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Northern Lao - European |
The team returned in 2010 to Oudomxay province. This province in the heart of Northern Laos has a rich cultural life due to its unique location. The roads from China, Vietnam and Thailand meet here. The expedition was warmly welcomed by the staff of the provincial tourism office. The director arranged on the occasion of our return a gala dinner with participation of the governor of Oudomxay province. Four areas were known for caves and the expedition team was splitting in two subgroups to explore these caves: Chom Ong:
A jungle
camp was established in front of the northern entrance of the Chom Ong
cave to avoid long hikes from the village. The team with Michael,
Wolfgang, Thomas and David spent two nights here. The survey of the
river area was finished and upper fossil caves connected to the known
the system. The cave has now a length of 15.7 km with further potential.
It needs ropes to continue. Namor
District : The 2nd group explored the area north
of Chom Ong system. Two caves were surveyed that are 8 km and 16 km
north of the Chom Ong system. The impressive active river cave Na Thong
leads 5 km straight south into the mountain ridge without any side
passages. Tham Mokfek is a three level
system with interconnecting passages. A river is flowing through the
mountain. It drops about 15 m with nice waterfalls and cascades. The
system is a through cave with seven entrances and frequently visited by
local groups due to its idyllic location.
La
District: Two caves were documented in the area used by the provincial
tourism office for trekking. Tham Luang has a length of 400 m.
Houn / Pak
Beng district: The area has several caves in the mountains north to the
valley of the river Beng. Most of the them are small with a length of
less than100 m. Remarkable is the altitude of 1500 m for some of the
entrances. These are the highest lying caves known in Laos.
The 2010 expedition surveyed in total 20 caves with a length of 10800 m.
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