I felt like a broken man after my hike over the mountain, I definately am not as fit as I thought and just because I given up smoking it does not automatically make you fitter. I will need to work a lot harder on this when I get home. However the climb was still very difficult, I just could of done it easier if I was fitter. Yesterday I was call it a trek, today it is called a climb as large amounts of it were steep enough to clasify them this way.

It turns out I needed to go through three valleys to get to the other side of the mountain, the first peak was the hardest, within minutes of starting the walk we started having climb of large rock on a very steep accent, none of this zig zagging up tough terrain, it is just the straightest rout possible. It was relentless and continued on for about an hour, of which 15 minutes was me resting just so I could keep going. After we reached the top of this we had a long rest and I contemplated if I could really handle 5 more hours if it keeps going this hard.

Once I was rested I felt a lot better and continued on, think I would have been too embarrassed to turn around anyway. The next three hours were a lot better, but still hard. It was more ungulating which made it a lot easier to keep up the pace. There was still some really steep stuff, but it was shorter and quick to recover. It was good making to each peak and look over the mountains.

The top of the mountain was very rocky and we spent most of the time continually having to watch where our next step would be. It got even harder towards the end when it was all covered with leaf and you had to make sure there was a rock and not a hole.

After the three hours of up and down climbing the guide finally indicated that it was all downhill to the end. This was hard as well as we were basically climbing down rock all the way and only took another hour and we were at our destination of the river at the other side. We both stripped off and jumped into the river to cool down and clean off all the dirt.

After a drinks break the stalls here we jumped in the boat to take the return trip. The cave is amazing and for most of the trip is it just done with head torches and there is no way to capture the size of it with a camera. It is 7.5km long and cruise through the cave just trying to take in how high the ceiling is, there is one bit where you can get out and walk through a section, this is lit up and is a great chance to take it all in. Unfortunately for me it was quite awkward in the boat and as soon as I stood up I cramped in both legs, the giant chamber was not the perfect place for the words that came out of my mouth, but once I could actually move I found it quite funny.

Once out of cave the rest of the day was just taking on fluids - water and beer. I had an early night as I need to catch the bus to Vientiane at 7am the next day. So after all the effort to get there it was really easy to get out of the place and get to another city.