AREA 16: Quynh Nhai

QN1 Nam Co

The entrance of this cave, on the other side of the river in Quynh Nhai is the resurgence of the Nam Co river (the location of the river on the topographical map is not correct). A small boulder slope leads to the entrance porch, which resembles the one of Tham Ta Toong in Son La. After a 70m into the deep water, one swims between large formations which touch the water. The swim continues for 50m, till one can leave the water where it comes out between boulders. Here a large and high boulder choke has to be climbed to reach the highest blocks in the Chaos Chamber, which are all covered with guano. This chamber is inhabited by thousands of bats. From here, one has to climb down to get back to the water. One swims past stalagmites (some of them broken down by earthquakes) on the left before reaching a chamber with boulders, where the river makes a turn. Another boring part (a boat would have been handy) leads to some coarse grained sand where one can take a rest after the long swim. From here, the water is more shallow (one can walk his way through the water) and soon the water is left. It seems that this dry part completely fills up the passage, so one can wonder why there remains a flow on the water. Behind the dry part, the way on looks more complex, but whatever way is taken, one stays in the gallery. In this part there are again plenty of bats, and their smell makes it sometimes hard to breathe. The gallery gets smaller towards the end of the cave where the passage is completely blocked by flowstone. However a duck of 1m should lead to a continuation, as a dry part was felt on the other side of the choke.