The Land Of Caves

Mulu is indeed the land of caves. Besides the four big show caves - Deer Cave, Langs Cave, Clearwater Cave and Wind Cave, there are smaller caves like Moonmilk Cave, Turtle Cave, Racer Cave and Lagang Cave. After the Canopy Skywalk and Night Trail, and wandering around the Park Headquarters, I have not even come across a single cave! So one can imagine just how big this place actually is!

When I planned my trip to Mulu, I initially thought of going for all the major caves - Deer and Langs Caves on the first day, and Clearwater, Wind and Turtle Caves on the second day. However, after succumbing to cheapness on the day trip to Deer and Langs Cave and being too way over my head, I could take it no more and cancelled the other caving trip the following day. So I ended up just wandering around the following day before my flight back to Miri.

There are a few options for the Deer and Langs Caves. For those with young kids, they had to go for the cave touring, as in the guide would only bring you to the middle of the caves where the observation deck is and you get to see or hear the bats and the Abraham Lincoln profile, then out. Another option is the half-day Garden of Eden Pools, where the guide will take you to explore the cave, then out into a river.

The third option was the one I took - the full-day Garden of Eden Valley Walk, where we went into the cave, and out through the cave via a river, jungle trek, cliff walk, river bed, and finally reaching a waterfall. I chose that because it included everything - entrance to Deer and Langs Cave, jungle, waterfall, lunch and seeing the Bat Exodus. Besides it is only RM195.00 per person for the whole day and I thought it very worth it for what I was getting.

Little did I know what I got myself into. We started the trek at eight in the morning. After going through a stretch of boardwalk and trail, and seeing more jungle life in the process, we arrived at the entrance of Deer Cave. Mind you, Deer Cave is really big. In fact, it is the biggest show cave open to the public in the world. There is a bigger one in Vietnam but that is not opened to the public. It has been reported that fourty or so Boeing 747s can be contained inside Deer Cave itself. That is how big it is, but where we went is probably not even a fraction of the entire cave!

 We passed by the river, cave openings and some worms along the way

 Two millipedes together

 Cluster of millipedes

After about half an hour, we came to a little clearing where we could take a break. Incidentally, this is around the spot where visitors would go to every evening to see the Bat Exodus - swarms of bats flying out of Deer Cave. And yes, the full-day trip I went on, Bat Exodus is included.

 Bats would fly out from this mountain and cluster into the sky

 Entrance of Deer Cave

We entered Deer Cave and started walking. In order to preserve the cave, there is no light inside the cave. We had to rely on flashlights. We went past the opening for bats and the Abraham Lincoln rock formation, then went further in and got caught in bats and their droppings, climbed up stones, climbed under stones, squeezed in between stones, and came to an underground river. We had to wade in the river and stepped on the stones to get to the other side. There is no properly marked trail, so we had to just step everywhere. 

 Start of cave trekking

 Baby bat got caught on the ground

 Opening from inside the cave where bats would fly out

 The underground river we waded in

 Can you see Abraham Lincoln? The mouth of the cave where bats fly out

After what seemed like forever, we finally saw some light and stepped out of the river. The river bed was gushing as the water level increased, so the guide told us to climb over the rocks instead to get to the other side. The more adventurous ones in the group swam across the river, but I chose to climb over the steep rocks where one wrong step could be plunged overboard. 

 What the stones in the river look like

 The Aussie boy making his way out - we actually had to squeeze underneath these stones

 So happy to see this ray of light

 Had to climb and cross over this branch

 And climb over these stones

 Edge of the riverbed

 

Finally we reached the river bed where it would be the destination of those in the half-day tour. By then it was already around eleven, which means we were groping around in the cave for more than two hours. Because we were in the full-day trek, we had to go past the river into another part of the rainforest, where the whole trail started being very slopy. 

I thought Bako National Park was bad enough, but that was nothing compared to the trek at Mulu. The trail was going up and up and up so steeply that I thought it would never end! Then we went down and up again, and down and up again, and down and up again a few times. There was no properly marked trail, we had to step on rocks and tree branches and barks, hence we really had to follow the guide or else would get hopelessly lost.

 This was the start of the jungle trekking, where we had to go up and down and more wading in the river

 Managed to catch this insect perching on the stone

 This was where I slipped and fell, and my mobile phone got wet and officially died on me

After what felt like another forever, we finally went down and reached the edge of a waterfall. We then took out our clothes where we had swimsuits underneath, and started to wade in the river, cross and climbed over the rocks and into the waterfall.

By the time we reached the waterfall for our picnic lunch (packet lunch of rice, meat and vegetables with a drink is included in the tour where the guide handed us in the morning for us to take along), it was already past one in the afternoon, which means the whole jungle trek took another two hours!

Lunch was another ordeal, as I had to take the packet with me and swim and wade over to the big stones, where I had to balance myself and eat at the same time. To top it off, I had to share food with flies as big as queen bees, that were busily flying around me attacking my food. I was so engrossed in shooing the flies away that my meat fell out into the water at the edge of the stone!

 Waterfall at the end of the trek. I had my lunch on one of the big stones

Lunch was over in about fourty-five minutes. I was so glad to take the break that I thought it was not long enough! And the bad news was that, we had to make the same way back! Which meant more climbing, wading, squeezing, sloping and what not!

It was no easy feat, and I barely made it, thanks to the patient guide and the nice Australian family who helped me along the way. When we went back into Deer Cave, we started exploring the cave where the guano was and the observation deck nearer to Abraham Lincoln.

 Full of guano

 Interior of the Deer Cave

After we have finally came out of Deer Cave, we proceeded to walk a while more to explore Langs Cave. Unlike Deer Cave, Langs Cave is much smaller, hence the whole trip in and out of the cave only took ten minutes. And it is full of limestone, not natural rocks.

 Entrance to Langs Cave

 Interior of Langs Cave, flanked by a walkway and lights

 Stalactites and Stalagmites

As one can see, Deer Cave and Langs Cave are two very different caves. One is a natural deep cave, and the other is a small limestone cave. Yet both are in the same vicinity next to each other. Can anyone now imagine the wonders of Mulu National Park itself?

After coming out of Langs Cave, it was just time for the Bat Exodus. So we all went back to the resting place where we stopped by earlier on to await the flying out of the bats. The guide gave us complimentary biscuits and hot chocolate after our long and exhausting day.

 The hole where the bats are to fly out

Unfortunately, the weather did not bade well that day. Bat Exodus was supposed to be half past four in the afternoon. By the time we reached there, it was half past five, and no sign of bats. The sky looked as if it was going to rain anytime, and sure enough, by six, it started raining cats and dogs. By the time it was half past six, the guides told us to call it a day as the bats would not fly out in this rain. Too bad. :-(

The Australian family invited me to walk back with them as it was getting dark. Even though they stopped along the way to take photos of insects, plants and animals, I welcomed this invitation because it was better to have company. By the time I reached my longhouse, it was close to eight. I was hungry but was too tired to eat, so I just took a shower and sleep. And that was when I realised I got bitten by a leech!

I panicked as blood was squirting out from my tummy. I used a piece of tissue paper to cover the spot, but blood was still forthcoming. In the end, I had to go to the next room to get a piece of plaster, which the couple there kindly gave me. I was afraid I would bleed to death, but luckily the blood stopped the next morning.

The following day, I actually signed up to do a cave adventure at Clearwater, Wind and Turtle Caves, together with a river cruise, but I was so exhausted from the previous day's adventures that I cancelled the trip. Two caves in a day is more than enough for me! When I met that nice Australian family again on the day I departed, they told me it was lucky I did not go as they had to endure a bumboat ride and then another climb up two hundred steps! Thank goodness for that!

And so this concludes my adventures in the land of caves. Would I go back there again? Definitely. But no more full day cave adventuring in Deer Cave, think the next time round I would just be a normal tourist and just go to the observation deck intsead of exploring the whole cave. Then perhaps I would have more inclination to go to Clearwater and Wind Caves as well.