The BEST Cave I have Visited. I can't mine ETH so I went to a cave!

After a long trek in Loei province, we were faced with a long 5 hour drive back to Bangkok. The roads passed through some very picturesque landscape and we pulled over at least 10 times to photograph the view.

Most of the road signs directed us back to the main highway- apart from one, that really caught my interest. I assume that old broken, poorly placed signs don't really catch many peoples attention, but with the word 'cave' on I thought it might be worth a look. 12km down a country lane I had to engage 4WD as the track became very steep and uneven. With this in mind and the unappealing signage I was hopeful that this cave would be a forgotten treasure (inaccessible to many and poorly advertised)!

We arrived at the car park- a simple clearing in the middle of the forest, nothing more nothing less. A 'walking' sign pointing in the direction of the cave and stated it was 400m away.

The footpath wasn't clearly marked but we could guess the direction between cuts of bamboo.

We came to what seemed to be a 'new' sign and a small entrance under a pile of inconspicuous rocks. We thought it must be it, and crawled in.

A very steep wooden staircase took us down to the cave floor. As I turned on my make-shift flashlight I was left breathless. The photos here really do not do the cave justice and of course can not convey the actual experience of how small I felt in such a massive cave system. The best thing was, there wasn't a single sole around. It made it feel incredibly natural.

The photos were taken on a GoPro Hero4 30 second exposure. To light up the cave, during the 30 seconds I slowly shone my light around the cave walls. I shone the light for longer in the deeper darker spots trying to get a balanced exposure.

Many caves in South East Asia and particularly Thailand are considered somewhat sacred or hold ties to Buddhist beliefs. Even today in remote places such as this, monks and sometimes hermits can be found living in caves (pictures lower down in the post). Spirits are also believed to live inside many caves. In the photo below a shrine and Buddhist painting have been marked/decorated on these old stalactites and stalagmites.

With a steady foot, I was able to explore most of the cave. I discovered that there were several chambers, each as magnificent as the other. The cave seemed to get lower at each chamber and it was a hard climb back up.

I hadn't really prepared for a cave visit and didn't have a proper flashlight or head torch. The 3 nights before had been spent camping and I had made a campsite light out of a spare 30 watt off-road LED spot light. It was super bright even if it was a little chunky. I tested at home before the trip and hooked the LED light bar up to a tiny 9V battery to see if it would run. I expected the battery to only last a few minutes- maybe 10 at max. Surprising it lasted a full 7 hours before it began to noticeably dim. It is something everyone one can do.

After leaving the cave I noticed some other trails. I followed them and found that they led to other caves. I am not sure if they all met up inside as I stayed in the main chambers and didn't attempt crawling through the nooks and crannies (I'm not very good at caving or mining- I will leave that the to the ETH guys!).

These other caves were smaller but held their own surprises. Ladders had to be climbed to get in. A shrine or meditation 'spot' had been laid out. Some of the items such as food/drink offerings and incense sticks seemed fairly recent but no one was around (unless they heard/saw me coming and hid.

I explored this cave but decided to make a quick exit after feeling 'too scared' haha. To make it worse, I was with my dog who loves scrambling over rocks and sniffing out things in the forests. Rarely is she scared (apart from fireworks) but as we walked down one narrowing tunnel her heckles went up and she showed signs of fear. She gave a cautious growl and decided to bolt for the exit- back along the dark tunnel and leaving me alone! I began to $#@* my pants but was curious what it might be.

Someone was living in the cave. A small mat and wooden bed structure had been made. A bag of- I assume possessions was also there. I took one photo and turned around and left as fast as I could hearing only my heart pounding as I held my breathe lol

Luckily my dog was waiting by the exit- hopefully keeping a look out!

This is the view of the mountains where the cave was... somewhere inside.

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