Mulu Trekking

 We had to wake these guys up.

 Government housing.

 Traditional housing.

 River cruising.

 The entrance to Wind Cave.

 and the entrance to Clearwater Cave, looking in and then looking out.

 Vivien, Anthony and Ed, all Canadian.

 Dry season, shallow river.

 On our 9 kilometre trek through the rainforest.

 Bird Cave is the hole in the rock on the right of the photo.

Anthony preparing their bed in our communal room.

Thursday, June 14^th.

We had breakfast by 7:30 and left for our day’s journey by 8:30. We walked to the jetty where we loaded up into four long canoes and began a trip down the river through the rainforest. I was in the Canadian boat, with Ed, Anthony and Vivian. We had a driver who operated the 15-horsepower motor and another guide who sat at the front and watched for obstacles or used a pole to push us in the right direction. We stopped after a half hour to visit Kampung a local village. The people there used to be a nomadic tribe but in the 1970’s when the area was opened as the Mulu NP the government built them a village of longhouses and encouraged them to settle. They included a school and a clinic in the village too. We had a chance to wander around the village and into a little market where the locals were selling handicrafts they had made from bamboo and beads and other little things. Then we got back in the boat and travelled further to two more caves, Wind Cave and Clearwater Cave. Both were large and the former had two entrances and the wind blew through the cave from one end to the other and the latter had a river running through it, although much smaller river than millions of years ago when the cave was created by water. Both caves had some stalactites and stalagmites and lots of stairs up to them and through them. When we exited Clearwater Cave the guides had set up lunch for us.

Then we loaded up in the boats again and continued up the river. Because it is the dry season the river is very low and we had to get out of the boat several times to get it off the bottom and help the two guides push the boat up the river. Then we began our 9-kilometre trek through the rainforest. We walked on a narrow path full of roots, stones and hard packed earth. Apparently in the rainy season the path is very muddy and there are lots of leeches. Luckily for us it has been dry for a while. The weather was really humid, and we sweated buckets, but thankfully we were under the canopy which protected us from the sun. We walked for about three hours through the beautiful rainforest listening to its sounds. My Keens are on their absolute last legs. The binding is about to give way and they were wet from walking in the river and things got in them on the trek which rubbed a couple of my toes raw.

Finally, we arrived at Camp 5 where we stayed the night. There is a longhouse here with five rooms that can hold about 16 people each. There are long shelves on either side of the room for us to sleep on and we are provided with a gym type mat and a mosquito net. We left our backpacks in our communal room and we went down to the river where we had a dip in the lovely cool water which brought down the body temperature and rinsed all the salt off our bodies and out of our clothes. There was another huge limestone mountain on the other side of the river and I could see two caves about three quarters of the way up. I asked Donny if bats came out of them and he told me that the one was Bird Cave where hundreds of swallows nest every year. They build their nests from their feathers and other things and use their saliva as the binding glue. After the birds leave, the locals abseil from the top of the hill to the cave and take all the used nests out to sell to the Chinese who make bird nest soup from them. Then we hung around talking and listening to the approaching thunderstorm, until dinner was ready, which Bonny had cooked: chicken and ginger, rice and two veggies.

Then we had a briefing about tomorrow and headed to our room for the night and another early start.