Dau Dang Falls

Ba Bể Lake is where the water stands still among the mountains. About 3 kilometers west of the lake, at Đầu Đẳng, the water meets stone and turns into sound.

The falls lie on the Năng River, on the line between two provinces. One is Thái Nguyên and the other is Tuyên Quang. The geography is simple. The river runs into limestone blocks of every size, piled up across its path. The water can no longer flow smoothly. It slips through the gaps between the rocks and drops in stages, and the noise carries through forest and mountain. The falls are about 53 meters high and come down in three steps.

There is no road to the village of Bản Cám, where the falls are. The way in is by water. The trip starts at the Buốc Lốm landing and runs down the river, past Puông Cave, to the falls. Boats come ashore at the village, and the last stretch is on foot.

Đầu Đẳng is not a roadside stop. It is one point on a trip by water and on foot, and the trip depends on the level of the river and on the weather. The same limestone blocks that make the falls are what make them beautiful: rock covered in moss, water running through every gap, and a sound that changes with each place a visitor stands.

Around March and April, after the first rains of the season, schools of fish are said to swim up the falls against the current. The people who live here call it the season when cá chiên climb the falls. In the right weeks, a visitor may see fish thrashing in the white water.

In 2024, the provincial government of Bắc Kạn issued Decision 981, a plan to develop the Ba Bể area into a national tourist zone. The decision lists the falls as one of the core natural sights of the area. The list also includes the Năng River gorge and Ao Tiên. Puông Cave is on it too. So are two islands, An Mạ and Bà Góa. The falls do not stand alone. They are part of a much larger stretch of nature that is now being taken seriously.

In the Ba Bể forest, between limestone mountains and ancient trees, the water falls over the rock one step at a time. The Năng River ran this way long before anyone named these falls Đầu Đẳng.