Today we left our hotel for the Swallow Cave, which was a long drive from Yuanyang to Juanshui. We found ourselves entering a huge and massive cave much bigger and scarier than we thought. The native locals have a tradition of climbing the walls of the cave without ropes each year, which is about 45m. Needless to say that’s a flipping long way up without being tied to anything and few people have died trying it. Suprisingly we were asked to sit at the entrance of the cave for a performance by one of the climbers, a little spec near the roof appeared and a local guy worked his way carefully to the bottom with us all gaping up at him. It was great!
We then entered the cave properly to explore the vastness. We saw huge stalligtites and stalligmites as well as strange rock formations hanging over the water at the base.

After a boat ride back to the enterance we continued on to our hotel for the night. We had been warned by the travel company that this hotel was only a 2*, but it was lovely. Nice and clean inside, the owner carried our bags to our room for us and then after dinner we sat downstairs with the boss drinking beer and tea learning Chinese and trying to understand each other. It was great fun and a shame we are only here for one night, but we have a flight to catch tomorrow and a new place to visit.