Post by jonsdigs on Oct 11, 2006 19:40:41 GMT -5
Gargantuan cave a world of its own
By Daniel Wood-Contributing writer
Vancouver Courier
Massive stalactites fill Wind Cave, one of the four huge caves in Mulu National Park. Photo-Daniel Wood
Sarawak, Malaysia-Leaving Long Bedian, a village in Sarawak's interior, a riverside trail leads into the proverbial heart of darkness. The humid jungle of Malaysian Borneo crowds the route. The smell is fecund, the shadows ominous. The air is filled with the drilling of cicadas and the mind with thoughts of bloodsucking leeches. It's at the end of an hour's hike-on much-appreciated, raised boardwalks-that we reach the famous caves of Mulu National Park.
Today, visitors can follow pathways into four of the caves, although the world's largest chamber, Sarawak Cave, is off-limits to any except certified spelunkers. However, the illuminated pathway into suitably named Clearwater Cave follows a pristine river for part of its 100-kilometre underground route. Wind Cave contains hundreds of massive limestone stalactites, shaped like melted, upside-down candles.
But it's at the entrance to gargantuan Deer Cave-the second-largest cave in the world-that the words spoken by an exiting park ranger to our guide, James, give pause. "Big snake in there. Jaga! Jaga!" We've learned enough Malaysian to know that "Jaga! Jaga!" means "Be careful!"
"What kind of snake?" one of us asks. James tells us it would likely be a cave racer.
"A racer!"
"Not so fast really. Quite slow," he says reassuringly. In a further attempt to comfort us, he tells us it's small-less than two metres long. To triply comfort us, he adds its bite produces cramps and paralysis, but certainly not death.
We are not comforted. We know that, were we forced to flee, we'd be slowed by the pudding-like consistency of the bat guano and the gadzillions of cockroaches that swarm at either edge of the cave's concrete path. The cave's scorpions, James had cautioned earlier, are poisonous but not deadly. Ditto the centipedes. The earwigs are merely an annoyance when they fall on visitors' heads. "The thing you have to watch out for is the spiders," James confesses. "Very bad." The natives use crushed spiders as the poison on their blowpipe dart-tips. James adds that the spiders are small and black and fast.
Full Story:
www.vancourier.com/issues06/102106/travel.html
By Daniel Wood-Contributing writer
Vancouver Courier
Massive stalactites fill Wind Cave, one of the four huge caves in Mulu National Park. Photo-Daniel Wood
Sarawak, Malaysia-Leaving Long Bedian, a village in Sarawak's interior, a riverside trail leads into the proverbial heart of darkness. The humid jungle of Malaysian Borneo crowds the route. The smell is fecund, the shadows ominous. The air is filled with the drilling of cicadas and the mind with thoughts of bloodsucking leeches. It's at the end of an hour's hike-on much-appreciated, raised boardwalks-that we reach the famous caves of Mulu National Park.
Today, visitors can follow pathways into four of the caves, although the world's largest chamber, Sarawak Cave, is off-limits to any except certified spelunkers. However, the illuminated pathway into suitably named Clearwater Cave follows a pristine river for part of its 100-kilometre underground route. Wind Cave contains hundreds of massive limestone stalactites, shaped like melted, upside-down candles.
But it's at the entrance to gargantuan Deer Cave-the second-largest cave in the world-that the words spoken by an exiting park ranger to our guide, James, give pause. "Big snake in there. Jaga! Jaga!" We've learned enough Malaysian to know that "Jaga! Jaga!" means "Be careful!"
"What kind of snake?" one of us asks. James tells us it would likely be a cave racer.
"A racer!"
"Not so fast really. Quite slow," he says reassuringly. In a further attempt to comfort us, he tells us it's small-less than two metres long. To triply comfort us, he adds its bite produces cramps and paralysis, but certainly not death.
We are not comforted. We know that, were we forced to flee, we'd be slowed by the pudding-like consistency of the bat guano and the gadzillions of cockroaches that swarm at either edge of the cave's concrete path. The cave's scorpions, James had cautioned earlier, are poisonous but not deadly. Ditto the centipedes. The earwigs are merely an annoyance when they fall on visitors' heads. "The thing you have to watch out for is the spiders," James confesses. "Very bad." The natives use crushed spiders as the poison on their blowpipe dart-tips. James adds that the spiders are small and black and fast.
Full Story:
www.vancourier.com/issues06/102106/travel.html