Three days in Son Doong, the world's largest cave passage
Vietnam's Son Doong, the world's largest cave passage, started its life millions of years ago as a crack the width of a piece of hair. Today, adventurers marvel at the surreal caverns in its depths.
Vietnam's Son Doong is big enough to fit a skyscraper, but despite its immense size, it took 18 years for Ho Khanh, the man who first found the entrance, to rediscover Hang Son Doong, deep inside a Vietnamese jungle.
In 2009, Peter MacNab, along with a five-man team, were the first to explore the cave after Ho Khanh's discovery. They descended into darkness, with no idea what lay inside the depths of Son Doong.
"Every corner you went round was completely new, completely exciting," MacNab said. "And it just kept getting better and better as you went into the cave. It was absolutely spectacular."
Trekking through the jungle to Son Doong
MacNab recently returned to the cave with 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley. The only way to get to Son Doong is on foot. There was a group of 53, mostly porters carrying camping equipment and TV gear, and experts in safety and climbing. Visitors need to splash through 20 river crossings en route to the cave.
The jungle, in the Truong Son range between Laos and the South China Sea, is home to tigers and leeches.