A giant passage
More than 170 metres wide.
Dave Bunnell / Under Earth Images — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bernard Dupont — CC BY-SA 2.0 · John Mason from Edinburgh, UK — CC BY 2.0 · Bernard DUPONT from France — CC BY-SA 2.5
One of the largest cave passages in the world, cutting through the limestone mountain, more than 170 metres wide in places with a ceiling over 120 metres high, and a main entrance more than 140 metres across. It is called Deer Cave because deer used to come in to lick the salty rocks and shelter, as the local Penan and Berawan people tell it. The guided tour sets off from park headquarters in the afternoon: you walk about three kilometres on a raised boardwalk through the forest, visit the small Lang's Cave with its delicate stalactites and stalagmites, then enter Deer Cave and walk some eight hundred metres inside it, where visitors look out on an isolated green valley known as the Garden of Eden. Then comes the famous finale: near dusk, from the observation platform in front of the cave, millions of bats stream out in long ribbons that twist across the sky like smoke in search of food, hunted by hawks. There is no fixed time for the exodus; it may begin any time after five, and may not happen in heavy rain. The tour costs thirty-five ringgit per person including the guide, plus the park fee; it starts daily at two or half past two in the afternoon and lasts about three hours with the bat watching. Bring a torch and non-slip shoes, and avoid using flash.
More than 170 metres wide.
Swirling ribbons at sunset.
Delicate stalactites and stalagmites.
Gunung Mulu National Park, about 3 km from park headquarters along a raised boardwalk
About nine kilometres there and back, mostly on a level forest boardwalk, plus paths and steps inside the two caves. It suits anyone of average fitness; you walk back after dusk, so bring a torch.