Lee n Tan

Had brekkie at the Witchin Well, another amazing breakfast. Then we set off for Sappong and Cave Lodge. The drive was very similar to the one from Chiang Mai very windy, loads of corners. Actually it would be interesting to see how many turns there are, I don’t think either of us have been a road with so many corners. Our digs for the night where at Cave Lodge a 6km detour from the main road, the track into the lodge wasn’t really made for our Honda City, but we made it!!

This place is amazing its like a big tree house, it would be awesome in the cool season (Nov-Feb) as it has a massive fire pit in the communal area. The place was set up by an aussie guy named John Spies and his Thai wife (who was the first woman trekking guide in the Chiang Mai area). He has lived in the area for 20 odd years and knows everything there is to know about the caves in the area as he discovered & named nearly all of them.

Bamboo huts are the accommodation and range from dorms to luxury with air con. We joined up with an Aussie named Justin and did a tour of Lod Cave or Than Lod in Thai. The cave was large but well worn so not as impressive as it once would have been. The best things was you got a guide with a gas lantern and she guided you around all the sites (nothing like going through Caves back home). We then hopped on to a bamboo raft and made our way through the rest of the cave, a stream runs from one end to the other. When we exited we were met by thousands of Swallows that come into the cave at dusk every night.

The most disappointing part about this place is there was nothing we could do because of my foot. 6 of the people are doing a 3 cave trek tomorrow which a few of the others had done the day before, they gave it very good reviews. They also do rafting but because it is the dry season the water levels are not high enough to get down the river so we will just have to come back another time. Another reason to bring us back to Thailand