We had a lazy morning and then spent the day at Dark Cave, which was about 15 miles away from Phong Nha town where we are staying.
We all went on scooters – which was Tim and Soph’s first time proper on a scooter!
Jonathan gave them another little lesson through the town first, to make sure they were confident with traffic and corners etc and then we were off! Like ducks to water
We took the highway for a little bit first, so they had to deal with lorries and cars overtaking them. Other vehicles will blast their horn to let you know they are approaching you, so you don’t pull out which is quite helpful.
After a while we turned off and went through rural villages and countryside and did the longer scenic route. I thought the kids might be nervous, but they loved it! Tim especially.
Much to Jonathan’s delight, we encountered not one, but two more suspension bridges! When we approached the first bridge he insisted it wasn’t the right way and rerouted us on google maps, only to be rewarded with a further 2 bridges 😂
It took us about an hour each way to get to the cave (because I wouldn’t let anyone ride over 30kmph) and we stopped to hand out sweets whenever we passed any kids, got some gas and stopped to check in on everyone every now and then. Plus lots of waving and hellos from villagers we passed.
Oliver was captain sensible and had both little boys on the back of his bike, as he’d had more experience (ie 1 day riding the day before 😂) . He also rode at the back again to keep the group safe, while we navigated from the front.
When we got to Dark Cave it was the usual calamity of not great instructions/ information about what to do or where to go, but we fathomed it out.
I couldn’t go in the cave as Crickett wasn’t allowed, boooo, so we stayed in the ‘water park’ area on the river, while everyone else went in. I knew beforehand but she was most miffed.
To access the cave you do a 400 foot long zip wire from 40m up in the trees, over the river. I just caught the tail end of Ol going over me but missed the others.
Then you had to swim from the zip line landing, to the mouth of the cave. Crickett and I kayaked over to the cave entrance to see them off. Then she proceeded to berate me and cry for half an hour for not letting her go in the cave. Which I would have GLADLY done, and left her there!
For the cave, the rest of the gang had to wear helmets with head torches attached because dark cave truly is… dark. It’s not a lit cave and you can only see what your light points at.
They traversed a raised wooden walkway above water to get deeper in to the cave, before scrambling down long rocky a bank.
Next they had to swim in the dark for 200/300m and ended up on a sandy bank.
Unfortunately, no one brought their cameras so I don’t have any actual photos of it and I’ve stolen these off the internet of other people doing it, so just pretend it’s us.
After they’d landed on the bank, they took off their life jackets and walked through a narrow ravine carved out of the huge rock, until they ended up in a small chamber.
In the chamber was a natural mud bath! The only natural mud bath in Vietnam, allegedly. So they all submerged themselves and had a good roll around like hippos.
Except Bo, obviously, who has never liked to get dirty. He wouldn’t even walk in puddles as a toddler because he refused to get his wellies dirty. Rai obviously was delighted with the mud! Because as a toddler, he would lie down in dirty puddles and pretend to swim while Bo looked on; equal measures horrified and disgusted.
Anyway, back to the chamber. While they were in the mud bath, the guide told everyone to turn their head torches off so they could see how dark it truly was. And it was blacker than black.
They couldn’t see their hand in front of their faces, even after a bit of time. Jonathan said it made him realise that if something happened when you were caving, like your light went out, there would truly be no way to know where you were or how to get out.
They reversed the route to leave the cave and washed all the mud off en route. At the mouth of the cave, kayaks were waiting for them to get back to the water park area where I was waiting.
We then all spent a couple of hours playing in the water where they had free inflatable kayaks, an obstacle course, zip lines, trampolines, inflatables and those big pillows you jump on from up high and get bounced in to the water.
It was unfortunately a cloudy day, so the freezing cold water didn’t feel as refreshing as it would have on ANY other day we’ve been here, which was a shame, but still a fun day out overall.
It’s safe to say, all 3 big kids loved the scooters. They were super safe riders, keeping together, keeping tight to the outside and no nerves. Oliver was wonderful, always riding at the rear to keep everyone safe, while we navigated the route from the front. We’ll definitely be renting some more when we get to Hoi An.
The kids have all loved their time in Phong Nha, and we had planned to stay for 4 days originally. But we decided to leave a day early so we could leave on a high rather than risk dragging it out.
So at midnight I arranged a car to drive us to Hue the next morning, via the war tunnels of Vinh Moc.
We plan to spend a bit of time exploring the imperial city of Hue and then moving south to Hoi An.
danilovescats 