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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
Gunung Mulu National Park, with 544 square kilometres, is the largest national park in Sarawak. Within its primary rainforest, pristine rivers and streams running through, laid high a series of limestone range with catacombs of cave passages in it. Open to the public and accessible on boardwalks is the four show caves, part of a collection of caves called Mulu Caves.
The four show caves are Deer Cave, Land Cave, Wind Cave and Clearwater Cave. Starting with Deer Cave, this is the largest cave passage in the world. It is called Deer Cave because deers frequented this cave for the salt content in the water of the stream flowing through the guano field. It is a through-going passage with its entrance and exit, on the same side. Just after the entrance, on the right side of another bigger opening, you could see the side facial outline of Abraham Lincoln.
Inside the cavernous passage, estimated at 100 meters wide and 120 meters high, is the largest cave passage known to man. It is cavernous enough to fit in 5 times that of St. Peter's Cathedral. From the photo, you could pretty much judge the size of the cavern and its wall, in relation to the tourists coming towards me, a 100 meters away.
With around 2 millions bats of 12 species known so far, hanging on its ceiling, the rocky floor is a growing soft mattress of guano (bat's dropping). A food chain exists within this cave with the guano, feast for crickets, beetles, mites, earwigs which in turn is food for other cave dwellers such as swiftlets, centipedes, spiders, scorpions and white crabs.
At the end of the passage, is the Garden Of Eden. It kinds of looked that way. After passing through the ammonia gas field and then the dark passageway to the back, seeing the lush greenery outside the "exit"gives an illusion of a Garden. The garden, as well as the entrance is covered with trees, hundred of years old. A concrete path about a meter wide takes you all the way from the entrance to the raised platform from which you could see the Garden. Walking outside the concrete path is strictly prohibited and prior permission is required to go through the Garden . If not, you go back, the way you came in.
For photography here, tripod is forbidden. |
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