Expedition Name (& Club): SMCC Thailand 2018 (Shepton Mallet Caving Club)

Destination country: Thailand
Region: Phitsanulok

Lat: 16.9151 Long: 100.3985 Elevation: 57 m
MEF funding: none

Leader: Mr Paul Dummer

Brief Expedition objectives:

List a short summary of the main Expedition objectives.

This time the expedition will be in and around the Phitsanulok area, we visited here briefly in 2016 on our way to Nan. The area is home to the longest known cave in Thailand but has had no work done there by any cavers for a number of years, the potential for new cave here and extending existing known cave is very high.

How can the GPF support your Expedition?:

Please explain the aspects of the trip which make it eligible for Ghar Parau funding.

Any help with regard to kit expense is always welcome, we will need to sort life jackets for everyone this time, so help there would be appreciated, also we are trying to encourage younger members of the club to get involved with the SMCC expeditions to Thailand to keep them going as us usual ones are getting older, if we can help them afford the expense then that would be beneficial for the future.

Detailed description of objectives:

Give a more detailed account of the purpose of the trip, including any particular known caves you intend to visit, specific areas where you will explore for new cave, and scientific experiments you will attempt.

The 2018 SMCC expedition to Thailand will be exploring and surveying caves in the Thung Saluang National Park, Phitsanulok province, central Thailand. The last caving expedition to this area was in 2004 and there are many inlets and climbs that are unexplored in the known caves. Close examination of the karst escarpment, where the majority of the caves resurge, is likely to reveal new caves.
The main cave in the region is Tham Phra Wang Daeng which is the longest cave in Thailand at 13.8 km. Only one team has ever been to the end of this river cave and many inlets and high level passages remain to be explored. Tham Khang Khao (3.7 km long) also has many inlets that have not been pushed. Another good lead is Tham Nam Long Lu which is a stream sink cave that has been explored to the top of an undescended pitch at a depth 75 m and probably resurges at Tham Duean/Tham Dao. A connection would make the system about 3 km long and 135 m deep. The 1 km long Tham Khlong Khun Huai Tum Lek has onl

Previous work in this area:

Give details of any previous work in this area by your own and other teams. Include references to reports and articles published on the area, and the names of any local cavers or academics with whom you have discussed the Expedition.

All known work in this area has been carried out by Simon Brooks and Dean Smart etc when exploring and surveying the longest cave in Thailand Tham Phra Wang Daeng.
These guys are the only team to do any work in this area
Martin Ellis has published some details in SMCC Journals and in his own Caves of Thailand book