Monday, March 20, 2006
Gomantong Cave and Sukau River Cruise
More painkillers for me today. Decided to take a chance on doing tour guide John's trip with the others rather than laying flat out on my back. Mood not helped by watching Chelsea lose to Fulham in the early hours either :-)
The 9 of us split into two vehicles for the journey, first to Gomantong Cave and later on to Sukau for a river trip. These are both places that i visited 5 years ago on my earlier trip to Borneo so i was interested to see if anything much had changed.
John and our driver Clarence weren't kidding when they said 45km of our ride would also be a free massage - the road was severely pot-holed and still covered in a thick layer of clay mud leftover from the recent rains. Where the mud was still wet the road was a skating rink, both our vehicles were sideways at times and John almost had to be dug out after coming close to sliding into a ditch. But we made it through safely, largely thanks to Caroline's "back seat" driving advice to John i am sure... ;-)
Either the painkillers were doing their job well or the "road massage" had helped, but by the time we reached the cave i was ok to walk with the others.
Gomantong Cave was made famous by David Attenborough and ever since then tourist have flocked to see what is effectively a huge cave filled with birds, bats, rats, cockroaches, snakes and just about any other creepy-crawly you can think of. All those creatures create a lot of sh*t of course - literally mountains of it!! I'm sure there are slag heaps in South Wales that are smaller...
So we take a deep breath and in we go, slipping and sliding on guano-covered walkways, trying to avoid reaching for the similarly guano-covered handrails.
The caves themselves are impressive, three storeys high of which we will visit only one. Every four months they become a hive of activity with local workmen setting up camp in the nearby huts in order to climb up and collect swiftlet nests. These are a extremely valuable commodity, loved by the Chinese for making (you guessed it) Bird's Nest Soup. Quite why anyone would want to make a soup flavoured with a congealed lump of bird spit and sh*t i have no idea - but apparently it is a delicacy that will give you a long life and make you stronger. It also sells for a lot of money. Hmmm, the story of the Emperor's New Clothes comes to mind...
The guys that work here risk life and limb daily. They climb up several hundred feet on tiny rattan ladders and ropes then fill baskets with the tiny nests. Fortunately they are between collecting seasons right now, so we didn't witness one of the regular deaths. But here is a sample that i managed to collect after scaling spiderman-like to the roof of the cave just for you...
Some of the views inside the cave were stunning. Almost was stunning as the pungent smell of the black mountains. No one ventured too far "off-piste", especially after several rats were seen running away from a 5 foot long snake! Certainly a very memorable place to have (re)visited, but a real shame there was a big increase in human rubbish scattered in there too.
So on we travel to Sukau. Two boats awaited. The main aim of the trip was to see Proboscis monkeys but there was a real hope that we would also be able to see wild elephants at the river edge as they had been spotted the previous day. At last a chance for me to use the big binoculars that i came out here with :-)
The trip started well, our boats being led by at least a dozen Ibis(?) who repeatedly flew ahead of us, landed, then flew again as we drew close. We saw a tree snake and a few macaques and then, well, not much else for over an hour and a half.
This despite turning around and heading back up river past our original starting jetty.
But patience is a virtue of course.
Near the end of our trip we at last sighted a group of about eight proboscis monkeys in the tree tops. Then we saw a hornbill and we even pulled up quite close to a small crocodile, but it didn't stay for dinner... ;-)
On the trip back home along the "Massage Motorway" we were in a real hurry. Every pothole seemed to have doubled in size and we all experienced some serious "airtime" - Alton Towers should seriously consider building a copy of this ride!
It should also be noted that Vicky won our Oscar for "Person Most Able To Sleep Despite The Bumps". Her head was rolling and cracking against the window as if she was going 10 rounds with an invisible Mike Tyson!
So we made it back. By now I was really tired and the back was causing me real pain again. So much so i had an early night and missed the "it's supposed to be your Sepilok leaving party, even though you don't leave for another 11 days yet party" that no-one here was too excited about. Not sure who dreamed that one up...
The 9 of us split into two vehicles for the journey, first to Gomantong Cave and later on to Sukau for a river trip. These are both places that i visited 5 years ago on my earlier trip to Borneo so i was interested to see if anything much had changed.John and our driver Clarence weren't kidding when they said 45km of our ride would also be a free massage - the road was severely pot-holed and still covered in a thick layer of clay mud leftover from the recent rains. Where the mud was still wet the road was a skating rink, both our vehicles were sideways at times and John almost had to be dug out after coming close to sliding into a ditch. But we made it through safely, largely thanks to Caroline's "back seat" driving advice to John i am sure... ;-)
Either the painkillers were doing their job well or the "road massage" had helped, but by the time we reached the cave i was ok to walk with the others.
Gomantong Cave was made famous by David Attenborough and ever since then tourist have flocked to see what is effectively a huge cave filled with birds, bats, rats, cockroaches, snakes and just about any other creepy-crawly you can think of. All those creatures create a lot of sh*t of course - literally mountains of it!! I'm sure there are slag heaps in South Wales that are smaller...
So we take a deep breath and in we go, slipping and sliding on guano-covered walkways, trying to avoid reaching for the similarly guano-covered handrails.
The caves themselves are impressive, three storeys high of which we will visit only one. Every four months they become a hive of activity with local workmen setting up camp in the nearby huts in order to climb up and collect swiftlet nests. These are a extremely valuable commodity, loved by the Chinese for making (you guessed it) Bird's Nest Soup. Quite why anyone would want to make a soup flavoured with a congealed lump of bird spit and sh*t i have no idea - but apparently it is a delicacy that will give you a long life and make you stronger. It also sells for a lot of money. Hmmm, the story of the Emperor's New Clothes comes to mind...
The guys that work here risk life and limb daily. They climb up several hundred feet on tiny rattan ladders and ropes then fill baskets with the tiny nests. Fortunately they are between collecting seasons right now, so we didn't witness one of the regular deaths. But here is a sample that i managed to collect after scaling spiderman-like to the roof of the cave just for you...Some of the views inside the cave were stunning. Almost was stunning as the pungent smell of the black mountains. No one ventured too far "off-piste", especially after several rats were seen running away from a 5 foot long snake! Certainly a very memorable place to have (re)visited, but a real shame there was a big increase in human rubbish scattered in there too.
So on we travel to Sukau. Two boats awaited. The main aim of the trip was to see Proboscis monkeys but there was a real hope that we would also be able to see wild elephants at the river edge as they had been spotted the previous day. At last a chance for me to use the big binoculars that i came out here with :-)
The trip started well, our boats being led by at least a dozen Ibis(?) who repeatedly flew ahead of us, landed, then flew again as we drew close. We saw a tree snake and a few macaques and then, well, not much else for over an hour and a half.This despite turning around and heading back up river past our original starting jetty.
But patience is a virtue of course.
Near the end of our trip we at last sighted a group of about eight proboscis monkeys in the tree tops. Then we saw a hornbill and we even pulled up quite close to a small crocodile, but it didn't stay for dinner... ;-)
On the trip back home along the "Massage Motorway" we were in a real hurry. Every pothole seemed to have doubled in size and we all experienced some serious "airtime" - Alton Towers should seriously consider building a copy of this ride!It should also be noted that Vicky won our Oscar for "Person Most Able To Sleep Despite The Bumps". Her head was rolling and cracking against the window as if she was going 10 rounds with an invisible Mike Tyson!
So we made it back. By now I was really tired and the back was causing me real pain again. So much so i had an early night and missed the "it's supposed to be your Sepilok leaving party, even though you don't leave for another 11 days yet party" that no-one here was too excited about. Not sure who dreamed that one up...
// posted by storri @ 10:46 pm 
