Journey by Vietnam’s Son Doong, the surreal cave so massive a 747 aircraft might fly by it

Imagine, within the twenty first century, discovering a marvel on par with Mount Everest or the Grand Canyon. It occurred, in 2009, with the revelation of the biggest cave passage on the earth. It’s in Vietnam they usually name it Hang Son Doong, “Mountain River Cave.” An intrepid British explorer, Peter MacNab, led the primary crew by this epic underworld of caverns the peak of skyscrapers. MacNab is to caving what Armstrong is to the moon, the primary explorer. Recently, we requested MacNab to indicate us this surprise of the world. But earlier than we start our trek, we actually have to indicate you a preview of the place we’re going. 

Simply superb.

This was the second Son Doong caught us in its grasp: sunbeams cascading 120 tales from a break within the ceiling, groundwater, above us, slipping by the sunshine like rain — and rock reflecting what appeared like the one sound on the earth. Not many have stood on this area that transcends time. It was a reward for our journey that started days earlier than. 

The solely solution to Son Doong is on foot—a trek of a day and a half. We had a celebration of 53 — transferring in teams — largely porters heaving tenting and TV gear, plus specialists in security and climbing. There had been 20 river crossings — water flowing by limestone, two of the necessities for constructing caves.

This is the slender middle of Vietnam, the Truong Son Range between Laos and the South China Sea. 

We had been following the Vietnam War’s Ho Chi Minh path by a jungle the place tigers should not unknown and leeches are plentiful. 

Leading us had been explorers Howard Limbert, whose work in Vietnam over 30 years found 500 caves. And Peter MacNab, whom Limbert despatched to be the primary in Son Doong.

Peter MacNab: I discover it an journey going exploring and never fairly realizing what’s across the nook and simply form of discovering your manner by. And issues reveal themselves, like massive chambers, massive passages or tight slim bits, stunning formations. 

Scott Pelley: And there aren’t a lotta locations on Earth you can uncover for the very first time.

Peter MacNab: No. You must look fairly laborious for them.  

You must look fairly laborious for the doorway to Son Doong. You’d hardly discover however for the writing on the wall proclaiming the miracle of Ho Khanh. In 1990, Ho Khanh, a villager, found this entrance after he sheltered right here from a storm. He instructed us:

Ho Khanh (English translation of Vietnamese): I used to be amassing wooden. I noticed a sinkhole and I felt one thing unusual. 

The unusual feeling was wind blowing out of the bottom. cavers know that is the breath of an amazing cavern. In 2000, the British cavers requested Young Ho Khanh to indicate them, nevertheless it took eight years, he’d misplaced it within the trackless jungle.

Ho Khanh (English translation of Vietnamese): In 2008, I lastly discovered it. In 2009, they began exploring.

That exploration started right here. We’re simply inside trying again towards the doorway above. The first impediment is a spectacular 30-story wall that our climbing crew confirmed us learn how to descend. Darkness could be practically complete, however we lit it so you possibly can see. Peter MacNab was the primary to do that. In 2009, he and 4 others on his crew had been dropping into darkness. 

Peter MacNab: There’s an apparent massive black gap the place you are heading in direction of, and also you simply form of skirt round and go searching and discover, oh, this fashion’s fairly good, this fashion works. Quite typically, you get stopped, cannot get down right here. You simply principally really feel your manner by the cave by trial and error. 

Scott Pelley: You had no thought. 

Peter MacNab: None in any way.

Scott Pelley: What was past the sunshine in your helmet.

Peter MacNab: Yeah. No. We did not in any respect. Every nook you– went spherical was utterly new, utterly thrilling. And it simply stored getting higher and higher as you went into the cave. It was completely spectacular.

Spectacular, like the doorway we simply rappelled down. Look on the two males, midway down, holding lights. on the very high is the doorway and the final daylight we’d see for some time. 

At the underside of the climb, we met the architect of Son Doong, the Rao Thuong river. Its waters are acidic so it is actually good at dissolving limestone. 

Scott Pelley: Well, it is a fairly good setting for an interview.

Darryl Granger: Yeah.

In camp, we spoke to Purdue University geologist Darryl Granger, who got here right here in 2010 to determine when the river began its venture. 

Darryl Granger: We discovered a pleasant bundle of sediment, additional within the cave. And that dated to about 2.5 million years in the past.

That’s when the river first discovered a tiny crack within the limestone ridge.

Darryl Granger: The width of a hair, perhaps, proper? That’s all it takes to make a cave. The water began flowing by it and dissolving it greater, and greater, and greater. We nonetheless have water going by it right now. So, it is persevering with to get greater, as we communicate.

Our exploration of the cave took three days and two nights. The size is 5.6 miles — it is 65 tales tall — and the width of 1 and a half soccer fields. The Great Pyramid of Giza would match simply. A 747 might fly by the most important passage and never scrape a wing. Sometimes, the one manner ahead was the width of our shoulders, however we seen, within the broadest caverns, you typically lose the sense of even being underground. What reminds you is the isolation: no cellphone, no satellite tv for pc, we had been minimize off from the world. 

Roughly midway there was a lightweight forward. There are two skylights the place the roof collapsed — for us, a break from complete darkness and an opportunity to indicate you the size. Geologists name these holes “dolines.”

The phrase has European roots; it means sinkhole or melancholy. And this doline shaped as a result of the roof over our heads, the limestone, is a bit of bit thinner right here than it’s in the remainder of the cave. Then because the cave grew wider, and wider, and wider over tens of millions of years, it was unable to help the roof above. It all caved in proper right here. What’s outstanding about it’s that it permits mild into this cave that will in any other case be totally darkish, and it allowed the jungle to come back contained in the cave. Like the whole lot else in regards to the cave, this doline is gigantic. It’s 450 ft above my head. In different phrases, in regards to the peak of a 45-story constructing.

We stopped right here with Howard Limbert, who’s explored Vietnam because the 90s. 

Scott Pelley: When my producer, Nicole Young, steered this story, I turned her down. 

Howard Limbert: Mmmhmm.

Scott Pelley: I stated, “Nic, it’s a hole in the ground.” 

Howard Limbert: Yeah.

Scott Pelley: What was I lacking?

Howard Limbert: You’re missin’ finest journey that occurs on the earth. 

Scott Pelley: Something nobody’s seen earlier than.

Howard Limbert: That’s the fantastic thing about caves. If you are climbing a mountain, you possibly can see the place you are going, however in a cave, if you go in, you do not know what it may do. 

Scott Pelley: Your father was a caver?

Peter MacNab: He was, yeah. So, he was a caver in Scotland. 

Peter MacNab, the primary in Son Doong, has been caving since he was a boy.

Scott Pelley: You grew up in a cave.

Peter MacNab: Not fairly. But within– a mile of it.

MacNab is a building supervisor in New Zealand—massive tasks like hospitals –but you get the sense he does that to pay for this.

Scott Pelley: In all of the caving that you have finished, what’s the closest name you have ever had?

Peter MacNab: I’ve been caught. I’ve had rocks collapsed, and I’ve been flooded in.

He was caught, a number of years in the past, when he went headfirst right into a crevice that cavers name “a squeeze.” MacNab could not again out. A companion discovered him and used a knife to tear away his coat to offer him the spare half inch he wanted.

Scott Pelley: Did he pull you out by your ft?

Peter MacNab: Pretty a lot. Yeah.

Scott Pelley: You are nonetheless exploring this area?

Peter MacNab: Yes, sure. We come again each two years, and we have barely scratched the floor of the caves on this space. 

Scott Pelley: There could also be one other greatest cave on the earth.

Peter MacNab: There might nicely be. 

Truth is, MacNab’s first expedition in 2009, by no means reached the top of Son Doong. Beyond this underground lake, he found a 30-story wall and ran out of time earlier than he might scale it. 

We climbed it on our trek and understood instantly why they name it “the Great Wall of Vietnam.”

It’s a 300-foot climb on slick rock with no foothold anyplace.

Scott Pelley: It’s difficult sufficient till you understand, in fact, you might be doing it at nighttime, and it is basically raining. The floor water is coming from the roof.

So, with the whole lot moist you end up slipping again whereas climbing up. But our crew bought us up and over, drenched and a bit of exhausted.

Scott Pelley: Well, we saved the very best for final. We’ve made it throughout, practically, all of the miles of the cave over three days and now we have now just a bit bit additional to go. In reality, I can see the exit from right here. 

We might see it, that mild up there, however we nonetheless had fairly a climb to make. We discovered, by the top of our trek, that Son Doong could also be even bigger than we all know. Hundreds of ft under that lake behind us the water is draining someplace. There could possibly be extra caverns past. 

It’s the work of tens of millions of years more likely to proceed for tens of millions extra. Unimaginable — time — measured by a pendulum of sunshine, illuminating the splendor of one of many best marvels on, or beneath, the Earth. 

Produced by Nicole Young. Associate producer, Kristin Steve. Broadcast affiliate, Michelle Karim. Edited by Michael Mongulla.