Samuc Champey

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Yesterday we spent the day at Samuc Champey and the Kan'ba caves. This is where the bulk of the Rio Cahabon cuts underground creating a suspended limestone bridge forming the series of pools and waterfalls that are Samuc Champey. We started the day in the Kan'ba caves doing a tour by candlelight. This turned out to be walking and climbing through the caves whilst holding a stubby candle as our only source of light. The caves were partly underwater so at times we were swimming one handed whilst trying to keep our candles alight and aviod all of the rocks that we under the water. The result was a lot of cuts and bruises but a lot of fun. The caves go about 11km deep but due to the temperature in the caves and the temperature of the water we only stayed in there for about an hour and a half. We were kept warm by all of the climbing and swimming and by focusing on the candle we could destract ourselves from all of the horrible creatures that we were potentially sharing our surroundings with. At one point I thought there was salt on the walls but the guide pointed out the bats that were hanging above us, the salt turned out to be bat droppings. Nice!

When we emerged shivering from the caves we went tubing down the river. The river and pools are surrounded a steep gorge walls covered in jungle so tubing was a really nice and relaxing way to get views from the bottom of Samuc Champey before we climbed to the top.

At about 2pm we climbed up to the pools. On the way we passed the houses of some local families and our guide showed us the Cacoa plants that they use to make chocolate and sell it to the tourists visiting the pool.

Once we got to the top we had about 2 hours to enjoy and explore the pools. After a quick dip in the first pool we went and explored the others a bit more and walked further up to see the rapids that were before the river went underground. The pools were beautiful, very warm and clear with lots of little fish that cleaned us if we stood still for too long. About half an hour before we had to get the bus back, Laura and I decided to climb up the gorge walls to get to the lookout point at the top. The walked/climb was supposed to take about 20 minutes each way so we had to hurry. By this point Laura's flip flops had broken so she ended up doing the whole thing bare foot. The walk turned out to be a bit of a trek and we finally got to the top with about 5 minutes before we had to get the bus. We literally got to the top, took 3 pictures and ran/fell down the gorge to the bottom. Luckily the ground was muddy rather than stoney so it was a bit easier on laura's feet. The whole thing was a bit of a mission though and we rejoined our group very red faced, sore and out of breath.

We ended the day by having a big roast dinner at the hostel and a few drinks with some people from our tour group. The result was human pyramids and wheelbarrow races in the dark and the rain.

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Comments

[Nic]

did you sing...
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming !! fa la la la la la la la la!

[K and L]

Just keep swimming
Ha, that so funny, I didn´t sing it in the pools but I did in the caves when I was trying not to think about all the horrible things that could be in the water with me!!