Tham Phu Khieo - CH0021
16.386822,101.532067
Location
This cave is in the depths of the Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary and, as with all caves in the sanctuary, permission needs to be obtained from the Royal Forest Department in Bangkok which this is unlikely to be granted for a purely sporting trip. From the Tung Kamang ranger station follow the track towards Tham Nok Nang An to an obvious junction branching off on the left hand side. Follow the track which heads south-south-west through secondary forest to the foot of a col at the second break in the cliff line. An obvious stream (or dry stream bed) leads to the entrance at the base of the cliff.
Description
Fauna
Poropuntius speleops (Roberts, 1991) (Chordata, Actinopterygii, Cypriniformes, Cyprinidae) û type locality (Roberts 1991)
The entrance is a wide, steamy, draughting hole with a steeply descending pile of greasy boulders leading down into the cave. This entrance passage is clean washed, suggesting that the cave functions as a major flood sink during the wet season, and the obvious route steepens to the head of a 38m pitch. A short scramble below the foot of the pitch leads down into the main river passage. Halfway between the entrance and the pitch an obvious passage to the west leads via a couple of awkward and greasy climbs (a handline is useful) to a large chamber with a long echo and an 80m overhanging pitch down to the river passage below. The pitch can be avoided by climbing around and down a boulder slope at the southern end of the chamber, to reach an unavoidable free-hanging 15m pitch into a wide, muddy chamber. From here the cave river is best reached by following the southern wall in a south-easterly direction. Back at the start of the 'long echo' an intricate upward route over and between boulders along the southern wall leads into a very big chamber with an 'endless' echo and a lot of boulders. The ceiling of this chamber is very high. The river passage, at the bottom of the 38m pitch, begins impressively, 30m wide and 20m high, but narrows after about 150m and swings eastwards for a further 150m, before shooting off south into a miserable sump. The obvious eastwards 'overflow' passage (the original course of the river) ends at an outward draughting, boulder choked rift beneath a large aven filled with many bats. The latter must use a nearby (presently unknown) entrance, which may lie in the hillside just 500m south-south-west of the Tham Phu Khieo sink entrance. A small outward draughting passage loops round to the north of the 'bat aven' and ends in a similar (possibly the same) outwards draughting choke, about 70m past the 'bat aven'.
Topographie
CHECKLEY, DAVE; HURD, SHELIA; CHAPMAN, PHIL; JONES, HOWARD; WILLIS, DICK (n.d. [1989]) ELLIS, MARTIN (2009)
Documents
[Topo] Tham Phu Khieo 28/04/2019Bibliography 18/06/2019
- BRANCELJ, ANTON; BOONYANUSITH, CHAICHAT; WATIROYRAM, SANTI; SANOAMUANG, LA-ORSRI (2013) "The groundwater-dwelling fauna of South East Asiaö Journal of Limnology, Vol. 72 Supplement 2 pp327-344 CHECKLEY, DAVE (1989) "Successful Thai expedition" Descent No. 88 p18 CHECKLEY, DAVE; HURD, SHELIA; CHAPMAN, PHIL; JONES, HOWARD; WILLIS, DICK (n.d. [1989]) "Caves of the Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary, North-East Thailand" Unpublished report DUNKLEY, JOHN ROBERT (1995) "The Caves of Thailand" Speleological Research Council, Sydney ISBN 0-9589253-9-9 124pp ELLIS, MARTIN (2009) ôThailandÆs Top Twentyö Shepton Mallet Caving Club Journal Series 12 No. 4 pp140-232 Ellis, Martin (2015c) "Thailand's Longest and Deepest Caves: A Caving Guide" Martin Ellis, Shepton Mallet ISBN 978-1-326-43857-9 84pp Ellis, Martin Ellis, Martin; Laumanns, Michael (2017) "Thailand" in Laumanns, Michael; Price, Liz (eds.) (2017) "Atlas of the Great Caves and Karst of Southeast Asia: Part 2 Myanmar - Vietnam" second edition, Berliner Hohlenkundliche Berichte Band 67 pp241-292 KOTTELAT, MAURICE; BREHIER, F. (1999) "Troglocyclocheilus khammouanensis, a New Genus and Species of Cave Fish from the Khammouan Karst, Laos (Teleostei: Cyprinidae)" Revue Suisse de Zoologie Vol. 106 No. 2 pp347-359 ROBERTS, Tyson R. (1991) "Barbus speleops New Species, A Blind Cavefish from Tham Phu Khieo, Mekong Basin, Thailand" The Natural History Bulletin of the Siam Society Vol. 39 No. 2 pp103-109
History
The cave has only been visited once when it was explored by the 1989 British expedition.
Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Tham Kon Dtai [Dead Man Cave] [CH0020] | 60 | 15 |
| 1.4 | Tham Nok Nang An [Swallow Cave] [CH0019] | 907 | 71 |
| 3.1 | Tham Kram Chang [Elephant Tooth Cave] [CH0017] | 468 | 10 |
| 3.2 | Fossil Sink Cave - CH0018 | 180 | 30 |
| 3.3 | Cave CH0046 [Grotte des Regrets ] [CH0046] | 50 | 20 |
| 3.8 | Tham Pha Khao [Cave of the White Mountain] [CH0036] | 444 | 50 |
| 4.0 | Tham Pha Sod [Broken Rock Cave] [CH0037] | 115 | 35 |
| 4.0 | Tham Lam Chi - CH0033 | 300 | 10 |
| 4.3 | Tham Huai Chi Laeng [Cave of the Dry Stream] [CH0030] | 1602 | 60 |