Discovery of 'Son Doong of the North'

• August 12, 2016 17:17

During the survey to build an adventure trekking tour program for foreign tourists, Mr. Nguyen Tuan Linh, Director of the international travel company "Mr. Linh's Adventures" accidentally discovered a beautiful cave in Vang village, Hoang Tri commune (Ba Be, Bac Kan).

Immediately after discovering the cave, Mr. Nguyen Tuan Linh sent a document to the People's Committee of Bac Kan province, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism (DCT) of Bac Kan and the local government to ask for opinions on conducting a field survey, assessing the current situation to have a plan to put it into exploitation and develop it into a tourism product.

Recently, a survey team was established, including the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Bac Kan led by Mr. Nguyen Van Ha, Deputy Director of the Department, along with representatives of the Department's professional departments; representatives of Ba Be National Park; leaders of Ba Be district, Hoang Tri commune and reporters conducted a preliminary survey of the cave, located on Tham Phay mountain, in Vang village, Hoang Tri commune, Ba Be.

The road into the mountain is quite dangerous, there is only one single path that was cleared by people who went into the forest for a long time, the surrounding trees are dense. The cave is located halfway up the mountain, because there is no road in, it is very difficult to move.

The cave entrance is hidden so it is very difficult to detect, from the cave entrance go down about 20m deep and go deep into the mountain. Right at the entrance to the cave are blocks of stone shaped like the teeth of a giant monster, below is an underground stream in the cave with a shallow depth and moderate flow, but the deeper into the cave the deeper the stream, there are sections up to the chest.

Going deeper into the cave about 1 km, the survey team discovered 2 branches of the cave, in which one branch of the cave goes deep into the mountainside on the left with a length of about 1.5 km - this branch of the cave has quite flat terrain, clear streams with white pebbles visible at the bottom of the stream; the second branch goes into the mountain on the right, however the team has not been able to determine the length of this branch.

The deeper into the cave, the colder the air and the more difficult it is to walk, and the more strangely shaped stalactites appear.

After exploring the cave about 3 km long, the group decided to go back out to ensure safety.

According to the preliminary assessment of the survey team, the possibility of the cave opening to the back of the mountain is very high. If this assessment is correct, the length of the cave is estimated to be about 5-7 km.

Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Bac Kan Nguyen Van Ha highly appreciated the discovery of the above cave, this is an important factor to develop tourism products, creating rich and attractive tourism for Bac Kan in general and Ba Be in particular.

The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Bac Kan and local leaders have agreed on the next steps to invite cave experts to evaluate geology and geomorphology, as well as conduct further surveys to have specific assessments, in order to put the cave into exploitation as soon as possible.