This morning our plan was to visit Wind and Clearwater caves, these are both guided caves again and rather than get a boat there we decided to walk. When we checked into the park a couple of days ago we were told the walk was about an hour, this morning I was told an hour and a half and as I was waiting at park HQ for Keith another guide told me it was an hour and a half plus!! We were supposed to be there at 9.30am to meet a tour but we left at 8.40am, not looking promising is it? Fortunately there’s another tour at 10.30am and only 4km and 427 steps between us and them!! I can’t wait!! :-) The pathway is really slippery which is making walking even slower but other than that the walk is really pleasant, well that and the steps of course.
Some very beautiful very large butterflies that were everwhere on our walk
A monster snail!
It was quite a trek to the caves and the 427 steps I could certainly have done without but all in all a good trek and all in the name of a good days trekking huh? Oh and good for the thigh muscles I’m hoping.
More Mulu wildlife
In the end we did miss the 9.30 tour by quite a bit but did manage to more than make the 10.30 tour and fortunately for us because the guide we had was very knowledgeable and very interesting, telling us all about the caves and all the formations we were seeing.
The first cave we visited was Wind Cave aptly named because of the wind that blows though it!! :-) The other cave is called Clearwater Cave and at the entrance there’s a unique one leaf plant that grows there which is endemic just to that cave, now that’s pretty amazing I think. It was a lovely cave to visit which had a river running through it which flowed to the outside and to the swimming area. After visiting the cave and spending a bit of time swimming or at least Keith did (I'm afraid I bailed out again), we were hoping to get a ride back on one of the boats that were around! Unfortunately though all the boats were taken and by the time we were ready to leave there weren’t any boats left and just Keith, me and another guy all alone in the forest. John, Keith’s fellow swimmer, is a sound recordist and was hoping to be able to record some great rainforest sounds on the walk back where as we were just hoping for a ride back!!
The endemic plant at the cave entrance
The caves
Another very warm tough climb and lots of steps later and we were back at camp, we had been planning on being back at camp around 1pm so hadn’t taken any food with us apart from a couple of cookies, so by the time we got back to HQ at 3.20pm we were HUNGRY! It was a great walk though, very enjoyable.
Some of the trail on the way to the caves
An emergent tree in the distance
After a relatively quick bite we headed back out to Deer Cave again to see if we can see the great bat exodus which is due to occur. We are serious hard core trekkers today!!
As time was passing very quickly we literally ran to the Deer cave 3.4km away just so we didn’t miss their exit. We managed to get there in plenty of time to find around 30 other people all waiting for the same thing. We then sat there for an hour waiting and waiting and waiting and needless to say after all our best efforts they weren’t going to show tonight either! :-(
Back at the cafe at park HQ a large group came in on a tour group and all sat down together, they all bought a beer together and all ordered their dinner together, then they were all told what their itinerary was for tomorrow together and what time to get up together, I just hope they’re not all going to be snoring together! :-)
Tomorrow morning at 7am sharp and on our last day here we’re going on the canopy walk! I hope Keith’s jet lag has improved some more by then.
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