Morning comes in a flick of an eye. It was that morning that only I can take my time enjoy the nice and soothing design of Benarat Lodge. The place is planted with flowers along the walking path. 3 longhouse-chalet forming a "U" shape leading to the dining house at the further center of the chalets.
longhouse-chalet of Benarat Lodge...
a solar-stimulated flower... blooms only in the presence of sunlight...After a warming breakfast, we took a ride to the National Park Headquarter of Mulu. We have to cross a suspension bridge to the information center and there is where we start our 2nd day trip.
entrance to the Mulu National Park HQ...
a very glassy-classy information landscape... We went for a relaxing Plants of Life and Plants for Life walk. It is a walk into forest where we learned how the nature works and how to make use of the nature provided us.
a weird looking spiky bamboo..
cute little monkey cups hanging on the tree...
a big plant that I dunno its name... LOL!!
another unusually BIG cicada... that's my finger! =DWe brought our pack lunch there and proceed walk to admire the Deer Cave and Lang's Cave. It was a 3.3km walk into the entrance gate of the 2 caves. Before entering Deer Cave, Richard briefed us about how caves were formed. The oldest of Mulu's caves started forming about 5 million years ago when sideways earth movements resulted in the formation of both limestone and sandstone mountains, lying side by side with the help of heavy rain and rivers action carving out the vast subterranean system that exists today.
the entrance into Deers Cave...
another prophecy of Mother Nature?We have come to the end of this cave being rewarded by the most spectacular view where you finally meets sunlight and the greens in the dark cave. The cave system had collapsed some thousand years ago leaving a big opening in it. The ground is soon fertilized with guano (bats faeces) and greens start growing on it. It is certainly a mesmerizing view of forest inside-out which given that name of The Garden of Eden (story tells that Adam and Eves met in a heaven-like place named The Garden of Eden).
heaven-like, right? u have to agree on me!!Lang's Cave is just beside Deer Cave. Lang's Cave was named after an mighty explorer of the Royal Expedition in 1997. The very rope that Lang used is still in this cave and mighty Lang is one of the ranger, tour guide and researcher of Mulu National Park.
the entrance of Lang's Cave...The cave has clearly shown the formation of stalactites and stalagmites despite the small and narrow size of it. It took about 10 years to form a 1cm of these natural mineral-rocks. Just imagine how much is needed to form the cave scenery we have today!! Absolutely phenomenal!
can you find a lady's feature in it? let your imagination run free!As dusk ascends, bats started to flock out to search for food. We ran as fast as we could to get a nice view of the exodus of bats out the caves. They first come out from the caves with a long spiraling formation with approximately 5 millions of bats. They then start to form into a more stable formation either in triangular or lined. They come to a point where they spread out descending into the forest to hunt for food.
guess how many bats are there? clue: at least 5 million!!Bats are known as the Dark Knights due to their ability of flying up to 78km in a single night without hitting into any obstacles beyond them. They use high pitch sound waves (supersonic) to track down their preys and also to estimate any obstacles in front. They estimate it by listening to the echoes reflected back to them. Bats are the only creature known to human in this world that uses this unique ability to live. The walk back to information center was refreshing as rain kept pouring down on us. We had our bags packed after dinner to proceed our trip the next day.
by Masqueradez... 14th May 2010...
by Masqueradez... 14th May 2010...
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