Day 11 - Phong Nha-Ke Bang

First of our 2 big days trekking in the Jungle.
Breakfast at Dawn Homestay and then off to Jungle Boss for our briefing.
First stop - our own private tour of The Elephant Cave. In the dark, with head torches, we descended into these amazing caverns with sensational stalagtites with different colours, and some shining (with the silicon?), And hundreds of bats (mostly) hanging from the ceiling.
Included a few climbs and scrambles, and the boys dropping into a smaller cave.
The cave system was used by the N Vietnamese during the war given its proximity to the Ho Chi Minh trail which is where we headed next.

We walked along the trail for 15 minutes (actually a minor road now) and then struck into the jungle.
We had been advised to tuck our trousers in to our socks because of the leaches.
Dylan spent the first 10 minutes asking 'Messi' our guide about them - do they hurt, what do they look like, had he seen any yet...
After 15 minutes we had to take our walking boots off - next hour of the trek was through the river.
We saw chains of blue, white and black butterflies, and lizards,

We arrived at our Camp for the night, which was alongside an amazing deep blue pool.
So we cooled down from our exertions by swimming in the pool and jumping in from the rocks (some higher than others)

Evening meal was a feast eaten sat cross legged on a mat with the guides and porters:
Pork, fish with bamboo shoots collected from the jungle, tofu in tomato, chicken, soup and many tasty vegetables..

It was dark by 7:30pm, so we got in to our tents to sleep for the night just after 8.Les mer