Though you won’t be able to take a ride through Son Doong Cave anytime soon, you can catch a glimpse of its monolithic beauty with this new drone video made by local photographer, Ryan Deboodt.
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We got in touch with Deboodt who talked about the many challenges of shooting a drone video in such an isolated location:
“Shooting in such a remote place has many challenges. One of my biggest fears on a trip like this is gear failure. I try to bring backups of as much stuff as I can and what I can’t get a back up for I just have to pray it doesn’t fail. I also have some homemade gear - bulb firers, time-lapse controllers, etc. - that necessitates me bringing equipment to fix it in case it fails. I’ll take in screwdrivers, a soldering iron and a voltmeter in case something isn’t working properly," said Deboodt.
“There were several near crashes when I was flying the quadcopter. At one point, I lost sight of the it and a few moments later, I lost my video feed and I thought I was going to lose it forever. I just started blindly bringing it back down and fortunately, my video feed came back and all was good,” he added.
The largest cave ever discovered, Son Doong was first uncovered in 1991 by Ho Khanh and was further explored by a group of British cavers in 2009 who found a jungle, rivers and a vast array of wildlife within its caverns.
Tours of the cave kicked off in 2013 at a price of US$3,000 per person, allowing a select few to enter the massive cavity.
Some companies have tried to take advantage of the cave’s magnificence with one announcing plans for the construction of a cable car through the cave last year. The scheme was met with public outcry and online petitions before Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism halted the project, saying that it lacked “sufficient input” from UNESCO and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
For now, this video, shot with a DJI Phantom 2 and GoPro Hero 4 in 4K, is the closest most of us will get to entering Son Doong.
Hang Son Doong from Ryan Deboodt on Vimeo.
