Tham Nam Phra Khoan - KA0227
14.946623,98.661504
Location
Wat Sunyataram is located 20 km north of Thong Pha Phum along the H323. The cave is found 4 km from Wat Sunyataram in the direction of Thong Pha Phum. On the left, 2 km after a bridge, there is a bamboo plantation. From there going perpendicular to the H323 one can see the bed of a water course which leads to the right to a resurgence in the limestone pavement. 30 m above this resurgence a path climbs to the left and ends at an entrance 2 m high by 3 m wide. There are the bamboo remains of an old monk's shelter. 20 m to the right there is another entrance (4 m x 6 m) ar the foot of the cliff.
Description
Starting from the entrance with the monk's shelter one reaches, after a low passage, a sloping passage that quickly enlarges to the decent size of 20 m by 20 m. On the left, going higher, one reaches an ascending flowstone to a big passage and to another passage 100 m long with boulders. At the end of this last passage one rejoins the river. Progression in this river requires swimming. The water comes from a big sump 20 m to the left. On the right the water disappears between boulders after 15 m. One can rejoin the river upstream, at the bottom of the 10 m x 20 m entrance passage, on the right. It exits into a sump via a lake 6 m x 20 m. One can follow the active system without swimming as far as the downstream sump via the maze of small passages to the second entrance. The big, fossil, upper passage has numerous windows into the river and gets very close to the upstream sump through passages that are too narrow. The various side passages explored ended in sand chokes.
Fauna
Phaibulamon stilipes Ng, 1992 (Arthropoda, Crustacea, Malacostraca, Decapoda, Brachyura, Potamidae) û type locality (Ng 1992)
Documents
Bibliography 05/09/2019- +APEL, LAURENT; GROUSSOUS, SOPHIE; GUILLOT, FLORENCE; JARLAN, PHILIPPE; LUSCHEVICI, OLIVIER; MAGNE, THIERRY; VACQUIE, JEAN-FRANÃOIS; VISCHI, VAL+RIE (1990) "Kwai 90 - ExpÚdition SpÚlÚologique en Thailande" SociÚtÚ SpÚlÚologique de l' AriÞge - Pays d' Olmes, Lavelanet 34pp +DUNKLEY, JOHN ROBERT (1995) "The Caves of Thailand" Speleological Research Council, Sydney ISBN 0-9589253-9-9 +NG, PETER K.L. (1992) "A new genus and species of cavernicolous crab (Brachyura: Potamidae) from Kanchanaburi, Thailand, with comments on the genera Tiwaripotamon Bott, 1970 and Larnaudia Bott, 1966" MÚmoires de BiospÚologie Vol. 19 pp159-167 +YEO, DARREN C.J.; NG, PETER K.L. (2007) "On the Genus "Potamon" and Allies in Indochina (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Potamidae)" The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology Supplement No. 16 pp273-308
History
First explored by the SSAPO in August 1990.
Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.4 | Tham Nam Lot Ti Pu Che [KA0565] | 1000 | 40 |
| 0.7 | Tham Soong Thi Pha Lower - KA0233 | 10 | 0 |
| 0.7 | Tham Soong Thi Pha pper - KA0232 | 20 | 0 |
| 1.6 | Tham Kai - KA0228 | 160 | 10 |
| 2.2 | Tam Nam Pah Khoan | ||
| 3.8 | Cave KA0126 - KA0126 | ||
| 3.8 | Tham Noi - KA0127 | ||
| 3.9 | Tham Wat Yang Kao [KA0573] | ||
| 3.9 | Cave KA0128 - KA0128 | 30 | 0 |