After a flight to Miri, it was food and an early night before a 6am start the following morning. Han had warned me that this trip was much 'rougher', but I didn't expect what was to come.
Most tourists opt for the 20 minute flight from Miri to the Mulu National Park, but we were taking a different route, and what a difference. It started with a comfortable taxi to the jetty, but that's where we left comfort behind for the day. Next up was a 3hr ride on a closed, cramped longboat to Marudi town. After a short break, we jumped onto another boat to 'Somewhere'. This was a little more comfortable, but another 4-5hrs, although this was only meant to take 2-3hrs. By now, my butt was very sore. From Somewhere, we were supposed to get a private boat sent from Mulu National Park, but we were a few hours behind, and just as we arrived to Somewhere, it started to pour down with rain. Aldrin was concerned that our boat wouldn't come, either because we were late or due to the rain. We were in trouble. There was no mobile phone reception and no homes in sight. Eventually, someone came up to us and asked Aldrin what we are doing. He offered us his home to stay in if our boat didn't arrive - relief! Finally, only a few hours late, our boat did arrive. But by now, it was chucking it down with rain and the boat was a small, wooden, open boat! We tried to cover our bags up as much as possible and jumped into the boat. The engine kept on cutting out and as it got dark, we were concerned that we might hit logs in the river that had fallen into the river from the rains upstream. We were on the boat for 2hrs and finally got into the Park HQ around 7pm, well after dark, and 13hrs after we left Miri! Great adventure.
After a good meal just outside the Park, we hit the sack. We had a long walk ahead of us to Camp 5 in the morning.
We woke up to find the Park HQ flooded. The rain didn't stop overnight and we couldn't get out of the Park HQ until the water level dropped. We were lucky that we got the go-ahead to leave around 9am and were off, without Anne as we opted to stay at Park HQ and not risk the conditions en route and at Camp 5.
We jumped on a longboat and first headed to Wind Cave, one of many caves in the Park. Mulu contains the largest system of caves in the world. The cave was very large, but the guide, Esra, said this was tiny in comparison to what I would see a few days later. The neighbouring Clearwater Cave was not accessible due to high water leves. We continued on the boat for a bit before we couldn't go any further due to fallen logs in the river. We hopped out with our bags, had lunch, and began the 8km walk to Camp 5. It was the muddiest, wettest walk ever. I was often in mud above my knees and it was tough going, but I was loving it. Little did I know that the rains had damaged the water system at Camp 5 and there was no showers or tap water, so we had to bathe in the river which was a little dangerous as it was flowing very fast and unusually high.
The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling and chatting to an Aussie couple, Brandon and Caz, who had just come down from the Pinnacles climb, which I attempt the following day. Accommodation at Camp 5 consists of sleeping on bunks in open rooms - not surprisingly, I got bitten alive by sand flies that night!
It was time to climb (not really a hike) the Pinnacles, a climb that I was warned was much tougher than Mt Kinabalu. The trail was 2.4km, of which the final 400m was like rock climbing with the help of ladders to traverse across rocks, and very slippery. I was up in around 2.5hrs and had the entire view to myself. The Pinnacles are a collection of 45-metre high, limestone needles that cling to the side of Gunung Api (Fire Mountain). They form a forest of silver-grey stone encircled by thick green vegetation. I spent 2hrs at the top admiring the view and delaying what would be a nightmare descent. It proved a hellish return to Camp 5; my knees were in so much pain, but I was down in 2hrs and jumped straight into the river to swim and cool off. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and chatting to a group of expats from Brunei who also went up the Pinacles with me, before returning back to Park HQ the following morning.
I was in luck as I was able to visit Clearwater Cave as the water level had fallen in the past few days. The cave was simply stunning. Absolutely massive and with a river running through it. It is one of the longest caves in the world at over 100km.
I returned to Park HQ, only two days later, to see the water level had come down considerably. After lunch, Esra took Anne and me to Langs Cave and Deer Cave, the latter being the largest cave in the world. Deer Cave is also famous for the bats that reside within, and at around 6pm everyday, around 2 million bats, mostly free tailed and wrinkle-lipped bats, fly out of the cave in search for food. It was unreal.
My four day adventure to Mulu was over and we flew to Kuching via Miri for the second leg of the trip. The views from the plane were spectacular.
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