up being trapped for two weeks, deep inside a cave underneath a mountain. . What happened over those two weeks is a remarkable story of friendship, human endurance and selflessness in saving lives. The dramatic rescue operation gripped the world.
Reading . The team and their young coach had often ventured deep into Tham Luang cave, sometimes as far as km for initiation rites where they would write the names of the new team members on a cave wall. . In high spirits, they clambered into the cave that fateful day with just their torches.
After all, they were planning to be there only for an hour. They never thought that they would not emerge until two weeks later. . Deep in the cave, the Wild Boars found themselves in trouble.
It had been raining for the last few days, and all the water falling on the mountain was fast filling up the Tham Luang cave system. The group was caught off guard by a flash flood. They had no choice but to scramble even deeper into the cave. 12th Communicative English Book.indb Page .
The Wild Boars eventually found themselves marooned on a small rocky shelf about km from the cave entrance, past a dry point known as Pattaya Beach which by now was flooded. Surrounded by darkness, the boys lost all sense of time. But they were determined to survive. They used rocks to dig deeper into the shelf to create a cavern where they could huddle together and keep warm.
Coach Aken, a former monk, taught the boys meditation techniques to help them stay calm and use as little air as possible and told them to lie still to conserve their strength. They had no food but they had water in the form of moisture dripping from the caves’ walls. They had the right conditions to survive at least for a little while. And most importantly the team had the support of each other.
. Outside the cave, a full blown rescue operation was quickly unfolding. Th e Th ai Navy Seals, the