Some clues left in old trip reports, alongside careful studying of Google Satellite images, gave me a confident location of where this cave would be located. Any cavers that have been here will never forget this one.

The route to the cave is short but intense, normally going along slippery and treacherous boulders along a class V river. For us, the river was overflowing and brown. Because it was so high, we had to go into the jungle. With many crevices and intensely thick vegetation, progress was slow. There was no trail or signs of a trail, suggesting that nobody had visited this cave recently.

 

We didn’t know exactly where the cave would be, and spent over two hours in the jungle trying to get to the riverbank. To be frank, it sucked. When I was finally able to part the branches and the spiderwebs to see the opposite riverbank with the entrance, I was relieved. The way back through the jungle would now only take ten minutes.

With such a strong current flowing into dangerous waterfalls and rapids, I put on a life vest and was preparing to swim the river when I saw a boogie board washed up with a log jam right next to me! I took this, tied one end of our rope to the bank, and floated to the opposite side, landing safely and well above the rapids. Then I tied the other end of the rope, forming a safety line.

 

Suhei next swam across, understandably nervous, but without any problem.
 

Immediately, it started to rain. We got out our caving gear, prepared to go in, and the rain started coming down in buckets. It was pouring at only 10 AM! If the river level rose at all, getting back across could be difficult. We decided on 10 minutes total in the cave, and would come back out and leave if the rain was continuing.

 

We went in, got to the very first straw formations, took literally one picture, and went back out. It was blindingly sunny, and the storm seemed to be moving off.

 

We watched the skies for a little, the clouds left and we went back in for three hours. Inside, we meandered slowly to the back, completely in awe. The photos on the internet do not capture how beautiful it is.

 

We were surprised to find a huge breakdown pile in the back of the cave, and even more surprised to climb up in into an enormous room with a ceiling over 100 feet high! From there we turned back and left.

Hopefully this cave continues to stay secret. In my opinion, the importance of repairing the entrance door cannot be understated. This is one of the most unique caves anywhere.