The caves around Thakhek
Christian Rachou - 1947
In 1947, Christian Rachou is physician-captain at the Thakhek Military Hospital. He uses his spare time to visit the hinterland and to explore the easily accessed caves.
Aged 32, even if not a seasoned caver, he is an experienced mountaineer, with the first ascent of the south face of the Néouvielle in the Pyrénées with Elie-Charles Fazeuilles, in July 1937. The limestone cliffs around Thakhek offer him a splendid playground for climbing. But these cliffs are punched also by many caves, that inevitably attract the attention of our explorer.
With friends, he explores several tunnels and caves crossing karst peaks, collecting locations, dates of exploration and describing carefully each visited cave. His notebook is a model which should inspire a number of "modern" cavers.
This inventory work is performed spontaneously, because Christian Rachou is also a passionate outstanding philatelist. This passion for collection will allow us, with the help of his family, to find his traces and rebuild his caving course in Laos.
Tham Xieng Liab, a nice through-cave not far from Thakhek, is clearly his favorite destination since he visits it some ten times ! For the record, this superb site is now a hot spot for rock climbing in the area, managed by a young couple. (visit greenclimbershome).
Besides the "classics", he also explores some noteworthy caves, including a 800 m tunnel still unknown to us.
He spots particularly a most interesting emergence in the village of Ban Thathot, near Nhommalat. For lack of adequate technical means, and especially dinghies, he cannot carry out the exploration.
Christian Rachou, Médecin-Général, in 2001.
“At the cliff foot, two large underground streams emerge from natural tunnels whose exploration remains to be done. It would require a rubber dinghy. The entrance of the first tunnel has a height of 3 to 5 meters, and shrinks rapidly along its subterranean course ; the entrance of the second tunnel is no more than 3 meters wide ; it seems to lead to a larger room that join the first stream. The ensemble is dominated 100 meters above by the entrance of a giant hole that would be worthwhile to explore”.
These scoutings will be valuable to another caver, also a soldier, Captain Cassan, then stationed in the neighboring Vietnam. Barely a month later, Henri Cassan arrives in turn in Ban Thathot. There he will explore the two tunnels and the "giant hole", and discover one of the longest and most beautiful river caves in Laos.
End of 1948, Christian Rachou leaves Thakhek to Luang Prabang, where he continues his cave visits. He reports that one of them, clearly distinct from the famous Pak Ou caves, contains thousands of Buddha statues. We didn’t find any other report about this cave. Another story to follow ?
Twenty years later, Christian Rachou, as Military Hospitals General Surgeon, will direct the medical services during the 1968 winter Olympic Games in Grenoble.
