Chang Luk Cave by Eric Valli

Chang Luk Cave

Nature, second prize stories

1990

Samane shins up a bamboo pole to reach the entrance to the Chang Luk Cave. His mates have moved the boat in case he falls. Bird's nest soup has been a prized Chinese delicacy since the Ming dynasty. The coveted nests are made from the saliva of tiny swifts living in inaccessible sea caves along Thailand's southern archipelago. The harvest is big business and the nests are taken under armed escort to the mainland, to be sold for vast sums of money. The men who risk life and limb to gather 'the white gold of the caverns' have to scale dizzying heights to reach them.

Photo Credit: Eric Valli

Eric Valli is a French photographer and film director. Valli spent most of his career as a geographical photographer working for the National Geographic Magazine and The Sunday Times, capturing more inaccessible locations in the world on camera.

He specializes in mountain scenery and is an expert on the Himalaya Mountains, and in 1999 directed the adventure film "Himalaya" about survival in the Himalayas starring Thilen Londup which became the first Nepalese film to be nominated for a Best Foreign Film Award at the Oscars.