Motocross in an old abandoned mine. 3km deep.

in #motocross7 years ago (edited)

I had heard stories of an old tin mine in the district of Thong Pha Phum, Thailand. I asked around within the motocross world over here but no one knew where it was. Google didn't shed any light on the location either. I search every square inch of Google maps of the rough location I thought it was but was kind of guessing.

We set out on the road heading towards Burma/Myanmar. I had a couple of friends over who were visiting Thailand and we decided to try and find it.
Our first stop was wrong, Google maps had lied! It also lied the second time (or was it more poor planning). On our third attempt we arrived in a small village where the local people were able to give some useful directions and information.

We parked up, unloaded and rode out of the rural village along a dirt road. A small turn off down an over grown track next to the big tree- as were were told, we felt were were getting close.

A few kilometers of riding and we found the entrance.

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Things were about to get exciting. I was riding my Honda CRF250R and my friends were riding rental bikes from Bangkok!

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The tunnel was large enough for mining vehicles so we didn't have any problems on our bikes. Once we got in, we realized that the main tunnel split many times. Some tunnels turned left, others right, some went up while others went down. It turned out that there were multiple entrances and exits and from what we could work out, about 5 different levels that spiraled around through the mountain.

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The longest tunnel was about 3km, but with the addition of all the others, the total distance of tunnels was much further.

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In the photo above you will see a square white light beam- I had a hand touch mounted on my helmet to ensure I had light in what ever direction I looked.

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The 2 rental bikes were standard road legal bikes and had lights. My motocross bike isn't road legal and as many of you know, doesn't have lights!
With some pre-planning I temporarily installed a 36watt LED light bar (flood beam) which was hooked up to a 12V lithium ion 6800mah battery (good for about 2 hours of light).

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The LED light was incredibly bright and really lit up the tunnels. I would really recommend doing something like this if any of you do any night riding- or mining!
I took out the handlebar-crossbar from my Renthal bar and made a steel replacement that could hold the LED bar brackets. It was just a simple angle grinder job and some drilled holes. A small pouch was attached to the back of the new bar to hold the battery. Neither the LED bar or battery moved. The full set up was tested at the track beforehand on 30ft jumps and it was rock solid. I would imagine this kind of enduro riding was much kinder.

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Here are a few more photos from the ride to and from the mine.

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The rental bikes had a few accidents along the way- which caused a couple of problems when we returned them! One of which was a lost licence plate, as you can see in the pic below.

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Finally we set up camp and had a very wet night, because it rained and the tent leaked lol!

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I hope you enjoyed the read and the photos. If ride in Thailand, let me know.

Please don't forget to FOLLOW to stay updated on my next adventure post.

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Bikes, rocks and cave. That a beautiful journey!

Those big rocks are becoming an enemy of mine lol

That cave seems similar of the one in here my place..

Cool, Have you been inside? where is it?

Wooo man you are brave! What an adventurer you are haha. It's must be a unique experience going through the place.
Thanks for your sharing!

Thank you, I'm pleased you liked it. There were a few worrying moments when we couldn't decide which way was the way out lol.
I will be posting more.

Nutters, but this pretty cool :)

It felt pretty crazy going in.

Dear god the outside of that mine looks like it should be home to the guy that drives around the white van offering free candy.

Thought the same thing too. There were loads of scary corners and alleys inside lol

Come around a corner and bam!! Herbert the pervert. Hey there paper boyyyyy

Yeah gotta have your wits about you on those mountain tracks.

My old boss got into motocross its definitely a blast. Got to make more time to go out with him. I stick to open fields for now haha

Nothing wrong with open fields and long tracks :)

Must have been a crazy ride. I can understand this feeling I'm a rider too.

Cool, What bike do you ride?

Royal Enfield, classis,desert storm 500cc.it's a best.

Thank you, glad you liked them. I am trying to work out how to load videos here- have some great clips riding through there.

Hi @thinkit, great post ! i like your motorcross travel report , you guys must had a lot of fun, i used to live in Sangklaburi located 72km from Thong Pha Phum, this region is most jungle and national parks. Follow and resteemed

Sangklaburi isnt far but it wasnt on the same road- it was the other side of that huge lake. thanks for following and resteeming. you're my first resteem lol

haha wait for more post like this !

That looks exciting! I have a wild imagination, so my mind thinks about the mysterious albino cave trolls that might inhabit places like that! Imagination aside, I have experienced a leaky tent on a rainy night. No fun whatsoever.

LOL when we were all the way in, we turned off the lights - walked forwards- span round and couldn't find the bikes, it was that dark and yeah we imagined them too.

That looks like a real adventure. So awesome dude. :D

Thanks a lot, it was a great day - want to go back there.

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