Travel to Tham Lod Cave, Northern Thailand

Tham Lod cave in Mae Hong Son province of northern Thailand is about 8 km north of Soppong (aka Pang Mapha) off the 1095 road. The entrance to the cave is around 20m wide and 50m high, so not a tight squeeze to get in (which pleased me.)

I knew it would be a challenge to pull any really strong video footage having limited time and limited equipment with me, but I was prepared to give it a shot. I went down to the cave late in the afternoon to catch the site of some half a million swifts that enter the cave at dusk. Many of the birds were already circling outside and darting in when I arrived.

My guide lead me though and explained a little about the caves as we climbed the steep, narrow staircase to enter a number of smaller chambers. These housed four ancient teak coffins that have been carbon dates to 2500 years old. Bone, teeth hair and pottery artifacts were discovered with the coffins. There are many more coffins in other cave in the region.

I set my tripod at the head of the stairs we'd climbed, looking back out the entrance of the cave where quite a number of the swifts had begun to enter. I managed to capture the shrill sound reasonably well, but not the acrid stench of the bat and bird droppings that carpeted the cave floor. Thankfully I had with me a large, black plastic rubbish bag to lay down so my carry bag could remain clean.

I focused on the cave mouth and set the exposure manually for the outdoors light. Our guide let me utilise the lantern she was carrying for a little internal light in the cave. I set to record in slow motion to attempt to capture the flight of the birds. In the dim cave interior they were virtually impossible to see.

I shot other angles and views inside and outside the cave to build up a selection of clips. Certainly a challenging subject.

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