Gunung Mulu National Park

Friday 18^th

We woke at 3am this morning by thunder so loud and lightning so bright, only Addison slept through it. Although it made for a bad night sleep it was amazing to see the volume of water that comes down during a tropical storm – and the lightning display was stunning. An early pickup and transfer to the airport for our 9.10am flight. Unfortunately due to the smoke and haze in the air, our flight was delayed until 11am. A relaxed wait at the airport and then off to Mulu. It was exciting to land at an airport surrounded by jungle and with a short air strip. We were picked up by the local transporter and taken to our very simple accommodation called Mulu Vullage. It is a homestay close to the river but about 2km from the Gunung Mulu national park. It doesn’t sound far but in 80% humidity it seems a lot further. We quickly dropped our things into our room (5 single beds in one room) and then transferred to the national park for our first tour. A 2.8km walk to Lang cave which had stunning limestone formations. Not only was it stunning to see, it was great to find the cave and the formations so well cared for and protected. The park is really well maintained and organised – wooden walkways to most of the caves. After the Lang cave we went next to Deer cave which at 174m high and 2km long is the largest cave passage in the world open to the public. Once you get over the smell of the guano and the droplets hitting your body (not water droplets!) it is all so overwhelming because of its sheer size. The afternoon was sweltering, so we welcomed the thunderstorm as it cooled us down. Unfortunately for us bats don’t like the rain so we didn’t get to see the highlight of the walk which is the mass bat exodus of the millions of bats in deer cave. On the return walk in the dark we saw so many amazing creatures – stick insects, spikey stick insects, snails, frogs, caterpillars, millipedes, centipedes and many noises of things we did not see. Again it rained – but we didn’t bother with rain coats and enjoyed the cooling rain. A scrumptious (although overpriced) dinner at a local outdoor café and home for showers (getting rid of the guano). Early night.