge, well-decorated and draughting. Meanwhile I had a kip in Confucian Chamber and climbed the mega boss. This is one of the most spectacular chambers and indeed caves I have ever seen. The dry sections are like a desert at night! Some of the formations in this series are amongst the largest known at present. Paul and Carl then returned and we met up with the others back at the daylight shaft before the long, tiring and gnat- infested swim back to the entrance. Here we were met by Kháng who guided us through the jungle back to the bivouac. In our absence he and Tiem had levelled off the site, spread it with large leaves and got the tea water on – bloody good blokes. Yet another great day’s caving. Chicken supreme and rice for supper followed by a lousy night’s sleep to wake feeling like shit! Page 2 VIETNAM Hang Vom 7h 50m Chay River See below Quáng Bính 2/4/92 Major Paul, (Ned, Simon, discovery Rupert) Following the now standard swim in to the daylight shaft, Paul and I carried on to the dry series leaving Nod, Simon and Rupert to push on upstream (for about another kilometre) We passed the static pool to continue pushing and surveying from the last survey station. A side passage near here was briefly looked at and followed down a clean washed pebble slope to a deep pool where we left it for another day – (later pushed by Howard and Co for some 700m). Then followed one of the best trips of our lives as we ambled along a huge, dry, sand floored tunnel with some spectacular old formations:- shields, huge pine cone stalagmites, bosses etc. This passage was some 20m wide on average and deathly quiet. The steady draught and presence of bats led us to believe that we were heading for another entrance and surely enough, after 1.7km of gobsmacking caving we turned a corner to see daylight streaming in from a hole in the LH wall. We cautiously climbed up the snail shell covered boulder slope, keeping a wary eye out for snakes, to emerge at the base of a huge cliff in the middle of the jungle. Thinking that we were fairly close to the bivouac site we shouted and screamed – to no avail, it later being apparent from the survey notes that we were probably in the next “valley” and a large limestone hill lay between us and the camp. As it would have been virtually impossible to find our way back through the forest we returned through the awesome dry series, Brobdingnag, to meet the others at the daylight shaft before once again having to put up with the long swim out. Back to the “Betty Ford Clinic” to meet Pete, Howard and Bob with the bad news that Mick had been taken to Dông Hói hospital with suspected Typhoid. Pages 3 and 4 VIETNAM Hang Vom 32h Chay River See below Quáng Bính 3-4/4/92 40m Major Rupert, Pete, Paul discovery (Howard, Bob) (Dany, Deb) Entered the cave at 10.05 on Friday morning. The day was spent in assisting Howard and Paul to photograph the cave from the entrance to the Big Buddha formation in the dry series. Hopefully a lot of excellent photos will be the result of this project. While modelling for a snap near the daylight shaft I noticed a potential passage hidden in the shadow on the RH side (looking upstream) wall. This was later pushed by Howard and Bob for some 600m to where it oxbowed back into the main river passage futher upstream. After the photo session Bob and Howard left the cave while the rest of us set up camp in the sandy passage below Big Buddha. This is a superb site – a huge flat floored, sandy chamber with only the occasional drip of water to disturb the almost overpowering silence. We cooked up a curry and pasta followed by apple flakes, “lead weight” cake and custard. This was followed by coffee, fags and an hour’s book reading before settling down in my bivvi bag (on my wetsuit) for a warm and dream-filled sleep. My Alpinex suit and sleeping bag liner were perfect for this. Rupert got up for a piss at one stage to find a 4” long poisonous centipede inside his inner sleeping bag! Luckily it was squashed flat. We also saw amblypysi on this trip. Up at 8am for soup and noodle breakfast followed by “snack attacks”. Wet suits and life jackets were donned and we set off upstream for another push. After 2 kms of fairly hard going and boulder piles and across lakes we reached the last survey point. From here we explored and surveyed a further 865m including “Pooh Bear’s Swims” – one of the longest lakes in the system. We eventually halted at another big lake. In a huge chamber just before this I climbed some 80m up boulder slopes and gours to where the roof and flowstone met and a large jumping spider dissuaded me from hanging about. Meanwhile the others pushed and surveyed some 500m of dry inlet passage on the other side of the river which later became an advance bivouac site for pushing the far reaches of the cave. On the way back over the boulder piles in the collapse doline Rupert unknowingly stood on an, almost certainly poisonous, snake which fortunately buggered off in disgust. Rupert and Vietnamese animal life do not live in harmony! (Hang Vom is 9 th longest cave in Asia – 17/12/92) Met by Minh and Tiem at the entrance for the trek back to the bivouac site in the dark. Tiem was so pissed that at one point we had to guide him, and also avoid his waving revolver! An amazing trip. Page 5 VIETNAM Hang Phong Nha 10m Phong Nha Quick boat ride into entrance (in Khwang’s Quáng Bính 5/4/92 motor boat!) on way back from the Chay River to Paul, Rup, Pete, show Minh the cave. Khwang, Minh, The rest of the day was spent festering, beer Nh ượng, a tourist drinking, palying football with the locals (who cheated and won!) etc. Kho Phu (soup) in one of the pubs, a huge meal in our residence then off to Khwang’s place for fish soup and lots more beer. Folk songs by Khwang and 58 yr old Huan and modern stuff from Minh helped the night along. We ignored the “curfew”, gotwell pissed and subsequently got Xiang Xiaou (Chinese beer) hangovers. VIETNAM 6/4/92 Paul, Rupert, Pete and I travelled to Dông Hói on the bus to relieve Carl, Nod and Simon at Quáng Bính the hospital where Mick was beginning to recover. It is a large but badly dilapidated place with few facilities and little hygiene. Sad to see, this place desperately needs foreign aid. VIETNAM 7/4/92 Dông Hói. It was arranged with the British Embassy for Mick to travel home. The Chief Quáng Bính Consultant joined us in the ward for beer and fags! Back to Phong Nha that evening. VIETNAM 8/4/92 Returned to Dông Hói to say farewell to Mick and pick up two Russian jeeps and drivers and a Quáng Bính 4WD minibus. We then spent most of the rest of the day travelling in these to the villages of Quy Hóa in the district of Minh Hóa over some very rough roads and a couple of hand-hauled ferry crossings. Much of the scenery consisted of forest covered limestone towers and was superb. In the village – a bit like a wild west town – we were accommodated in the People’s Committee Meeting Room / Guest House. Real luxury – beds, mosquito mets and a generator! Page 6 VIETNAM 9/4/92 Paul, Nod, Rupert, Pete, Simon, My, 2 others and 1 to Tân Hóa area.