Hi All,
Early morning flight to Mulu National Park. Only way to Mulu is fly. Found later that you could take a barge and then a 4wd but it would take 16 hrs or so. Flight was a MASWing, part of Malaysia air, 50 seat twin propeller aircraft and was to take about 45 min. We boarded and found ourselves in business class. What?? How did that happen?? So we were given a breakfast which had to be scoffed quickly before landing.
Then onto the national park entrance for registration. We had booked into a 21 bed dorm but figured it would be fine. When we went into the dorm we found that it was divided into multi rooms and we found a room with 2 beds. This turned out to be part of the dorm so we decided to claim it, dropped off our bags, and closed the door. Later we were talking to a couple of Malaysian university lecturers in the dorm and they thought it was a private room. We explained that it was just bluff ownership when we closed the door but oviously it worked. They moved in when we left the next day.
We decided to visit a couple of the caves as they needed a guide. Price was good. Millions of bats were supposed to come out of the cave at dusk but we knew that was not going to happen as the rain started. The faithful waited. We had no faith. Later we went out to spot wildlife but saw no activity and the rain started falling further dampening our enthusiasm. Did spot plenty of spiders. Found an enormous green grasshopper on the wall inside the link between the cafeteria and the dorm. There also were a couple of praying mantises on the screens in the toilet. Seems that it was easier to find insects inside than in the rainforest.
Still no hornbills. Sarawak is supposed to be the land of the hornbills. Where are they? Unfortunately the local tribes actively hunt the wildlife and the rhinoceros hornbill tail feathers feature prominantly in the tribal headdress. Might be a clue.
Next day.
Boat trip to another couple of caves. Along the way to the caves we are dropped off at a random village. What?? We had a quick look. I see. Traditional longhouses and tourist markets. Hmmm. Took about 2 seconds to realise and head back to the longboat. No driver. Hmmm. One of the other drivers rounded him up and we got to the cave in time. Wind cave and Clearwater cave. To tell the truth Vanessa and I are bored with caves but we were amused by a cheeky dutch guy asking tough questions about the caves which were well outside of the guides knowledge.
We had found earlier that there was a group going on the headhunters trail or climbing the pinacles. There were none when we booked our flight so had decided not to go. Now there were groups going to both and we did not have time for either. Quite frustrating. So we decided to spend a night out at remote camp 5 and walk some of the Iban headhunters trail. We had to pay to full cost of the boat trip but it was worth it.
It was a really exciting ride along the river in the longboat and it took a lot of local knowledge to make it past the hidden logs and shallow sections. We got stuck in fast flowing shallow water at one stage and the assistant and driver of the boat had to jump out and pull it along. Sometimes we raced along under low trees with vines dropping in the water and later Vanessa said she was half expecting to get caught on one and be pulled out of the boat cartoon style.
We arrived at the landing. No landing. Had to climb up a mud band to get to the track. Today we needed our leech socks. The track was about 8km through steamy rainforest. Plenty of birds but hard to spot. Sounded great. Massive ants at our lunch break. Were caught but another group along the way who in turn had been caught by leeches. They stopped for lunch at a swingbridge and surprisingly did not catch us again on the way to camp 5.
We were glad to arrive at camp 5 and even happier to find that they had fresh water. Beautiful location next to a river and facing a large limestone cliff in the distance.
The accommodation was ... basic. Some might say rustic. I say a ripoff for the price. 8 bed dorms with no doors and half walls but a roof. Inside were elevated wooden beds with camp matresses and that was it. We could hire a mosquito net for 15 ringit. Hmmm. No one at the park HQ mentioned we needed to take sleeping gear. Hmmm. Turned out that we had the whole dorm room to ourselves anyway. So later we covered ourselves with insect repellant, took 2 mats each for sleeping, 2 were rolled up for pillows and 2 for blankets. Perfect. It actually got quite cool overnight.
The group arrived and the rain started to fall in the afternoon. Apparently it always falls in the afternoon at camp 5. Nice as it drops the temperature anyway. Some went for a dip in the surprisingly cool clear water of the river while we watched.
Noticed that there were pinacle formations high on the hill above us which were only visible when highlighted by the late afternoon sun. I was happy to see them without having to climb.
Dinner of 2 minute noodles. Mmmm.
Next day.
The others woke us early which was fine as we intended to walk along a section of the headhunters trail. Got going early but didn't find any wildlife. Was a nice walk but we only walked out for 4km before turning back and walking to camp. Then walked along the gorge walk beside the river. Spend the morning relaxing and I also had a refreshing dip in the river before heading back. We though we had plenty of time but it turned out that the last 1km of the 8km walk was about 3km so only arrived 5 min before the longboat was due to meet us.
Still no hornbills. Think we might have heard one but couldn't see it. No wildlife but I found a print that looked suspiciously like that of a big cat in the mud. Might be wishful thinking. Suspect the wildlife has disappeared into the local tribes cooking pot.
Got back and checked into our luxury challet accommodation. Was large and unfinished but gave us a quiet corner near the rainforest and we enjoyed listening to the insects at night.
Next day.
Breakfast is a laugh. Pancakes with honey are not a good idea. The local bee population think it is a great idea however it is necessary to move the honey container well away from the table to distract them.
We had a morning flight and a connection flight to Kutching from Miri in the evening. Had been told at the guesthouse in Miri by a fellow traveller that she had encountered a 3hr delay. We arrived at the airport, checked in, waited....no plane. Bad weather. 4hr delay. Well at least we got a free lunch. This meant that we only had a 3hr wait for our connecting flight. Good contingency planning Vanessa! Even our flight to Kutching was delayed by 1hr.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
