Weather forecast: Rain and the occasional thunderstorm in the morning, very cloudy and not as warm. Temperature from 23c (73f) to 27c (81f).

Up very early as we are off on a 9km jungle trek through the Ma Da Valley and Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, including visiting Tra Ang Cave, Elephant Cave (Hang Voi cave) and Ma Da Lake where we can go swimming. The trip was booked via the Farmstay but organised by: https://junglebosstours.com/tour/elephant-cave-ma-da-valley-jungle-trek-1d

One issue its been raining all night and the forecast is for light showers to go on throughout the morning which will bring out more mosquitoes!! Wish us well.

The trek started with a climb up a very steep muddy hill to Elephant Cave. This was made far more challenging due to the fact that you had to clamber over many rocks some quite large which were muddy and slipery from the rain. Without staff help I doubt if Sue and I would have made it. Elephant Cave is a small cave so we had a quick look round and then moved on.

We then had an hour walk along a narrow path through thick jungle to Ma Da Lake. This was an easier walk but with the rain still falling it was very muddy and slippery under foot. We also had to cross a number of rivers on foot with the level of the water coming well over our hiking boots and soaking our legs.

We had a chance to swim in Ma Da Lake which was lovely. The more daring ones in the group, including our Scott clambered up the rocks and jumped in from quite a considerable height. After swimming we had lunch.

We then trekked for another hour through the jungle and across more rivers to Tran Ang cave. Most of the journey was relatively easy but for the last section we had clamber across a large high bolder field which was very dificuilt and very scary. Again Sue & I would not have made it without help.

Tran Ang cave is a wet cave so we had to swim 300 metres into the cave and out again to explore it. For this we had to keep our shoes and socks on and our helmets with our lights on plus our wet swimming shorts and costumes. It was a tremendous experience especially when out guide got us to turn off our helmet lights and we laid in the water in the pitch dark. There were lots of bats in the cave but they were high up in the roof of the cave so did not worry us.

We then walked for another 40 minutes through yet more wet jungle to get back to the road and meet our minibus. The light showers which had been forecast for the morning carried on all day.

We had been worried about mosquitoes, but they were not such an issue, what was a problem for all the group was leeches. I had 7 leeches attach themselves to me over the day, two of which drew blood. Scott had about a similar number. Sue got off lightly with only two. Luckily the staff team had a spray which kills them, so they were not so much of a problem as they could have been.

By the time we got on the minibus we were totally worn out, our shoes and socks were soaking wet, our clothes were damp, but we had the most amazing day one that will live in the memory for a very long time.

See photos by clicking on Flickr logo and going to Jungle Trekking 9 April album