Tours opened to explore Pygmy – world’s fourth biggest cave

Tours of three caves, including the world’s fourth largest Pygmy, in the central province of Quang Binh, have been opened, giving tourists a chance to explore some of the most magnificent caves here.

The mouth of Pygmy Cave

 Quang Binh allowed Jungle Boss Co. Ltd to provide the three-day and two-night tours in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, Bo Trach district, from January 2018. Each tour serves a maximum of 14 tourists at a cost of nearly 10 million VND (over 440 USD) per person.

On the first day, tourists depart at Jungle Boss’s headquarters and get off cars at the 24th kilometer of Road 20 Quyet Thang, where they will trek for about five hours to reach Ho Cave. They can also swim for 300 metres in the cave if they want and then stay here on the first night.

Over Cave is the next destination on the second day of the trip. The cave is over 90m high and 3.2km long and boasts impressive stalactites and stalagmites. Notably, there are a number of terraced lakes with sapphire colour.

Leaving Over Cave, tourists will walk for one hour to reach Pygmy, which is about 100m high and wide and 845m long. At the mouth of this cave, they can see a system of ropes and bamboo tied together by locals to harvest salangane nests and bee honey in the past. The rope and bamboo system is tens of metres high on the cave wall.

Pygmy is also the stop on the second night of the tour.

Both Pygmy and Over were discovered by local residents in 1997 before experts from the British Cave Research Association explored and publicised them.

On the third day, visitors will once again cross the forest in five hours to return to Road 20 Quyet Thang and finish the trip.

Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park was recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2003 due to its impressive scenery and archaeological value.

It is also home to Son Doong Cave, which was recognised in 2016 as the largest of its kind by three international organisations, including Guinness (based in the UK), the World Record Association (based in Hong Kong) and WorldKings (based in the US and India).

VNA