Tham Pha Lom - LO0049

Length 355m Depth 18m

Location

From Loei town take the H2138 eastwards towards Na Duang. Turn north onto the H2249 as far as Ban Phia. In the village take the turning to the east next to the wat and follow the road for about 3 km. A turning north leads to the karst hills and ends at the park headquarters. From the Phu Pha Lom Forest Park headquarters a good concrete path leads up to a col and then down into the large collapsed doline behind. After 500 m you reach a sala and the path to the smaller footpath to the cave goes off to the left. This ascends the side of the doline, passing a 2 m long relict cave, with the aid of some wooden ladders to reach the cave. Martin Ellis - 12/03/2020

Description

Martin Ellis - 12/03/2020

This is a large fossil cave with passages about 5 m wide and 8 m high. It consists of a series of oxbows close to the cliff face and there are four entrances. Off the main passage one narrow rift leads to a 13 m pitch that does not draught and has not been descended. There is also a 47 m high aven in the main passage. At the southern end of the cave there is a crawl that after a 1 m climb opens up into a low chamber ending at another draughting crawl which is blocked by formations. Opposite the northern entrance, the very large entrance to Tham Pha Lom Ru Rai can be seen high in the cliff opposite, about 300 m away and obviously the continuation of the same cave.

Topographie
Martin Ellis - 12/03/2020

ELLIS (2013a) - BCRA 3c. The GPS fix is at a nail on the tree in the middle of the main entrance (Station 1).

Fauna
Martin Ellis - 12/03/2020

A small colony of large bats.

Documents

[Topo] Tham Pha Lom 07/05/2019

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Bibliography 12/03/2020

ELLIS, MARTIN (2013a) "Some Caves in Thailand Part 3" Shepton Mallet Caving Club Journal Series 12 No. 10 pp554-578 GOSSET, JOHN (2012) "Balades karstiques en Thailande: Province de Loei et NongBuaLamphu" l'Equipe SpÚlÚo de Bruxelles blog 8 January 2012 esbhotnews.blogspot.com/2012/01/balades-karstiques…

History

The first recorded visit to the cave was by the SMCC in March 2008. 2008-03-21 M.Ellis, P. Collett 2011-11-13 J. Gosset visited the cave, finding the 13 m pitch and exploring the crawl at the southern end of the cave. 2015-02-13 John Gosset, Nathalie Witt & Denis Thomas Martin Ellis - 12/03/2020

Caves nearby

Distance (km)	Name	Length (m)	Depth (m)
0.1	Tham Pha Lom Ru Rai [LO0195]	25	0
0.4	Nu (Tham) [LO0196]	80	0
0.7	Cave LO0184
0.8	Cave LO0185	80	0
0.8	LO0183 (Resurgence)
0.8	Tham Wat Phu Pha Lom [LO0182]	10	0
3.0	Tham Pha Ya - LO0053	270	32
4.2	Tham Pha Dam 2 - LO0079	50	12
4.3	Tham Pha Dam 3 - LO0119	20	7