BG1 Suoi Thau 2

Dev. 333m, Den. +10m

This cave is formed by a small river traversing an isolated karst cone near the border between sandstone and limestone at Ban Suoi Thau. The part we explored starts at the resurgence and follows the water upstream to a small lake. The rest of the cave until the sinkhole remained unexplored but will be visited during the next expedition.

From the entrance actually situated some 30m above the resurgence one climbs down into a large fossil passage and a nice first chamber (6 to 12m wide, 2 to 4m high). From there one way on is leading over boulders through two chaotic chambers, the other way on is at the level of the water where one squeezes constantly through boulders. Between the two chambers one can descend also for a few meters in the underground river but to really get into that river we have to take a small passage at the far left end of the well decorated third chamber. Crawling between boulders and through some squeezes one reaches the small underground river which is flowing through a narrow and very sharp rift inclined at 30 degrees. The river can be followed scrambling and crabwalking through this rift for some 200m including swimming in a deep canal and ending on a small but beautiful lake. Throughout the active river passage a strong draught is present. We stopped at the lake because time was running out but the cave is certainly going on…..