9/3 – Gunung Mulu National Park

Our flight to Mulu leaves at 13:40, and we don’t have a program until then, so I can sleep late. Yay! Around 12 we leave for the airport, where a Fokker 50 is waiting to take us into the jungle. It’s my first time flying a turboprop aircraft, and the experience is very different (to me at least) from flying in a jet. The turboprops produce a rather high-pitched whine, but they’re more silent than jet engines. I’ve got a window seat right under the wing, which allows me to see the engine gondola and the main wheel (a Fokker F50 has it’s wing on top of the fuselage, most planes have the fuselage over the wing). Taxiing at Miri is like racing; the plane starts moving and races away at around 100 km an hour, and just when I think it’s not gaining enough speed to rse from the ground, it brakes hard and makes a 180 degree turn onto the runway. There the engines go into full power, and we take off for real. It’s interesting to see the main wheel fold up inside the gondola.



From Miri it’s a short flight to Mulu over the endless jungle. The river stretches out lazily between the trees, meandering in large bends towards Miri and the sea. A stewardess approaches with a pot of cup noodles: ‘From the gentlemen in row 12.’ Alessandro has made good on his promise. Unfortunately, the flight is so short that I’m stuck with the pot of noodles as we set in for landing. The F50 is a small plane, and it gets tossed about quite a bit. As we approach, I see only grass; is this is grass landing strip? Two seconds before touch down I see a small strip of concrete under the plane, and we land at Mulu airport. It’s tiny of course. A couple of servicing building and a main terminal which is small but modern. The backdrop consists of jungle, jungle and two large hills covered with, you guessed it, jungle. Luggage arrive on a cart, and you pick it up yourself. No customs of course. A flight like this is more like a busride.

Outside Arrivals our guide, Andy, is waiting for us. It’s a ten minute drive to the hotel, and when we arrive a large part of the group is already waiting for us; they took an earlier plane. We are staying in the Royal Mulu Resort, and although I have no clue what’s royal about it, it’s a very nice place. It’s all built on poles because the river on which it is located can achieve a much higher level, and this gives it a very special look. It’s the ultimate tourist place of course; to greet you there are people dressed in traditional garb, there is a pool, a spa, a gym, a bar and whatever else you expect at a four star hotel and the rooms are more than ok.

At 3 we meet up to go on a tour of some of the caves for which Gunung Mulu National Park is famous. Andy gives us an introduction to the park. Gunung Mulu is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and Andy expresses well what this actually means. Mulu does not belong to the local Papang people who have lived here for centuries, or to the people of Malaysia, but to us all.



We set off in vans to the entrance of the park, from where it’s a 45 minute walk through the jungle to Lang’s Cave and Deer Cave. We can walk over a boardwalk, which makes it nice and easy and allows you to see a lot of the jungle and it’s inhabitants. We see very few though, probably because the group is so large and noisy. As always, the climate is tough. Temperature around 30 degrees, humidity at 100%. The forest is incredibly noisy; mainly cicadas chirping away.





We arrive at the caves; they are hollowed out into the steep slopes of the mountains in Mulu. When I say steep, I mean steep. The incline is between 70 and 90% in many cases, making the mountains rise up sharply as huge domes from the jungle. Our first visit is to Lang’s Cave. This is a long, narrow cave filled with impressive formations like stalactites, stalacmites and erosion effects formed by flowing water.





Lang’s Cave would be an impressive place in any part of the world, but right next to it is a natural structure which has no equal on this planet: Deer Cave. Deer Cave is the largest underground water passage in the world. It’s large enough to allow a Boeing 747 to fly through it, and it’s length is around a kilometer. It would be larger even, had a part of the roof not collapsed long ago. In silhouette you can see the face of Abraham Lincoln against the light from the entrance.





Entering the cave does not give a good impression of its size. It’s only after about five minutes that the wide vaulted roof comes into view and leaves you breathless by the sheer immensity of it. As you walk further, the massive opening disappears in the distance and the light becomes dim and filtered, giving the cave a surreal appearance.



While the sight leaves one breathless, the smell makes it hard to remedy this issue. Deer Cave is inhabited by ribbed-nosed bats, and there are a lot of them. No one knows how many, but there are at least 3 million of them. That’s 3.000.000. A lot of bats. The smell in the cave originates from their droppings, called guano. The continuing chirping of the bats resonates through the cave.

Viewers of the BBCs stunning documentary series Planet Earth have seen Deer Cave before. Life inside the cave is shown in all its banality. Bats dropping from the roof into a huge pile of guano and being eaten alive by cockroaches, millipedes and other disgusting insects. I knew about this in advance of course, but luckily, most of the creepy crawlies stayed out of sight. We did run into a colony of huge earworms… not a nice sight.



Despite the smell and the insects, I had a hard time leaving this place. It’s unlike any place I’ll ever see in my life. We were on a tour with 20 people, which leaves little time to go out and do your own thing, but I could have stayed and gawked at this place for hours. It makes you feel humble before nature’s awesome power.

After leaving the cave, another stunning sight was waiting for us. Around dusk, it’s time for the bats to leave the cave and go hunting. A small theatre is built to observe this event, which takes place daily when the weather is good. I did not quite know what to expect; a huge cloud of bats? No. The bats follow each other. They leave the cave in groups and circle around, waiting for each other. Then, in a long, narrow flight, they take off towards the west, following each other using echolocation. Some groups take 10 seconds to pass, others last for minutes. Our guide tells us the bats will continue to leave the cave until around midnight. Towards dawn, the bats return to spend the day inside the damp and dim atmosphere of Deer Cave.



After wachting the bats, we return to the resort. It’s time to get a shower. After that, I join Chia, Tan and Frank in a small café on the other side of the river to get some dinner. It’s reached by crossing an old Bailey bridge, a much-used structure here. We return to the resort and spend the rest of the evening around the pool, sipping cocktails. To bed early, because tomorrow is another serious sightseeing day.