[Mulu, Malaysian Borneo] What a fantastic nights sleep. Now we’re ready to take on some serious caves. Today’s mission was the well trodden show caves in the area. After breakfast we headed out by boat to the ‘Wind’ and ‘Clearwater’ caves about 30 minutes north east of HQ. The sun was out but it was pleasantly cool on the river.

First up was the Wind cave. The trails are an impressive mixture of wood and steel walkways leading up the side of a mountain to the cave entrance. The caves are also very well arranged. Lighting controlled by motion sensors, well built walkways and perspex protection for some of the more delicate formations. Despite all that the cave was not very impressive. Very small a little variety of formations left us hoping for better at Clearwater cave.

After a brief rest we climbed the 200 steps up to the Clearwater cave entrance (a nice reminder that our legs are still sore from Kinabalu). Our guide pointed out some interesting rocks near the entrance that have ‘grown’ towards the sunlight (well the bacteria grows toward the light eventually leaving rock behind). The cave was smaller than expected but had some beautiful stalactites, stalagmites and columns. The endless and sometimes stretched paradolia got a little tiresome. Our guide indicated where the ‘adventure caving’ sections split off the marked trails and head along underground rivers for 6+ hours. Now that looks like fun!

Back at camp we had lunch and I promptly nodded off into a deep sleep. We are sleeping incredibly well here – the humidity and heat is something like ‘Durban fever’ I guess. V got us up and going in time for the afternoon expedition to the ‘Deer’ and ‘Langs’ caves. An hour long walk through the jungle (albeit on immaculate pressure cleaned raised walkways) got us to Langs cave. Our group consisted of a loud (that’s redundant) American couple and a local Malay couple. The Malay guy was interesting – seems he was on the crew of the first ‘Survivor’ and has worked with Nat Geo, Animal Planet etc. V and I just listened as we strolled along. A tree along the path provided some entertainment rattling when the leaves were tugged (well the excited ants and not witchcraft was resposible).

Near the entrance to Langs cave we came across some tiny worms that generate threads like spider webs to catch prey (straight out of Planet Earth) but otherwise it was another typical Mulu cave. Deer cave is well known in the area. It is more of a massive tunnel than a cave. Up to 200m wide and 150m high it’s home to an estimated 3 million bats plus an awful lot of guano. Our camera battery died as we entered the cave and I’ll blame the incredibly strong ammonia smell for letting me forget that the spare was in the daypack! We took a 1 km walk around the cavern. It was impressively vast. The bat colonies appear as massive black patches high up on the cave roof – just don’t look up with your mouth open. Back outside the cave we joined some more tourists at a viewing platform to wait for the bats’ daily exodus. Unfortunately the rain started and we only saw a few streams leave the cave. Apparently when they exit en mass it is a sight to see – maybe tomorrow.

We have to admit that the caves here aren’t what we expected. They may claim to be ‘the largest cave system in the world by volume’ and have ‘the largest chamber’ but they pale in comparison to the beauty of the caves outside Anshun, China. Malaysia has been pretty disappointing (and expensive) so far – we have struggled to get excited about the places. It could be that we are just tired but I suspect that we have become accustomed to having something amazing to do every day. It’s just not the case here. So we are actually getting bored and frustrated – having a fixed exit date is also not helping. The plan for tomorrow was to hit the adventure caves for some real hard-core fun and excitement but turns out they need to be booked weeks (or months) in advance and the next scheduled departure is after we leave. Seems crazy to have all these activities listed for the park but all the adventure caves are not available (not because they are popular, but due to shortage of guides) and the ‘Canopy Walk’ is being repaired. What a waste of time and money! Good thing we have some movies to watch for the next couple of days. Our hopes for Malaysia now rest solely on the diving at Sipidan. Roll on New Zealand and the freedom of the open road!

[Pictures: Some cool stalacmites in Wind Cave. Cool tree. Sim at the entrance to Deer cave just as the batteries went flat – Will upload V’s iPhone shots to the gallery soon]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi