The Bat Cave Leading to the Garden of Eden
On our journey to the first cave, the windy cave we stop of in the local nearby village, batu bangnan, the last Benbang village. It is here that Peter is to deliver a hand written letter to one of the locals,Nya Pun, who help Nigel Winser during the Royal Geographical Societies first expedition to Mulu to survey the recently discovered caves back in the 1970's. we are introduced to the old man, eskin and bones, skin of leather but looking healthy and hand him the letter. He informs us through an interpreter, Joe our guide, that he remembers Nigel and still has a fond picture of him. He introduces us to his wife and daughter and I guess his grandson, it may be a great grandson, the man is old and the baby very young. His wife insists on giving us a gift, a bracelet each, which is rather embossing as we have nothing to give them other than the letter. I do hope that someone will be able to read it and translate to him.
The village consists of one long building that has been recently erected. The old one was damaged recently , 2014/5 during a storm or high river surge. The newer building has partitions for each family, whereas the older building used to be just one long open space.
It is a simple existence, but not one for the dogs. The dogs appear to have a mixed life, some look reasonably well cared for and well fed, while others look undernourished and scrawny. One poor pup was tied to a fence and was unable to reach the shade just inches away. It looked in distress and we tried to alert the villagers to it plight. We were however unsuccessful as no one came to its aid. This was 't wanton cruelty and the dog did look otherwise heathy, it is just the way.
Our visit done we head of via our leaky but floating boat to the first of our caves. Here we are led up a steep path to one of the entrances and get to see inside the limestone cave. We only trek inside for about 300m but are introduced to a wonder out display of stalactites and stalagmites. Tights come down and mites rise up (also the g in stalagmites represents ground and the c in stalactite the,ceiling). The windy cave gets its name from a windy passage that winds up towards an opening in the rock above. When your deep in a cave and manage to see an opening way above you it is quite magical. The wind is produced by the air passing through the opening above and the cold air descending to the entrance we entered by.
Our next cave is the clearwater cave which actually connects to the windy cave. If you are in Mulu for longer than we are you can go on a cave adventure were you pass between the to caves via swimming along an under ground river. This is the clearwater of the clearwater cave.
The clearwater cave is larger than the windy cave and have various passages, one of which is the lady passage so called because there is a stalactite in the shape of Our Lady. I see this straight away but it is even clearer when you see the shadow from a flashlight's projection.
The end of the cave is were we see the clearwater river running through and are able to see the effect that the water has had through millions of years of flowing. This is the way to teach geology and geography, much better than the way it was taught in my day (nb. I never passed one school geography exam no mattter how hard all my teachers tried, who were all good in there own ways, I was just useless, sorry David Eleray, but your only hope would have been to take me on school trips like these, Charles and Lindsey, this location would make for a fine school field trip).
Our way back to the base is down river so we make good time passing villages washing clothes etc. The river is truly the life blood of this area. On the previous night I discovered that for the locals to travel to Miri it takes them two days, one,day to Maruadi and then another to Miri via river, took us just 30 mins). We really are in the jungle. There are no roads in or out, all power is by generator, water is rainwater / river water and the internet, the little there is is satellite.
We have lunch at the locals cave outside of the "park entrance" were we talk to a couple from Singapore. A friendly couple who provide me with some insect repellent that is used by the Singaporean army.
At 2:30 we make a 3km walk to deer cave and Lang cave. Lang cave has some,amazing jelly fish speleothems formations in the limestone, it is here that we also see the silhouette of Abe Lincoln / a women in the rocks by the entrance our guide here is more informative than Joe.
Of to Deer Cave. Deer cave is were 3 million bats 🦇 hang out and poop. Deer cave is one of the largest open caves in the world, the largest being in Vietnam. It is called deer cave because this is were deer would come to eat the bats poop because it is full of salt. Salt is a necessary mineral for muscles and is missing in a vegetarian diet (so Tim get Clare to eat bat poop). At the end of this cave is a superb vista, the garden of Eden, and I truly can see why it is called so. On our arrival to the vista it was raining, but the mist of the rain make it look even more ephemeral. In the cave before the vista we are shown Adams shower up high and eves lower down. These are stalactites that have arisen through periods of different water flow and thus look like shower heads. The garden of Eden is actually were a link between deer cave to green cave used to exist. If this link had remained deer cave would boast being the largest open cave structure.
We leave the bats behind, neck still clear from bites, hair untouched and no signs of bat poop on us to the rainy outdoors and head down to the bat exodus being galllery. The rain however makes it unlikely that we will,get a treat tonight. We are still hopeful though, the bats did not give a display yesterday either, so maybe they are hungry today.
Here we talk to two young female doctors (one called Emily Shaw) on a 5 month vacation before entering practice. They are off to Sri Lanka soon and I promise to introduce Mafaz to them, so I must,do this when I have internet connectivity.
We left deer cave at 5 and wait until 6:20 for the exodus, alas it did not happen, we shall try again tomorrow.
So we make the 3km walk back to the base chatting with another couple Nina and Simon who are police officers from Dorset travel for five years (with some work breaks in between, the police must pay well are must be very flexible, good on them). On returning to the hotel we forgo the hotel beers at 30 ringits a can for 9 ringits in the bar just outside over the bridge.
Dinner is had at the hotel and then off to bed.
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