Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We caught the bus north to Miri before a quick flight to Gunung Mulu National Park. This park has been made famous by our hero David Attenborough when he visited to shoot the Caves episode of Planet Earth. We stayed at the Park HQ and booked on to some of the park's many activities.
On our first evening, we braved the darkness and set off for our rainforest night walk experience! The forest really comes to life after dark and the variety of bugs that came out was nothing short of terrifying! We even saw a tarantula sat waiting for its evening meal!
Over the next few days we visited 5 caves, Moonmilk, Langs, Deer, Clearwater and Wind. They were all special and unique for different reasons but the best of all by far was Deer Cave! This is home to the largest cave opening in the World and also 3 million bats. At about 5 pm in the evening, the bats all come out of the cave together in a stream as they eat 15 tonnes of insects every night! The sight was amazing as they curled in huge ribbons in the sky!
We also booked on to do the canopy walk which involved walking along 500m of suspended walkway to see what life is like in the canopy of the rainforest. Unfortunately, there wasn't a great deal to see but it was fun anyway!
The highlight of the visit to Mulu was the 3 day trek to the Pinnacles - a series of sharp limestone rock formations. The trek started with a boat ride and a 9 Km walk to Camp 5 which would be our 'open air' home for the next 2 nights. We met some lovely friends - Andrea, Ann, Stephen and Rekke with whom we spent our noodle eating milo drinking evenings! Day 2 came and we hit the 2.4 Km steep, steep slope to the top! Did I mention it was steep? 15 ladders and many, many ropes to haul ourselves up the track! But all worth it for the view! Coming down was even tougher and we just knew we were going to have sore legs for a few days afterwards! It was a huge challenge - completed may I add in just 8 hours 15 mins! 9 Km back to camp and the most rewarding hot shower since Everest!
- comments