A River Runs Through It

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Just had the BEST adventure.  Joined two other guests, Jessica from Canada and David from Australia, and two Thai guides and kayaked down the river here to and through a huge cave.

Last night it rained so hard!  I don't think I've ever heard rain like that before.  It woke me up about 1:45am and I realized I'd been drying my towel and swimsuit out on the porch railing!  Despite the overhang they were soaked, of course.

It was hammering so loud on the metal roof of my bungalow I finally had to put in ear plugs.  I'd gone to sleep with the most exotic sounds--geckos, tree frogs, someone singing across the ravine at a Temple, and some frog that sounds like a duck!  Plus various assorted insects, I imagine.  It was lovely.

So anyway, all that rain swelled the river and it was moving fast!  Our kayaks were two person rubber jobbies, and I went with one of the guides, which was great.  One of the guest's lent me her 'wet bag' so I was able to bring my camera and video camera.  I was so grateful to have it, because at times we got absolutely soaked.

I didn't realize there would be such rapids.  Someone said they were class 2 and 3, whatever that means.  To me it meant getting very wet at times.  Other times the river would be relatively placid and I'd whip out my cameras.  Twice we went over dams!  They had a really steep slope and we'd go right over.  Of course I was in the front.  The first was maybe 12 feet, the second one 20!  Sploosh.

There was almost no signs of humanity for most of the river.  This really is a remote area I reckon.  The river and surrounds were just beautiful, but of course the main course was the cave.

As we approached the cave I saw swarms of swallows.  I mean swarms!  Thousands.  They were in the sky and going around and around in the cave.  Our guides beached us there so I was able to indulge in my photography.  Then we set off on a walk, with helmets and headlamps.  Our guide had a more powerful electric lantern.  We saw amazing cave stuff.  Huge stalagmites, stalactites and columns where they met centuries ago.

There was a lot of scrambling up slippery slopes and ducking under low overhangs.  We were all glad for our helmets.  There were hordes of bats deep in the cave, god knows how many.  Then we climbed back in our boats and went off through the darkness of the  inner cave.

I should mention that this was a really big cave.  The opening is big enough for a five story building to fit in there.  When we came out the other side, once again there were thousands of swallows in the air and the air had a very peculiar smell...bird and bat shit, I imagine.  I saw a woman filling a 50# rice sack with something.  Not hard to guess what.

Next we beached and took a hike through the forest to another cave that we had to scramble down into.  It was pretty tight.  There we saw bats up close and a myriad of wonders, including musical stalactites--they made different tones when we tapped them.  Crystals on the ceiling that looked so much like fine plant life.
 

There was one cave that had amazing acoustics and we OM'd a bit.  This is where our guide turned off our headlamps and we hung out in the dark for a bit.  Total, absolute darkness.  Not one of my phobias, but it would have been kinda hard getting out of there without light!  There was a string to follow, but...

After all the caving we had plenty more rafting ahead, including the most intense of the rapids and the two dams.  It was exhilarating, beautiful, and almost overwhelming.  We were met by a songtheaw like vehicle for the ride back to the lodge.  The three of us were all smiles.