Day 4: Conquer the Great Wall of Vietnam
You will leave the camp and start your adventure towards the "Great Wall of Vietnam" after recharging with an excellent breakfast. You will get to the clear river on the last day of the Son Doong trip after a 45-minute walk through the sand dunes at the cave's end, where the guides donned safety gear. Along the way to the wall, many huge formations can be seen as well as excellent examples of cave pearls – the pearls which can be found in a pool of water with water dripping from the ceiling into the pool. Calcite can coat even little grains of sand. Water trickling into the pool keeps the microscopic grains of sand moving, allowing the calcite to develop uniformly around the sand and produce round pearls.
Each of you will have a seat harness connected with a chest harness; cow tails, which ensure that we are perfectly safe during climbing up. Before getting onto the boat, our safety expert double-checked everyone's gears and posted two safety instructions from the group ahead of us on the wall. Only one explorer will be allowed to climb the wall at a time for safety reasons, with one safety expert, one guide and five more safety assistants assisting you until you reach the pinnacle of the Great Wall of Vietnam.
Depending on the time of year, you might see the clear water lake or walk through the muddy tunnel that leads to the end of the passage. The high chance to see the lake is between January to March of every year as the water in the other caves around is still high. If there is a lake, you will have the opportunity to travel by inflatable boat and wear a life jacket. Taking videos here would be a great idea but make sure your devices must be waterproof.
The wall is approximately 90m high with a 90-degree slope. It may take up to an hour to reach the summit, where a big lunch awaits there. After that, you'll exit the cave, passing some more cave formations and a calcites-covered mountain goat skeleton before continuing on to the lovely jungle.
Some sections are quite rocky, so proceed with caution. Descending to the valley's bottom and trekking to the Ho Chi Minh trail, where the bus and cold drinks await you. Say your goodbyes to the porter team and head up to Chay Lap Farmstay, where you will enjoy a warm gala dinner with the rest of the team. The TV will replay your journey from the first to the last day, as made by the safety and guide team. I'm sure it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
To end up this post I would like to leave here some interesting facts about Son Doong:
A local farmer found Hang Son Doong in 1991 due to rain. He did not enter the cave, but returned in 2008 and found a path to it again, fortunately. When the British caving team returned in 2009, he took them to Son Doong, where they explored, mapped, and photographed the cave. The cave was fully explored in 2010, The famous filming crew had been made here like the BBC, National Geographic, Good Morning America (ABC News).
The cave has been dated as between 3,000,000-5,000,000 years old. It is believed that the limestone rock is between 300 -400 million years old, and is the oldest rock in Asia.
Hang Son Doong is part of the 80-kilometer-long Phong Nha Cave system. Son Doong, at nearly 9k in length, is a small part. On the way to Son Doong, you will pass the water from Hang Khe Ry, Vietnam's longest cave at 18km and the world's longest river passage.
Because Hang Son Doong is the world's largest cave in terms of size and volume, any cave in the world can easily fit inside Hang Son Doong. The large opening allows rain, the sun to come in, and the jungle grows up. Also, some plants exist as small trees on the surface, but vines in this section are called phenotypic plasticity and show how the trees and plants adapt to life in a cave with limited light.
If it connects to another cave passage called Thung cave, Son Doong could be even larger.
Thank you so much to everyone who helped and supported us during our first week as newcomers in this community. This is just one of many trips I'd like to share with you.