The Gappies

So, that´s the end of our year around the world. By way of celebration, please don your black tie / party dress for the announcement of the Gap Year Awards “Gappies”.

Best Outdoor Activity

In 3rd place:  Tubing in Vang Vieng, Laos

In 2nd place:  White water rafting in Buller Gorge, New Zealand

And the Gappy goes to…kayaking in the Abel Tasman Sea, New Zealand

Best Hike

In 3rd place: The Pinnacles in Mulu National Park, Malaysia was technically the toughest hike.  So steep, that you have to climb virtually vertically

In 2nd place: The Inca Trail

and the Gappy goes to… The Narrows in Zion National Park, Utah.

Best Educational Activity

In 3rd place: Cooking class in Hoi An, Vietnam

In 2nd place: Batik class in Chiang Mai, Thailand

And the Gappy goes to…Star-gazing in New Zealand

Best Cultural Event

In 3rd place: Chinese New Year, Malaysia

In 2nd place: El Gran Poder Festival, La Paz, Bolivia

And the Gappy goes to…O-bon Festival in Nara, Japan

Best Historical Monument

In 3rd place: The Great Wall

In 2nd place: Machu Picchu

And the Gappy goes to… Angkor Wat

Best Beach

In 3rd place: Hot Water Beach, New Zealand

In 2nd place: Varkala Beach, Kerala

And the Gappy goes to… Nam Cat Island, Ha Long Bay

Best Hostel

In 3rd place: Giggling Tree, Yangshuo, China

In 2nd place: Treetop Lodge, Ban Lung, Cambodia

And the Gappy goes to …El Tesoro, Elqui, Chile

Best Mode of Transport

In 3rd place: Sea Plane, Taupo, New Zealand

In 2nd place: Bamboo boat, Li River, China

And the Gappy goes to…Bamboo train, Battambang, Cambodia

Best Food

In 3rd place: Shaved ice with adzuki beans, Japan

In 2nd place: Tim tams, Australia

And the Gappy goes to…Pho, Vietnam

Best Museum

In 3rd place: Natural History Museum in New York

In 2nd place: Buddha Park, Laos

And the Gappy goes to…Pinang Peranakan House, Penang, Malaysia

Best Animal Encounter

In 3rd place: In a strong category, third place goes to Madidi National Park in the Amazon.  As we were fishing for piranha, we turned around to see a mother and baby tapir (usually nocturnal) crossing the river.  Our guide was even more excited than we were.

In 2nd place: A dusk hike in the Malaysian island of Langkawi.  Langkawi is more of a beach resort / duty free haven so expectations for wildlife spotting were low.  We got about two feet away from a buzzard pinning a lizard to the ground.  Then we saw flying lemurs (with tiny babies clinging to their bellies), flying squirrels and flying lizards.  All either inside or about ten minutes walk from a big hotel complex – unbelievable.

And the Gappy goes to…snorkelling in the Celebes Sea off Mabul Island, Borneo.

Best City

In 3rd Place: Singapore. Many people find Singapore too sterile, too controlled, too boring. It probably wouldn´t have made my top three if it had been the first place we went to, but it makes the list for two reasons: (1) after a month in India, sterility, order and a bit of luxury really hits the spot and (2) it had Elephant Parade! Plus it has great museums, a nice waterfront and all the home comforts you could want.

2nd Place: Hoi An – beach, mini Angkor Wat, amazing food and everyone there tells you that you’re beautiful.

And the Gappy goes to…Tokyo, big, full, colourful, insane.

Best Country

In 3rd place: Bolivia, salt flats, street parties, amazing wildlife in the Amazon and the picture-perfect Isla del Sol.

In 2nd Place: Japan the craziest place in the world.

And the Gappy goes to… Malaysia, which takes the crown because whereas we only spent two weeks in Japan and Bolivia, Malaysia kept us entertained for six whole weeks and was fabulous throughout. Apart from the time we nearly died on Mt Kinabalu. And the mosquitos in Kinabatangan. And Kuala Lumpur’s town planning department. But apart from that, amazing.

So that’s it from my fantastic year off. Back home now, job-hunting and and that. All subscribers to this blog please feel free to unsubscribe now, because it’s going to get a lot duller from now on.

Mount Kinabalu

Our swansong in Borneo before we move on to Hong Kong is to climb Mount Kinabalu.

We get up at 6am to make it to starting point, meet our guide Wilfred and start climbing at 8.30am. The trail is very well marked and maintained – it’s mostly steps the whole way. You feel like you could turn a corner and come across a Starbucks at any moment. We start at around 1,800m altitude and after 5k of trail we are at 3,000m. At the 3,000m point it’s like someone has flicked a switch in my body. Up to that point I was pootling up the mountain fairly happily, but after 3,000m I had to stop every 50m or so to catch my breath and let the nausea subside. I don’t remember ever feeling the effects of the altitude while climbing Mt Fuji, but our hut on Fuji was at 3,000m so I had the chance to acclimatise before going higher.

Eventually we make it to our hut at 3,300m. It’s a nice place – separate bunk beds so there’s going to be no repeat of the 8-in-a-bed scenario from Mt Fuji. Plus the buffet dinner at the nearby restaurant is amazing – there’s more fresh fruit and veg up here than in most sea-level Bornean restaurants. On the way up we were passed by many porters virtually jogging up the mountain with crates strapped to their backs. The effort is worthwhile; there are few things in life better than a good buffet when you know that you are not just allowed, but actually required to consume as much as you can.

We go to bed at 7.30pm for a 2am start the next day. There’s a massive thunder storm and the lightning looks really impressive since we are above the clouds, so we go to sleep hoping that the rain stops before we have to set off in the morning.

We’d met some people in Mulu who had stayed in the same hut as us and they warned us that the breakfast was paltry; two bits of dry toast to sustain you for ten hours hiking. So we’d brought a small jar of nutella up the mountain with us. Dry toast + nutella = breakfast of champions!

Wilfred comes to collect us at 2.45am and we set off. It isn’t raining when we start, but it starts to rain heavily after about half an hour. Wilfred warns us that the route to the summit may be closed if the weather stays bad, but when we reach the final checkpoint it is still open. I am surprised as the weather seems really dangerous to me. The rain is very heavy and is pouring down the granite rock in sheets. We have to walk through many small waterfalls. Waterproof shoes are no good if the water is over ankle depth. Our feet are soaking wet, and so are our hands from holding onto the guide rope. There’s lightning all around us.

With wet feet and hands the cold sets in and we are absolutely miserable. After an initial steep and precarious section, the final 1,500m or so is actually quite a gentle slope, but the cold and wet is making me want to quit. At one point I call to Wilfred and am going to say that I’ve had enough. But before I can, he tells me that we only have another thirty minutes to go. So I decide to knuckle down and push on for the last half an hour. At least the altitude doesn’t seem to be effecting me. Either a night’s acclimatisation at 3,300m has done the trick, or I just have too many other things to worry about to notice the altitude.

The final 200m is a steep climbing section and then we are at the summit. I understand that the summit is usually quite crowded with climbers, but there are only about ten people up here with us. Stopping moving is a very bad idea and I quickly go from simply “cold, wet and miserable” to “shivering uncontrollably and in tears” almost instantly. In fact, everyone at the summit seems to be feeling grim, with a couple of people looking even worse off than me. Everyone, that is, apart from the guides, who seem to be taking it all in their stride and are chatting and smoking as usual. If you work on the mountain, it seems that no amount of cigarettes can make a dent in your lung capacity.

We quickly get our photo taken at the summit sign, for which I try to muster a smile. Then we hunker down in a sheltered spot for a little rest. We blow on our fingers for about ten minutes until they are sufficiently mobile to work a zip and get a couple of chocolate bars out of our bag. Mr Beet eats his, but I feel too sick. We have reached the summit at 5.15am, so we are about 45 minutes early for sunrise. We decide it is better not to wait, but to get moving again as soon as possible. So at about 5.30am we set off back down the mountain. I feel much better now we are moving and soon the sky is light enough for us to see our surroundings and the view, which makes things a bit jollier. We later find out that the checkpoint gate was shut after we went through due to the bad weather and only 25 people made it to the summit that day. The Canadian couple who were sharing our room had to turn back with only 200m to go (an agonisingly close 23m below the summit altitude) because they were too cold and wet.

Mr Beet and I had signed up to do a via ferrata on the way back. We are meant to meet the instructor at the start point at 7.30am, but because we didn’t hang around for sunrise on the summit we are an hour early. We wait for a little while, hoping that he may arrive early, but he doesn’t and we are simply too cold to hang around on the exposed rock. We start to descend and after a while we meet the instructor on the way up. He advises that the course will be very wet and, since we are already cold and wet, he suggests we do the shorter route instead. We are torn, because we really want to do the full version, which is the highest via ferrata in the world. But the clincher is that for the long version, we have to wait on the mountain for an hour, whereas if we do the short version we can wait in a hut, where there will be hot drinks and they may be able to rustle up some dry gloves for us.

A via ferrata is basically a route down the mountain face where you are carabinered on to a fixed metal cable; a safe and easy version of mountain climbing. The shorter route that we take is lots of fun and we get some great views. After a miserable time on the summit climb, this makes our trip worthwhile. It even stops raining.

After a couple of hours on the via ferrata we head back to our hut to change into dry clothes, eat a second breakfast, stretch and exchange horror stories of the summit climb. We then set off back down the mountain, which is 6k and a 1,500m descent. Walking down steps for four hours is no fun, but we entertain ourselves by telling everyone on their way up how horrible the summit climb was.

Pictures of the climb and the via ferrata are on Mr Beet’s flickr page.

Snorkeling in the Celebes Sea

After three days on the Kinabatangan River, we decide that the only way for us to avoid the mosquitos is to be underwater.  So we head to the coast.  Borneo has some of the best places for scuba-diving and snorkeling in the world.  Mr Beet doesn’t have a scuba qualification, and I am only licensed to 12m, so we opt for snorkeling.

After one night in the town of Semporna (a dive of a different sort) with a rat tap-dancing on our ceiling, we get a boat to the island of Mabul for the first of three days of snorkeling.  As the boat took us to the first dive site, I was pleased that we were snorkeling rather than diving.  The divers were still getting all their gear together and having detailed briefings, whereas we just stuck on our masks, snorkels and flippers and jumped in.

The only places I have ever been diving before are:

(1)  the swimming pool in Thornton Heath Leisure Centre; and

(2)  a muddy gravel pit in Slough.

So when I put my face into the water for the first time, it was a revelation.  It really was like Finding Nemo down there. The coral was so beautiful and there were so many fish.  The dive instructors tell you special fish to look out for, but even the common fish that nobody gets excited about were new to me and so colourful.  Even the grey ones that are not so pretty try to make up for it by swimming round in huge shoals, so you can get caught in a cloud of fish sparkling silver in the sunshine.  I suppose that wildlife spotters in Borneo like to see the orang-utans because they are so like us, but they like to see the fish because they are so alien.

The first hour’s snorkel went by in a flash of me pointing out every little thing to Mr Beet and going “…’oook! ‘oook!…ahhhh…’ootiful!“.   We had three snorkels in different locations that day.  At the end of the day, I was delighted but Mr Beet was a bit disappointed that we hadn’t seen any turtles.  So that was something to keep our fingers crossed for the next day.

The next day we saw turtles aplenty, big green ones and smaller hawksbill ones.  We saw so many that I’m not entirely sure how we managed to miss them on the first day.  We must have been too excited to look around properly.  After two dives, and many a turtle spotted, Mr Beet decides that he has fulfilled his snorkelling ambitions and will take the rest of the afternoon off to take advantage of the hammock outside our room and the free wifi.  I’m not sure, but his decision might have had something to do with the banded sea snake we saw on his final dive.  The guide was telling us all about it: “That’s a sea snake.  They stay at the bottom for long periods, but they breathe air so they come up every once in a while.  They’re really cool.  Their bites are lethal to humans.”

I’m still having an amazing time, so I sign up for more snorkels on the third day (even though this means I have to go straight from the salt water to the airport afterwards).  Everyone else in our group seems to lack stamina though, and they start dropping off so that by the final trip of the day I am the only snorkeller.  I’m slightly concerned about this, as I’ve seen that film Open Water and I’m worried that if I’m the only one I might get forgotten.  As it turns out, my fears are well-founded as the boat does indeed forget me.  OK, so I was with a guide and we were within swimming distance of the jetty, but even so!

We saw loads of beautiful fish.  My favourites were some of the ones that weren’t unusual, including what I can best describe as the fish played by Willem Dafoe in Finding Nemo.  Some of the more interesting things I spotted included turtles, sting rays, moray eels, ribbon eels, sea snakes, lion fish, scorpion fish, crocodile fish, goat fish, unicorn fish, pipe fish, file fish and trumpet fish (thanks to little79bear, dandandanRyan, Tchami, berniedup, TRACC-Borneo, atomicshark, Nemo’s great uncle and Boogies with Fish some flickr members with waterproof cameras, for the photos).

Kinabatangan River – When Mosquitos Attack…

From Sepilok we go to stay for a couple of days in a nature lodge on  the Kinabatangan River.  It’s a bit like a holiday camp here – they ring a gong every time you need to present yourself for an activity.  The first activity is a boat trip at dusk – the best time to spot animals.  The first the guide spots is an orang-utan.  It’s cool to see one in the wild, even though we just saw loads at the rehabilitation centre, but it’s very far away.  Here’s our photo – 100 points if you can spot it!

We also see more proboscis monkeys

A tree-full of silver leaf monkeys

Some hornbills – they are very fun to watch as they have a very distinctive  silhouette and a funny way of hopping along a branch.

And two types of macaque – they may be common as muck but they always make for a good photo opportunity!

After dinner Col discovers that he has about 50 mosquito bites on his back already.  This is the start of a two-day battle with the most ravenous and persistent mozzies we have come across in seven months in Asia:

Us: Natural insect repellant (lots of)

Mozzies: CHOMP!

Us: Unnatural, highly-toxic DEET insect repellant (lots of)

Mozzies: CHOMP!

Us: Long trousers tucked into thick socks

Mozzies: CHOMP!

Us: Special anti-mozzie long-sleeved shirts

Mozzies: CHOMP!

Us: Wearing gore-tex raincoats at all times

Mozzies: Hmmm… CHOMP YOUR LEGS!

After two days, we have between 400 and 500 bites between us.  The lodge seems to understand the problem, as they keep ringing the gong for orange-squash-and-biscuits-time, just like you get after donating blood at home.  And if our donation to the local mosquito population wasn’t enough, the guides take us on a hike through the jungle to see if the leeches want to have a munch as well.  After all Mr Beet’s concerns about leeches these past few months, he is very dismissive when I actually get one “oh that’s just a tiny one – just flick it off”.  By the end of the hike (where we see two types of leech but not much else) we have had about half a dozen leeches each and are experts at flicking them off (there’s a technique to it).  Thankfully none actually reach our skin.  One of the other guests woke up in the middle of the night with one on his neck and he hadn’t even been on the jungle hike.

After our night hike (much the same as the day hike, except this time you couldn’t see the leeches) we get back to our room and head straight to the bathroom to strip off for a thorough leech inspection.  Suddenly the leeches weren’t the problem any more as we were sharing the bathroom with a great big rat.  He scuttled off and we discovered that he had been nibbling our soap, teabags and water bottles.  We left the fan running all night to try to drown out the sounds of them scurrying around in the roof, but we didn’t get much sleep.

We had a couple of dawn boat trips as well and we saw mostly the same animals as previously, but also a water monitor (a baby compared to the one we saw in Penang).

We tried to spot crocodiles and Bornean pygmy elephants as well, but the water level was too high to see crocs and the elephants had moved to another area.  But we did get a brilliant view of an orang-utan on our last night to make up for it.

More photos where you can play “spot the wildlife” on Mr Beet’s flickr page.

Don’t just stand there…

Let’s get to it…

Strike a pose…

There’s nothing to it…

VOGUE!

Orang-utans!

From Mulu we fly to Kota Kinabalu and then get a bus to Sepilok.  Sepilok is a small village with a big attraction – orang-utans!  There is an orang-utan rehabilitation sanctuary here and tourists can visit the fourth stage of the rehabilitation process.  By this point, the orang-utans are living in the wild among other orang-utans, but the centre still gives them some extra food to supplement what they can find for themselves.

When we arrive there are about 20 coaches parked in the car park and there are about 500 people watching the 10am feeding.  With that many people, the “Quiet” signs are all but useless, but the orang-utans must be used to a fair amount of fuss because they turn up anyway and seem unperturbed.  We see three mothers with babies; I guess the nursing mothers need the extra food more than the others.  The babies are of course very sweet, playing to the crowd by falling head-first into a bucket of milk.

We stick around for the afternoon feeding and by this time the coach parties have left and there are only around 40 people in the afternoon, so it is much quieter and we see more orang-utans and they stay around for longer.  We see a family group of mother, father and baby.  This is lovely as the mother and father are cuddling each other and both are playing with the baby.

While I am watching, I feel someone push in beside me to get a closer look.  Cheeky monkey!

After all the food has gone and the macaques have swarmed in to deal with any leftovers, the apes reward the relative quiet of the spectators by hanging around for a while and getting close enough for some great photos.

More photos of orang-utans than you can shake a stick at on Mr Beet’s flickr page.

Goat Girl and the Inner Gymnast

Sometimes the inside of the BeetBrain is a strange place to be.  Especially when my mind tries to distract itself from some monotonous physical activity like a long run or, in this case, climbing the Pinnacles.

The guidebook says that to complete the climbing section of the Pinnacles you need to “unleash your inner gymnast”.  So when faced with a tough bit, I would say to myself “Inner gymnast – UNLEASHED!” in the style of He-Man invoking the Power of Greyskull.  After a while though, I started thinking about this too much.  I used to do acrobatics classes, so technically I have an “outer gymnast” and I don’t see how being able to do a pretty solid handstand is going to help me here.  After all, I’m not going to cartwheel my way to the summit.

So I re-leash my inner gymnast and instead create a more helpful alter ego.  I imagine that I am Goat Girl, a superhero with the powers of a mountain goat.  I have plenty of time on the precarious descent to flesh out my character.

Name:  Goat Girl (I considered Super Nanny, but I understand that’s already taken)

Back story: Goatherd bitten by a radioactive goat at an impressionable age develops superpowers.

Superpowers:

1.  Superhuman surefootedness

2.  A good head for heights

3.  A strong back-kick (this doesn’t help me on the climb, but if I’m going to be a superhero then I will need to more than just climb stuff.  I’ll need to fight crime and whatnot)

Costume: Fairly subtle so as to blend in with normal people; just a mohair jumper and a necklace with a charm in the shape of a bell.  The bell charm may or may not have magical properties, I haven’t decided yet.  Or it might not be magic, but have some cool Batman-like technology like it is actually a GPS or a distress beacon or something.

Theme Tune:

Da-da, da-da, da-da-da, da-da, Goat Girl!

Da-da, da-da, da-da-da, da-da, Goat Girl!

Da-da, da-da, da-da-da, da-da, Goat Girl – the girl who’s like a goat!

Nemesis:  Jamaican chefs

Tips for Climbing the Pinnacles

1.  Wear gloves – The interesting geology of the area means that all the rocks are very sharp.  But you won’t care about the interesting geology if you cut your hand open.  The park shop sells cheap gloves.

2. Take long trousers for days 1 and 3 – There are leeches on the trail you need to walk on days 1 and 3.  Leeches aren’t dangerous, but if you are squeamish about them like I am then it’s trousers tucked into socks, insect repellant on shoes and a long-sleeved shirt.  The other guys in our group laughed at our anti-leech precautions, but they got leeches and we didn’t.

3. Take short shorts for day 2 -You need complete freedom of movement for the climbing section.

4. Leave water along the way – You are recommended to bring 3L of water, but you can leave some at the rest points at 900 / 1200 / 1500m so you don’t have to haul it all up to the top.

5. Take snacks – I took a full curry and rice packed lunch to eat at the top and could only manage a few mouthfuls.  Nuts and cereal bars were more appetising, and the summit is quite cool so chocolate is a good option too.

6. Have your travel insurance in order – Climbing the Pinnacles is not dangerous dangerous, but threat of a broken ankle looms with ominous plausibility over every step, especially on the descent.

7. Stock up on ibuprofen - You will ache afterwards.  If you aren’t already familiar with the wonders of tiger balm, now would be a good time to discover them.

8. Don’t be freaked out by the pre-climb briefing – It’s not that bad.

The Pinnacles

I’ve been fretting about whether I’ll be able to do the Pinnacles trek ever since we signed up for it a couple of weeks ago.  But, initially at least, it turns out to be easier than I was anticipating.  It is billed as a 3 day-2 night trek, but it really isn’t.  On days 1 and 3 you just need to get yourself to / from Mulu Park HQ and Camp 5, the base camp for the ascent of the Pinnacles.  This is just an hour in a boat and then a flat 9k walk, which takes about 2 1/2 hours.  Not even half a day’s trek.  So far, so good – but that’s only because all the hard work is squeezed into day 2.

On day 1 we meet up with Yong and Yao, two Malaysian guys who make up the rest of our group.  After the boat and hike, we arrive at Camp 5 at about 5pm.  We have to carry in all our food for three days, so we’re rather weighed down, but otherwise it’s been an easy walk.  We cook our dinner in the camp kitchen.  It’s meant to be self-catering but we obviously look so helpless that the camp staff get involved and basically cook our dinner for us.  After dinner we meet our guide John and he gives us a briefing.  He absolutely terrifies us: “Don’t push yourself.  If you push yourself on the Pinnacles, you die on the Pinnacles.” 

Mr Beet basically wants to quit now without even starting the climb.  I persuade him to give it a try and to turn back if he feels he has to.  He agrees, but is not feeling at all happy about it.

After a surprising restful night’s sleep on a foam mattress, we getup at 5am to eat as substantial a breakfast as we think we can keep down.  We leave as soon as it is light enough to manage without torches; 6.30am.  Time is a factor as if you aren’t quick enough your guide will make you turn back, or else you will run out of daylight.  John tells us that the first milestone is the 900m mark, which he wants us to reach within 45 minutes to an hour.

Off we go, mine and Mr Beet’s hearts are already pounding and our legs are already like jelly before we’ve even begun.  After 200m straight-forward walking, the gradient steepens sharply.  There’s a rope section to haul yourself up initially and then it’s hand-and-feet scrambling all the way.

We reach the 900m mark ahead of schedule and have a breather.  Since our pace is good, we will have a break every 300m from now on.  We get into a rhythm, and with the regular breaks for water (and maybe a cheeky Percy Pig), I am starting to feel some confidence that this might be doable after all.

At about 1900m John signals us to be quiet – he’s spotted something. It’s two wild boar and their litter of stripy piglets (boarlets?).  The mummy boar soon spots us and starts noisily crashing through the jungle – not exactly at us, but certainly more towards us than away from us.  We think she’s trying to frighten us away from her babies and she’s succeeding.  We all hurry to scramble a bit further up and out of her way.  John laughs at us, but admits that they can be quite dangerous when they are protecting their young.  For someone who practically learned to read with Asterix books, seeing (and being chased by) wild boar is a real thrill.

2000m is the point where you must turn back if you have not been quick enough, but we are well within time.  This is where it starts to get interesting.  The last 400m is the climbing section and there are ladders, metal footholds and ropes to help you ascend.  This bit is enormous fun.  It took us about an hour from here to reach the summit.

The view over the Pinnacles is pretty good, but if was just at the side of the road you probably wouldn’t even stop for a photo.  It’s the challenge of the climb that makes the view worthwhile.  After taking our snaps, we sit down to our lunch.  We soon become aware of rustling in the bushes all around us, then we start catching glimpses of furry movement out of the corner of our eyes.  There’s a family of shrew-like squirrels living up here and their staple diet is titbits left by climbers.  They have got very bold and are soon coming right up to us to beg for food.

A camera shy squirrel exits stage right.

Two squirrels bribed with peanuts to stay in shot.

After eating our lunches and playing with the squirrels, it’s time to descend.  The climbing section is just as much fun on the way down.  But the walking section from 2000m down is tough.  It is very slippery and you need to be very cautious so progress is painfully slow and, after a couple of hours, painfully painful on the quads and glutes.  We arrive back at camp by 4pm and head straight to the river to soak our weary legs.  After wolfing some cold rice and curry, I am in bed by 6.45pm.

We wake up early the next morning to pack up and hike out to the boat waiting to take us back to Park HQ.  On our arrival, Mr Beet tries to help my aching legs by massaging them.  But even the gentlest pressure on my quads makes me feel like I want to throw up.  Two days later, I am still hobbling and sore, quads and bum mainly.  It even hurts to sleep.  When I roll over in the night, I am woken up sharply by my entire body complaining about it.  I get a kind of masochistic pleasure from feeling like this though -  it’s the feeling of a job well done!

Some more pictures of our climb are on Mr Beet’s flickr page, and if you are thinking about doing the trek yourself then check out my tips.

Mulu

We arrive at Mulu National Park a day later than expected because our flight was cancelled.  At a push, we should still be able to do everything we planned, although it will mean cutting into our scheduled sitting-around-recovering-from-the-Pinnacles-trek time.

The Park is very professionally organised.  Our accommodation is plush (his and hers showers) and there’s a nice cafe where you can eat your dinner with bats swooping over your head.  There are lots of guided hikes that you have to book in advance – not much scope for just wandering off by yourself like at Bako.

Like Niah National Park, the stars of the show at Mulu are the caves.  There is adventure caving available, but that’s my worst nightmare so I stick to nice big spacious show-caves.  On the first afternoon we take a tour of Lang Cave and Deer Cave.  It’s a 5k walk to get there, during which time Mr Beet peppers our guide with questions about the Pinnacles climb we are doing in a few days.  Our guide is about my height, so I ask whether it’s true that the climb is difficult for short people.  No, he says, you just have to jump and then use your upper body strength to pull yourself to the first foothold.  Oh, that sounds fine then.

Lang Cave is smallest but prettiest cave.  They don’t allow the swiflets’ nests to be harvested here, so we see some nesting birds.  I wonder who first looked at them and thought: that nest looks delicious, I’m going to make a soup with that.

Deer Cave is full of bats, an estimated two or three million.  The cave ceiling is a seething mass of black.

The cave mouth has a rock formation that is supposed to look like the profile of a famous person.  Can you guess who it is?*

We have to wait until dusk for Deer Cave’s main attraction.  The swiftlets come home to roost and the millions of bats fly out from the cave in search of their dinner.  A couple of million bats flying out would be impressive as it is, but these bats fly in formation.  They come out in batches; there must be a couple of hundred thousand at a time.  They circle round and round the cave mouth and then all of a sudden corkscrew off into the sky.  This synchronised flying is meant to thwart birds of prey.  It is stunning to watch.  Here is a photo that doesn’t do it justice and here is a clip from a documentary that does.

The next day we go and see some more caves in the morning, before starting our trek (which I will blog about separately): the Cave of the Winds (windy) and Clearwater Cave (underground river).  Both are very nice, but cave fatigue is starting to set in.

On our return to Park HQ after our trek we sign up for the canopy walk.  It’s a 500m long and good fun, but we don’t see much wildlife up there; just a flying stick insect, a big green lizard and a spider that bit me!  It was sitting on the handrail – I didn’t poke it or anything.  It only hurt as much as a bee sting, but since we are in the jungle and some of the spiders here have names like “Black Angel of Death and Doom Spider” I am slightly concerned that I am going to wake up the next day with a hand like Professor Dumbledore’s in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  But it has yet to go black or drop off or anything, so I think I’m ok.

More photos of Mulu on Mr Beet’s flickr page.

*It’s supposed to be Abraham Lincoln.  But only because they haven’t heard of Jimmy Hill in Borneo.