After the success of the National Park tour, we decided to also sign up for a one day tour of the Tu Lan caves. These caves are situated outside of the national park, about a one hour drive from Phong Nha town. We had a Vietnamese guide for this trek, Phuong, who had grown up in the local area before going to study English at university. Also in our group were Charlotte and Hidde, a Dutch couple, and a porter who was introduced to us as Chicken. Chicken (or Mr Chicken or Little Chicken as he is also known) was from the little village at the foot of the hills. People from the village are known to be small and thin but extremely fit and strong. Chicken didn’t speak much English but tried to communicate with us, and he was extremely friendly and smiley. He was delighted when Hidde taught him how to say, ‘Hello, my name is Little Chicken’ in French.

Our trek led us through the jungle, and across a river, to the Rat Cave. This cave was named by the local village, but Phuong said no rats had ever been found in it. It was however full of bats… And bat poo! Apparently this cave is full of interesting geology and geomorphology. There were some pretty cool stalagmites and stalagtites.

After exploring this cave, we headed back into the jungle to trek up and down some hills and through a valley, before reaching the Porcupine Cave. We explored the first part of this cave on foot, before descending down a wooden ladder for 10 m. We then walked around through some huge stalagtites and stalagmites (which grow at a rate of 1cm per 100 years). The cave was pitch black, with only our 6 head torches for light. As the torches scanned over the walls we noticed a few sparkly bits. It turned out that these were the eyes of GIGANTIC SPIDERS! We asked our guide if they were poisonous and he said, ‘Extremely very!’. So we were walking through a dark cave, brushing up against walls and there were huge and poisonous arachnids everywhere. They didn’t seem to bother our guides much though, so we carried on after them. Phuong then stopped to point out some fossilised sea creatures, and as he was chatting, Mr Chickens eyes turned into saucers. The biggest spider I have ever seen was perched just above Phuongs head! It had a huge, fat body and very long legs. Both the Vietnamese guys were horrified by this particular creature and we swiftly moved on.

We then had to swim through the next part of the cave. We had lifejackets on and our backpacks were waterproof and buoyant. The current was in the right direction so we swam along, pushing our bags infront of us. When we reached the exit, we climbed out of the river to find a barbecue with our lunch on it, and a picnic set up next to a waterfall. We were all so hungry, and demolished the delicious spring rolls and baguettes, before having a dip in the water.

After this we started heading back towards home. The first bit involved swimming back up the river in the cave. This time though, we were swimming against the current. For quite a while we were all swimming hard but going nowhere. Eventually, a big push from Chicken got us moving. The trek back across the valley and over the hills went quickly, while we chatted to Phuong about his life, his new wife and his almost due first baby. When I asked him if he had chosen a name for his son, he proudly stated he would be called Vi. Vi is a traditional Vietnamese name which apparently means big and strong. I think Phuong is hoping that his son will grow up to embody those things, although I’m not sure he is genetically predisposed to be tall!!!

When we got back to the base we had outdoor showers to wash the mud off, before having a local beer in the most beautiful surroundings. On the way back we were delayed for 20 minutes while the local farmers processed some of their rice harvest in the middle of the road! We had another amazing day in this incredible part of an amazing country. Hopefully we did enough exercise to make this evenings ‘sleeper’ bus to Hanoi bearable….

• Caving