A 9km trek back to the river, then a hotel room! Cleaned up nicely, washed some clothes, ready to see Dear and Lang Cave in the afternoon. There are four “main caves” in Mulu National Park. They are developing a 5th for tourism to open next year, other areas and caves are being researched. Indeed, the cave system in Mulu is the largest in the world, as is the biggest cave, longest, and a host of other adjectives. Due to the geology and a lot of time, this system of shale, limestone and sandstone is unique in the world. Researchers from all over the world are here constantly discovering and researching new caves.
Deer Cave was named because in years past, deer came in to drink the salty water. Salty because of the 3 million bats that live here! Bat Guano is salty, and smelly, and this is what attracted the deer. Photos below.
This is what these little buggers look like. Bald and not too handsome, this one was probably sick. We didn’t touch him.
Water streaming in was fantastic, hard to capture on film
Yep, this is Abe Lincoln! Incredible natural profile.
Lang Cave was named after a tribesman that was helpful in discovery and maintenance of the caves in the early days. Photos of Lang Cave:
Finally, to finish the day, we waited till 5:15pm to watch the above mentioned 3 million bats emerge from Deer Cave. Incredible. Again, nothing we have ever experienced before. Wave after wave of bats came out for about 5 minutes. They go back into the cave around 4-5am to sleep all day. How many mosquitoes are eaten each night? I don’t know the number, but the weight of all the mosquitoes consumed is 15 tons! That is a lot of mosquitoes.
No comments:
Post a Comment