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| The Girls |
The flight was called to Mulu and only seven of us got up to board the plane. It was a small plane with propellers (sorry don't know which plane) but could easily take 40 people and we were the only ones getting on as if it was our private plane. It was a wonderful flight because not only were we flying low, it was very good visibility and we could move from side to side and really take in the amazing scenery of Brunei and the coast - not forgetting the extra packets of peanuts too! The other Taiwanese family were also staying at our homestay and it was just beside the very small airport of Mulu. D'Cave is a very nice homestay, cheap, clean and serves the best breakfasts ever! The mixed dorm consisted of 10 of us and the cats who seemed to come and sleep on my bed. There were other rooms too and it was a lovely friendly atmosphere of travellers coming and going. On our first day we had booked to do the Garden of Eden Walk which had been recommended to me. When we went to register the man took one look at us and explained how difficult it was and did we think we could do it!! Well of course we did but as a safety precaution they sent another guide in case one of us had to be brought back! The 8 of us plus the 2 guides set off at 9.30 and the first challenge was to walk and climb through Deer Cave, which is the largest cave in the world I believe, with a height of 148 m and 142 m width in places and about 1 km long. It is truly spectacular and words or photos can hardly do justice to its immense size. There used to be lots of deer who used it for shelter and salt but of course they have all been hunted now.
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| The Garden of Eden in the distance! |
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| The Garden of Eden |
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| Deer Cave |
It was a challenging climb not helped by the slippery rocks but we made it through to the other side and the Garden of Eden. We then had to follow the river and eventually start climbing up into the hills to the destination of a beautiful waterfall. We had a swim, lunch and then headed back again. We went a different way through the Deer Cave which involved walking through water. Our guide said it was up to our chest and just to hold our bags up, when suddenly he completely disappeared in front of me and then I found myself "swimming" trying to keep my bag dry. The next stage we gave our bags to the other guide and this time we just swam through the river and it was great. We all fell at some stage during the day but I think my last fall was the most spectacular. Climbing up I slipped on a rock and fortunately Heidi grabbed me as there was a big crevasse below but I was grovelling in bat shit and was covered in it! We eventually got back about 4 pm feeling tired and dirty (some more than others) but pleased with ourselves that we had succeeded to do it. The other people with us were lovely too and we were all good friends by the end.
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| Clearwater Cave |
The next day was a more
leisurely outing to visit the Wind and
Clearwater
Caves which are beautiful with amazing
stalagmites and stalactites and swimming in the river afterwards, then a walk
and then we waited and waited to see the bat exodus of the
Deer Cave.
They finally came in long trails of ribbons which looked wonderful with the
blue sky as a background. We did other shorter walks, the night walk, canopy
walk and the the tree top tower and there was still more to do that we didn't
manage. The Pinnacles is the most challenging walk of 3 days so that is for
another time.
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| Beautiful baskets made in the village. Let me know if you'd like one! |
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| Fairy Bluebird |
On Friday I said farewell to my 2 dear friends as they went off on their last stage of their journey in Kuching. We had a lovely time together - had lots of laughs, memorable times and met lots of lovely people along the way. See you soon in France girls!
