Jungle trek Vietnam

12 February 2016

Short vid (with some music) at the bottom of this post of some of the jungle and cave exploring we did today. There were 13 in our group, plus 2 guides and some porters we didn't see much. It was an 8 mile hump--probably 7-800 ft elevation change ;down going out, and up coming back). It wasn't easy! Humid, hot, vines, bugs, poison ivy, monkeys, jagged rocks, slippery roots and mud. But it was a blast. Quote of the day from a guy in the Belgium group: "Ok I'll be the first to say it--that third bottle of wine last night was a bad idea."

First stop was the back end of Dark Cave. We donned our helmets and lights and entered. We went 1 Km (about half mile) into it before the water stopped us.

Lots of scrambling over and across rocks. I'm sure glad I took that Bouldering class at Red Rock Climbing Gym! The helmets were useful here--saved a lot of bumps to my cranium. We never had to wade past waist-deep water but it was difficult because you couldn't tell what your feet were going to land on. A few stopped about half way cuz they weren't having much fun. But someone got them to finish. Then we all turned our lights out. Yep it was dark.

After Dark Cave we pressed to Hang E Cave where the porters had lunch waiting for us. Roast pork and rice and some other stuff, all laid out on tarps. It was ok but not great. I wasn't very hungry. After lunch we changed and put on life vests and head lights and got in the COLD water and swam 500 meters into the cave. Really pretty cool and surreal. I didn't get any pics of that because I didn't want to get my phone wet or lost.

After that we started the 2 hr hike back up the karst and to the road. All up very steep jungle. My legs were burning. By the end we all knew each other pretty well. The couple from Denmark from yesterday was there. One from Dubai, one from Canada, two from the USA, and more Europeans also.

An 11 hour day, followed by a shower and cleaning my shoes and clothes in the shower too. I got them all dried out by bedtime using towels and hanging them near the room's air conditioner. Good as new.

All in all one of the highlights of this trip, and exactly what I was hoping for. Although I did want to see a jungle cat. There were animals around but they stay away from people and we were loud. The birds were loud too. Besides, most places you couldn't see very far anyway because of several layers and canopies of jungle. Really awesome.

I'll post pictures tomorrow. I'm beat. Driving back to Dong Hoi at 0730 tomorrow for a 1030 flight to Hanoi on Vietnam Airlines. Cost: $58. I hate to check out if this awesome room by the lake but oh well.

Click to view video

http://youtu.be/PoYY_oRUKyM


AJ