‘It was a miracle’: Thai cave boys describe two-week ordeal

It was meant to be a fun excursion after football practice, but it turned into a life-threatening, two-week ordeal for a group of youngsters trapped in a cave with rising waters and no apparent escape route.

When coach Ekkapol Chantawong led twelve members of his “Wild Boar” youth football team into the mouth of northern Thailand’s Tham Luang cave complex on 23 June, he thought they’d be no more than an hour.

“We didn’t have anything with us, no food,” he recalled at a press conference on Wednesday where the now world famous team recounted their harrowing ordeal and miraculous escape in their own words for the first time.

One of his pupils had a tutor class to get to later that evening. And besides, Ekkapol thought, the team often explored the complex after practice and knew its meandering tunnels well.

Thailand’s wet season was just around the corner — a period of monsoonal downpours that often floods the cave — and there were already pools of water inside the mouth.

A sign outside the cave warned against entry during the monsoon. But the kids were keen to have an adventure.

“We were discussing whether we wanted to explore the cave and, if so, how we would have to swim,” the 25-year-old coach, a much-loved mentor to the boys, recalled. “It would be wet, it would be cold. Everybody said yes.”

The team, aged 11 to 16, left their bikes and football boots near the opening of the cave before one of the boys waded into the water. The rest followed.

Source: AFP