In early October, Mr. Le Luu Dung, CEO of Jungle Boss - a unit specializing in cave adventure tours in Quang Binh, and the company's expedition team discovered a new lake in Thung Cave.
Mr. Dung said: "During a cave expedition to discover the mysteries of the Hung Thoong system, our team of cave experts was attracted by a mysterious lake near the entrance of Thung cave. This lake has a rather small area of about 10 square meters and is surrounded by a lot of mud. However, the water in the lake is extremely clear and quiet."
The explorers then tried swimming into the lake to learn more. After the exploration, there were interesting discoveries such as the lake always maintained a stable water level, the water temperature was very cold at about 16 degrees Celsius. This temperature was considered much colder than other lakes in Thung Cave. The depth of the lake was measured to be more than 12 arm spans equivalent to nearly 18m.
"This is an unimaginable depth for a lake with such a small surface area. While there is another underground river flowing across this lake, this underground river is deeper than usual. And this newly discovered lake is also much deeper than the main stream flowing from Thung Cave. With such a strange depth, the mysterious lake of Thung Cave may open up new discoveries with many surprises in Quang Binh cave exploration," Mr. Dung shared.
The expedition team's initial assessment is that this lake could be a lake connected to another underground cave system in Thung Cave and could open up a very large cave at the bottom of the cave. However, this is just a hypothesis, and more in-depth expeditions with more equipment are needed to further investigate this mysterious lake.
In May, also at Thung Cave, the expedition team and Mr. Dung also discovered a Floating Lake about 1km away from this newly discovered mysterious lake. The lake has a surface area of about 100m2, surrounded by long stalactites and many unique shapes. A prominent feature of the lake is that the water level is about 15m higher than the underground river of Thung Cave.
Thung Cave belongs to the Hung Thoong Cave system and is one of the most pristine places in Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park. The Hung Thoong system has many caves located deep in the strictly protected area of the national park, surrounded by a system of million-year-old limestone mountains and primeval forests. Currently, visitors can come here to explore by buying adventure tours, requiring a certain physical strength because there are many experiences such as trekking in the forest, swinging on ropes, wading in streams, swimming in underground rivers...
