# General > Member's Lounge > Nature and Conservation >  Journey to the fire mountain of Borneo (Mulu Trip)

## kuching

After so many many years, I finally had a chance to visit Mulu National Park & climbed the Gunung Api (Fire Mountain)!!!

Some shots to share before I start to post my pictures from day 1 to day 4....
(including tons of pictures of flora & fauna except fish...as I don't have underwater camera)


The pinnacles of the Fire Mountain:







A longhouse @ Mulu National Park





The rare green coloured lantern bug






....to be continued.

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## kuching

May 14, 2009. A great evening to go out with photokaki at Miri to shoot the night scenery of this beautiful oil city before going to Mulu.


Miri is located in the most northern part of Sarawak.




Canada hill @ Miri





The new flyover





The decoration inside a hotel





.....to be continued.

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## benetay

Lovely! Can't wait to see more!

Cheers!

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## celticfish

:Well done: 

Michael, you are making me drool again lah! 
BTW what are the pinnacles made of/from?
I'm intrigue by how its formed, from a geological perspective...  :Confused:

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## kuching

Thanks Benetay & Celticfish.

pinnacles are made of limestone.

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## kuching

En route to Mulu using ATR aircraft:


Before reaching Mulu, we could see a huge area became oil palm plantation & logging site:




Logging road





We could see the border of Brunei & northern Sarawak from the plane. The left side which got green virgin rainforest is Brunei, and the right side which is covered by oil palm trees & small trees of logging site is Sarawak......

But when we reached Mulu, we could see the dense limestone forest....





The Baram river





MasWings is using this new ATR aircraft......





ATR landed at Mulu airport.





...... to be continued.

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## kuching

Gunung Mulu National Park is the most beautiful & the largest NP in Sarawak of Malaysian Borneo. The park contains 3,500 plant species, 8,000 fungi and 20,000 animal species(most of them are insects) !!!


Our hostel in Mulu NP:





The plankwalk....





A hostel




The plankwalk





Our guide, Jenny is briefing us....





The dense rainforest.

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## kuching

There are a lot of rivers in this area....and so many fishes that I never seen before!





The giant tree.




a dry river bed.





A limestone hill.





Mulu's status as a World Heritage site has attracted a lot of tourists to visit this park. Most of them come here to see the spectacular caves. There are a lot of caves in Mulu, but only a few are opened for tourists to visit.


Entrance of lang's cave. It is named after a local guide who showed this cave to the cave explorers in 1977.

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## genes

Goodness. Another eye opener for the concrete jungle dwellers! Michael you should start doing videography or documentaries over your explorations man.

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## kuching

We were not allowed to use the tripod, so I shot all those pictures using external flash & ISO set to 3,200!!!

Lang's cave has a lot of beautiful stalactites, stalagmites and helictites.

















A toad inside the cave.

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## kuching

> Goodness. Another eye opener for the concrete jungle dwellers! Michael you should start doing videography or documentaries over your explorations man.


Yup, I did take some short video clips using my Nikon D90. :Grin:

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## kuching

There are so many plants inside Mulu NP. I was shocked to see _Cryptocoryne longicauda_ (aquatic aroid) growing in the freshwater swamp near the limestone outcrop.





The spathe (flower).





Emersed condition.





Submerged condition.





The habitat.

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## kuching

There are so many type of orchids as well....below is the largest orchid from Borneo: Tiger orchid (_Grammatophyllum speciosum_).

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## kuching

Deer cave is one of the largest caves in this world. It was very hard to photograph this giant cave without a tripod. The flash light is useless here....so I set my camera ISO to 6400!!!




Deer cave is about 2km long, the cave entrance is 120m high & 175m wide!!!





A natural pond. There are white shrimps swimming in a subterranean stream there...but I don't have macro lens at that time to photograph it.






The rock formation at the cave mouth resembles the profile of Abraham Lincoln.





Deer cave is called Gua Payau by the locals.





The walkway & a bridge.

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## kuching

Deer cave was used to be the largest cave, but after the discovery of a giant cave in Vietnam recently, it became the 2nd largest in the world.

Outside the cave









Subterranean stream.

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## kuching

Part of the giant passage of deer cave had collasped very long time ago & formed a blind valley called "Garden of eden". Behind it is another entrance of a cave called Porcupine Cave (got track made by porcupines).




Earwig is found abundantly in the cave. 







Earwig is looking for food in a pile of guano




Coackroach also here.

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## kuching

Around 6pm, millions of Wrinkle-lipped bats (_Tadarida plicata_) emerged out from the Deer cave in long spiralling streams to hunt for insects at night.





They are forming a circle to wait for the those behind....




After gathering for a while, some of the bats lead the group & flying to one direction outside the cave.




Even they are flying few hundred feet above the ground, we still can hear the whooshing roar of thousands pairs of bats' wings!!!!!





Amazing sight!!!





Bat hawk (not in the picture) will attack the bat flocks, so the unlucky one will become the food of the hawk. Also, a scientific report said a species of hornbill called _Anthracoceros malayanus_ also join the hawk to catch the bats to feed the young one.

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## kuching

Bats are flying out in stream....











YouTube (my video):

YouTube - Bats from deer cave of Mulu (part 2)

YouTube - bats from deer cave

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## beetroot

beautiful pictures, Michael! thanks for sharing.
great job in introducing sarawak/borneo to the world.
i have always wanted to visit sabah & sarawak - so many caves and national parks to explore.
even more itching to go now....  :Grin: 

more pictures please, if you have  :Wink: .

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## kuching

> beautiful pictures, Michael! thanks for sharing.
> great job in introducing sarawak/borneo to the world.
> i have always wanted to visit sabah & sarawak - so many caves and national parks to explore.
> even more itching to go now.... 
> 
> more pictures please, if you have .



Thanks. I only showed 1/3 of my photos..... will post more soon. :Smile:

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## kuching

There are so many insects that I never seen before. Too bad I didn't have much time to photograph each of them as I need to keep up with my team & our guide. Below are some pictures of the insects taken on day one.


Bug.





No idea what bug is this.





The rare lantern bug. Never seen it before!





Froghopper.





Another species of froghopper.





The common lantern bug, _Pyrops intricata_.

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## kuching

Dragonfly.




The largest stick insect in the world,_Phoebaticus serratipes_. It can reach 30cm in length!!!





Close-up




Looks like a stick!





....to be continued.

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## celticfish

Breathless!!! 
More pleaseeee!!!!

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## kuching

> Breathless!!! 
> More pleaseeee!!!!


Thanks Celticfish.

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## Ian Lim

Really envy you for a great trip, escaping from all the hectic city life with smoke and dust. The photo shots are clear and sharp from a Pro, show us more Bro.

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## kuching

> Really envy you for a great trip, escaping from all the hectic city life with smoke and dust. The photo shots are clear and sharp from a Pro, show us more Bro.


Thanks Ian. :Smile:

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## kuching

There are so many species of wild orchids in Mulu. Some shots of orchids from Day 1 to day 4 in Mulu:

The slipper orchid which grows on the tree, _Paphiopedilum lowii_.








The most famous & exotic slipper orchid of Borneo, _Paphiopedilum sanderianum_. Too bad it is not flowering! The flower is very beautiful, check out the link below:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=e...num=1&ct=title

_Paphiopedilum sanderianum_ grow on the limestone cliff: 





_Plocoglottis borneensis_




The inflorescence of _Plocoglottis borneensis_

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## kuching

_Habenaria lobbii_







_Liparis_ sp.





_Calanthe gibbsiae_ ??




Inflorescence of _Calanthe gibbsiae_ ??

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## kuching

Unidentified species of orchid.




Unidentified species of orchid. Probably _Eria_ ??







..... to be continued.

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## kuching

On the 2nd day in Mulu, we took a long boat to visit a Penan settlement near the park. 









A Penan boy:





Brother & sister (left):





Take note that Penan people do not build longhouse. Their jungle hut in the jungle is very small & simple. The longhouse is built by the Govt. for tourism purpose. They are the jungle people....but in modern day, they are "invited" to live in the outside world so that those logging companies can chop down the trees in their land.






Penan is the nomads of Borneo. If you want to know more about this tribe, please check out this link:

http://www.rimba.com/spc/spcpenanmain1.html

Below are some pix taken at their market:

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## kuching

Panan's dog.




A Penan market (selling souvenir for tourists):





Things are expensive here because of the tourists.










Bags.

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## kuching

After that, we took the long boat to visit Wind cave & clearwater cave.


Inside Wind cave:




Our handsome guide, Johnny (in the center):




The roof collapsed.....









King's chamber, the most beautiful cave's chamber I ever visited in my life!

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## kuching

Inside the King's chamber is a true wonder of nature!








The walk-way







Flowstone formation

.

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## kuching

Moon milk is caused by bacterial actions which are capable of breaking down stone to form this semi-liquid "milk".








.... to be continued.

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## kuching

En route to clearwater cave....




Walking on the walkway next to Sungai Melinau.





The walkway.





The jetty.





The giant aroid, _Alocasia_ sp.





The river is full of fish....some of them are unknown species to me! Too bad I don't have a waterproof camera to shoot them in the water!

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## kuching

Most of the fish of Sungai Melinau are Cyprinids. Here is the name list of some of those fish which can be found there:

1) _Barbodes balleroides_
2) _Barbodes collingwoodii_
3) _Cyclocheilichthys repasson_
4) _Cyclocheilichthys apogon_
5) _Diplocheilichthys pleurotaenia_
6) _Garra borneensis_
7) _Hampala bimaculata_
 :Cool:  _Leptobarbus hosii_

....and many more.







The exit point of subterranean river of clearwater cave.





Single-leaf plant, _Monophyllaea_ sp.





Cave mouth









Clearwater cave is the longest subterranean river in south east Asia....it is more than 100km long!!! Inside the river has a lot of cave fish & other interesting cave fauna.....

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## kuching

clearwater cave.









There is so much of water dropping down from .....just like raining inside the cave.







Water temperature is very low & water is deep! Can't even spot a cave fish!






Cave mouth






group photo






Be back next week to continue to post my picture to climb the fire mountain of Borneo. Need to pack my things for tomorrow adventure (3 days) in the remote area of western Sarawak. 


....to be continued.

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## kuching

On the 2nd day at Mulu, we took few hours to visit the caves in the southern part of Gunung Api. After that we went to Kuala Litut using the long boat.


En route to Kuala Litut





This is kuala Litut. From here, we need to hike 8.8km to camp 5 which is at the foothill of Gunung Api (fire mountain).





Suspension bridge





The trail is very easy to walk.....





Another bridge

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## kuching

That day, we walked very fast. We reached at Camp 5 about 2 hours later.


Sungai Melinau






Camp 5






Across the bridge is the headhunter trail. You can go to Limbang using this trail (11km)....





Gunung Benarat (limestone mountain, 1615m).

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## kuching

The limestone cliff








Taking dinner at Camp 5





Sleeping place.





.....to be continued.

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## kuching

_Nepenthes faizaliana_ is an endemic species of pitcher plant only found in limestone forest of Gunung Mulu National Park of Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo.



_Nepenthes faizaliana_ in situ.









The pitcher is big & beautiful!!!

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## kuching

The habitat (altitude is above 3000 feet):








_Nepenthes tentaculata_ also can be found here....

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## kuching

The jungle trail near Camp 5









There are some leeches on the wet forest floor, but not many because it's near to limestone mountain.

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## kuching

Bamboo forest





Beautiful trail





First time for me to see a blackwater stream running pass the limestone outcrop!




The misty jungle





The famous _Begonia conipilia_  from Mulu.

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## kuching

There are so many species of Begonia in Mulu....there are a few more species which I never seen before in the mountain which I didn't photograph due to the rain.

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## kuching

_Begonia_ sp.





_Ixora_  sp.






_Globba_ sp. (wild ginger)





unidentified species




Aroid





_Nepenthes ampullaria_

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## kuching

Fruits of a fig tree (_Ficus_ sp.)





Unidentified species






Orchid






_Aeschynanthus_ sp.





_Boesenbergia variegata_ (wild ginger)




_Clerodendrum_  sp.

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## kuching

Praying manthis





Shield bug





A species of fly





damselfly





red millipede





Bug

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## kuching

Millipede (_Pseudodesmus_ sp.)




Grasshopper





Green cicada





On the third day, we went to climb one of the toughest mountains to climb in Borneo: a peak of fire mountain (Gunung Api) to see the spetacular pinnacles!





It was very cloudy that day....






They said climbing fire mountain is harder than climbing Gunung Kinabalu because it is a limestone mountain....

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## kuching

Without this staircase, it'll very very tough to climb this limestone wall.....If you failed to reach this staircase by 11am, you have to turn back.





The pinnacles





It's one of the toughest mountain climbing trips for me.......some shots taken by my friend:

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## kuching

I couldn't believe that I took 3 hours to reach the peak to see the pinnacles....

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## kuching

The bad weather moving in by noon, we needed to descend as soon as possible. Some people didn't manage to reach the peak by 1pm was asked to turn back for safety reason. A tourist was fainted during the descend but after resting for a while, she woke up and walked slowly back to Camp 5......













Raining!!!



It is called "fire mountain" because the summit is very dry & the dry peat soil & vegetation may easily set on fire by lightning or the sparks caused by falling limestone rocks. 




Gunung Mulu....our next challenge to conquer it in year 2010. (23km one way to the peak from foothill !!!)






....to be continued.

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## f3nd1

POWER!!! keep it up!

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## zoothefreak

Excellent Pics and documentation of the trip  :Smile:  The Begonia conipilia look like Mossy Frogs :P

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## kuching

Thanks everyone....

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## beetroot

> ....to be continued.


more! more!....
waiting... hehe...  :Grin:

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## laban

inspiring trip... i dont know how many days you took to cover all the spots.. anyway thx for sharing. great capture of the place.  :Smile:

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## kuching

thanks laban.

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