I found my gopro videos! Yes! I don’t have them with me, so here’s my favorite pictures taken by fellow caver and photographer, Joshua Brookes. I’ll definitely need to do a follow-up post on this entire trip.

Above picture was taken in Huy Cave, all lights turned off except for my headlight. My writing cannot do justice on the feeling of sitting in a huge tavern being surrounded by darkness knowing that a few steps to my right was just a ledge to the dark. You hear “pictures are worth 1000 words” thrown around, and sometimes, I can’t help but think that even pictures aren’t enough.

On the way to Huy Cave, we took a short dip through a river that ran through Bat Cave. Before we headed in, our guide surveyed the entrance, then let us know to follow. We used our packs as floaties and swam through the cave- took maybe 10 minutes at most? Will have to check the videos. When we got out on the other side, our guides mentioned that we had just swum underneath that, pointing behind us. I turned around and realized that he was pointing at the mountain. We swam underneath a mountain. He said he had to check if we had enough room to swim through safely. Sometimes the cave is completely submerged under water, or the waters are too fast for safe passage. Swimming instead of trekking saved us a couple hours.

One thing keeps popping to mind as I write this. Nature is awesome. We really need to start acting before our impact is irreversible.