Dinh Hong Nham only remembers it was sometime in the eighties that he stumbled on a cave while he and his son were trapping wild animals.

But all they did was admire the stalactites near the entrance. They did not explore it any further.

The entrance of Hung Ton Cave – one of the three caves rediscovered last Saturday in Quang Binh Province.

Several years later, he began to fish in the streams in the forest nearby, and had more opportunities to explore the area and the cave.

Using simple nets, a flashlight and an inner tube as a buoy, he began spending hours in the river that flowed through the cave, going up to six kilometers inside.

“The river is very long and becomes much wider at many places in the cave,” Nham says. “It could actually be flowing through Bo Trach (neighboring district to Minh Hoa District where the cave entrance is located).”

Nham did inform local residents of his discovery, but it aroused no particular curiosity or excitement in a province that is already famous for other caves like Phong Nha, Son Doong and En.

Last weekend, Thanh Nien followed up a lead about the new caves and contacted Nham, now 53 years old, who agreed to guide this reporter and a few others to the cave system tucked away in a forest in the province’s Minh Hoa District, that was never recognized or reported upon earlier.

The team found swiftly flowing rivers and countless stalactites and stalagmites with spectacular formations, and local residents spoke of seeing human bones and several pieces of pottery.

Starting from a village in Tan Hoa Commune, the expedition faced the first hurdle of a steep slope with sharp rocks after passing a vast valley.

Crossing another valley and a small mountain on the other side of the slope, the team arrived at the cave entrance. The cave has been temporarily named Hung Ton, as it is located next to the Hung Ton Valley.

The cave entrance is some 30 meters wide and 20 meters high with two chambers full of stalactites and stalagmites. The second chamber leads to a deep hole that prevented the team from further exploration.

From the Hung Ton Cave, the team went through To Mo Valley and Tu Lan Forest and reached the Tu Lan Cave with three grottos.

The Tu Lan 1 grotto has a small entrance but a wider chamber with a clear river flowing through it.

Nham said the river is very long because he had swum with a buoy for more than an hour but still couldn’t see where it flows. It could be that it flows through the Tu Lan 2 grotto, which is not so far away.

The entrance of the Tu Lan 2 grotto is some 25 meters wide and 20 meters high. Further downstream, the river flows through the Tu Lan 3 grotto.

The main chamber of the Tu Lan 3 grotto is larger, about 100 meters high and 100 meters wide. The limestone grotto has an impressive surface area of around 40 meters in length that looks like a stage with stairs made from deposits of minerals.

The two chambers lead to a stalactite wall with a small entrance to a deep hole that the river flows into.

Leaving the Tu Lan Cave, the team explored further to discover another cave and called it the To Mo Cave.

However, short of food and water, and lacking any equipment, this cave could not be explored further.

Nham said he had guided another resident, Hien of Xuan Hoa Commune, to the cave but the latter failed to publish the photo he had taken as it came out very dark.

Dinh Minh Chat, Chairman of Minh Hoa District People’s Committee, Tuesday confirmed to the Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper that Nham is recognized as having discovered the three caves.

As mentioned earlier Quang Binh is also home to the UNESCO-recognized world heritage site Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park.

In April, a team of UK researchers claimed they had found the two largest caves in the world - Son Doong and En caves – in the province’s Bo Trach and Minh Hoa districts.

Researchers from the British Cave Research Association estimated the Son Doong Cave at 200 meters high and 150 meters wide at its largest, while the measurements at En Cave are 150 meters high and 130 meters wide.