The Trek Part 4: Bear Cave

The forest gave way to a sheer dark grey cliff untill we were surrounded by rock on 3 sides. The light was different here, not dimmer than the rest of the forest, but more restless, as if it was being sucked into the mouth of the cave that stood to my left. We all had bought small handheld flashlights at the market, but these were to serve as more of a backup to our highpowered headlamps that we all wore, looking like some kind of space tribe from the future. I have not yet discussed our professional cave guide, and I must say he was not quite what I had expected. He was a little shorter than the average Thai, although I think that might be in part do to the shrinking that is typical of people in their later years. His face was creased with smile lines, and the veins under his skin were clearly visible. On his feet he did not wear hiking boots or any other protective footwear that one would think an avid and professional outdoorsman would favor, but rather flip-flops. And this man, rather unassuming and humble looking, humbled us all with his ability to climb over rock formation and scamper through the harder parts of the cave with ease. He spoke no English, so after we finished our caving adventure we requested Ar to ask him his age for us. He replied that he was in his 60s. Brete had Ar ask him the secret of his staying youthful and he replied that it was his consumption of healthy herbs throughout his life. But again it seems I have gotten ahead of myself, as that conversation happened after we exited the cave.

The cave started as a small room, open to the forest, and quickly shrunk and headed downwards. The first part of our decent was down an old wooden ladder. I could feel it bend under my weight, and I was not the largest of the group. Below the ladder was hard rock. We each went down the ladder separately, and luckily it held. The first part of the caving was much of the same. We would walk for a short time and then have to squeeze down small shafts, most without ladders. Loving the thrill of rock-climbing, this was a most fun experience for me. After the first ladder we left all traces of natural light far behind us and the world was only lit in areas that we would look at with our headlamps. The cave went up and down and we scampered, at times graceful, but more often than not, gracelessly over rocks.

We came across a species of spider, about the size of the palm of a hand that dwelt in the cave. Like most creatures it was more scared of us than we of it. The tight areas we were climbing through soon opened up and we wandered through vast caverns with stalactites hanging down from the subterranean cathedral ceiling. The rocks were mostly gray, but at times a sparkling white mineral would run through and across it. We had no clue how far under the mountain we were, but after joking about getting lost in the cave we were all glad that volunteer Tourist Police officer Dan Kelly had our itinerary.

In one large chamber we all turned off our lights to see how dark darkness really is. Dark really is dark. It was so dark I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. In fact I couldn’t be completely sure if my eyes were open or closed.

Most of the cave formations were formed by Stalactites rather than stalagmites. (The former being the hanging down kind, the later being the growing up sort). Man of them hung nearly to the ground. Ashton had the misfortune of walking straight into one with his face. How he missed it, I’m not sure as his headlamp illuminated the collision quite nicely. Fortuitously he was uninjured.
Another Stalactite hung down rather phallicly. Our guides had a good chuckle when they came across it. We all rubbed its head in order to gain virility.

There was only one stalagmite of note, which the guides seemed to hold in reverence. Ar translated that our cave guide said ‘most of the rocks hang down from the ceiling but only this one grows up like a flower. It is very special”

This cave, of course had what all good caves should, and that is a healthy supply of bats. Luckily we didn’t have too much problems with guano smell or gasses, as the cave is open too the air on both ends, and not a dead end cave where the gasses could be noxious.

After walking through the cave for what I think was over an hour, we could see light up ahead. As we approached it, we could see a wall of green filtered light, coming through the trees. This mouth of the cave opened up to about 20 feet tall by 10 feet wide. A gaping hole in the side of the earth. Turning around I watched the last of our group emerge from the orifice, leaving only blackness behind.
Our caving guide squatted down and pulled out tobacco and banana leaf to roll a cigarette. I pulled out an orange to eat, and we all just took some time to relax and marvel at the underground world we had just experienced.