Longhouse, Headhunters trail, Mulu NP incl caves

We took 3 longboats 1.25 hours upriver to a Longhouse where we stayed overnight.

Next day we went 2.5 hours further upriver and did a 12km jungle walk along the headhunters trail to Camp 5 at Mulu Nat Park.

It was a very simple bunkhouse on a fabulous fast flowing river edge below a fantastic sheer limstone rockface, with jungle all aruond.

Next day we walked 9km downriver thru jungle and connected with more longboats to take us into the Mulu Nat Park into a fantastic resort that we were upgraded to due to construction - what a bugger!

All rooms and walkways were 10m above the ground level. Next day we found out why. The water level was 2.5m higher and the whole town was somewhat flooded.

The grass was 1m below the water level.

We saw two superb ginoroumous caves (Deer + Lang) that hold 3.5 million bats + the resulting guano and cokroaches etc.

We got drenched on the 4km walk back from the caves. fortunately the poncho from Kathmandu was excellent.

Shoes on the other hand were waterlogged after 500m....

Next day we went upriver and took in Clearwater + Cave of the Winds. Clearwater has a large river + massive sinkholes feeding into it.

Cave of the Winds had 100's of columns + stalagmites/tites . I've never seen a fraction of this number of columns!!!

Near dusk we climbed a nearby lookout to get views of the bats streaming out of the caves. We could only see the bats when the became visible over the mtn range. Its pretty subtle stuff... the bats gather in groups and circle around in a defensive formation. clever nature!!!

On Monday we flew on a turbo-prop Embrasur(sp?) (Brazilian) from Mulu NP to Mirri and a 737 on to Kuching after lunch in town at Mirri.