CaverInfo

Dear Lao Cavers and Friends,

The Laos 2012 expeditions are back from three weeks caving and therefore a
short e-mail to share the findings and the status of the Northern Lao –
European Cave Project.

This year marks the 10th expedition in annual succession after having the
first trip in December 2002. The results can be shown to the international
caving community. We visited 6 provinces and mapped 92 km of cave passages
in Northern Laos . You and in total 36 cavers from 15 nations helped to
achieve this. But it is not only the caving, it is also the country and
the impressions we left by the close cooperation with villages,
authorities and development agencies. All work is nicely published and
available as 4 BHB books “ The unknown North of Laos Vol. I – IV”.
It is very encouraging to see that the outcome is of use and benefit for
other parties like:

a.) German-Lao development project to establish the Chom Ong
system for regional ecotourism. It is mentioned in all guide books and
there is are several links to our webpage (http://www.oudomxay.info ;

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/tonywheeler/travel_blogs/chom_ong_caves/)

b.) Vieng Xay memorial site for historical documentation within a
national monument development
(http://www.visit-viengxay.com/viengxay-today.html)
c.) MMAP archeological project from Penn university which used the
books to start investigation on the described entrances for Neolithic age
inhabitants (http://middlemekong.wordpress.com/about/)
d.) Universityof Tuebingen, another archeological project from
Prof. Madeline Boehme

Thank you for all your contributions and the enjoyable time of caving
together in a highly inspiring international spirit!

The 2012 expedition was a re-visit of former areas driven by the short
term non-accessibility of Sayabouli province. It was also the first time
two independent expedition teams were on the way. I had some doubts at the
beginning what a re-visit will bring, but we extended the caving areas
with promising leads. Vieng Phouka revealed shorter river caves of several
hundred meter length along the roads, the surprise came in Muang Ngoy with
a 2 km river system which is still going. Vieng Xay had many caves along
the road to the Vietnamese border, the surprise was a new found area just
25 km North of Sam Neua with disappearing rivers.

It means for me that we achieved after 10 years the mission of the project
to obtain an overview of the potential for caves in Northern Laos, but we
are still far away from having a regional understanding. Alone the
discovery of Chom Ong in a not really inspiring hill is a strong hint to
look more regional. I am think therefore it is important to involve and
actively ask our local contacts and partners, who are at site and have
some time at hand, to help and report areas for investigation.

You find the latest results at the webpage www.laoscaveproject.de at
“expeditions 2012″ with a summary, pictures and a cave list. The section
“caves/survey data” has a statistical overview on the last 10 years of
exploration.

I want to conclude with special thanks to Michael who joined me on the
very first trip in 2002 and encouraged me to start mapping as well to
Helmut who joined reliable every expedition possible and keeps the cave
registry of the project up to date. Finally the support of the FSE is
greatly appreciated by granting several times Euro-Speleo Project Status.

I hope to see you at one of the coming caving events, another expedition
or may be during a visit to my living place Bern. Please feel welcome.

Yours
Joerg