Tham Mahuema - KA0445

Length 274m Depth 125m
Grottocenter / carte

Location

From the Song Thai ranger station, which is a two hour drive from the sanctuary headquarters at Thi Nuai (which in itself is a 7 hour drive from Kanchanaburi town!) drive south for one hour to the sink of the Huai Du Ngae then walk south (upstream) following the Huai Pom Phi valley for 30 minutes. The large entrance to Tham Mahuema is above and a little down valley from the choked stream sink. Martin Ellis - 22/09/2019

Description

Martin Ellis - 22/09/2019

Tham Mahuema starts impressively. The entrance chamber is 85 m long, 35 m wide, 15 m high and inclined at 30¦. At the bottom of this chamber, about 45 m vertically below the entrance, climbing down boulders for another 15 m of descent reaches another steeply sloping chamber. This second chamber contains some nice large gours and slopes down to a narrow slot in flowstone. One the exploration trips this slot was passed by lowering people down (it is too tight to abseil) and then hauling them back up, a hauling party having been left above the drop. Thus a large team is required to reach the bottom of the cave. Below the narrow slot and 5 m pitch the cave continues to slope down, but is much smaller being only 2 m high and 4 m high. The angle increases to 40¦ and due to the flowstone floor rope is required to reach the bottom. At the explored end the cave narrows into a too tight slot through which the stream can be heard. The stream is assumed to rise at Tham Huai Tong Thai which is 6 km away and 400 m lower.

Topographie

Martin Ellis - 22/09/2019

OAKLEY, PHIL; BOLGER, TERRY; JOHNSON, PAUL; SMART, DEAN (2003) - Grade UISv2 3-3-F

Documents

[Topo] Tham Mahuema 28/04/2019
Bibliography 22/09/2019

History

2003-04-22 D. Smart, T. Bolger, P. Oakley, P. Johnson - surveyed cave 2003-04-26 D. Smart, T. Bolger, P. Oakley, P. Johnson - surveyed cave Martin Ellis - 22/09/2019

Caves nearby

Distance (km)NameLength (m)Depth (m)
0.1Huai Pom Phi Sink - KA0451
0.1Huai Pom Phi Flood Overflow Sink - KA0450
1.0Shaft KA457 - KA04571010
2.0Huai du Ngae Sink - KA0455
3.5Tham Stit - KA0399250
4.5Cave KA0446 - KA0446
4.5Huai Tong Thai Sink - KA044433198
4.6Bad Air Hole [KA0447]
4.6Shaft KA0448 - KA04481515