Serenity of Swanwick - Brunei to Kota Kinabalu and Mulu National Park 06:57.98N, 116:03.46E

Brunei to Kota Kinabalu and Mulu National Park 06:57.98N, 116:03.46E

Serenity of Swanwick

Phil and Sarah Tadd

Wed 17 Jul 2024 22:46

Leaving Royal Brunei Sailing Club we retraced our route down the fairway and out of the harbour, then pointed for the south of Pulau Labuan. This is a duty free island in Malaysia and a number of boats stopped to pick up beer, wine and spirits. We decided that the savings made except on spirits, which we don’t often drink, wasn’t worth the hassle of clearing in and out. We went around to an anchorage on the North East corner for the night and then carried on to Pulau Tiga the next island. The weather is a bit unpredictable with the wind direction frequently changing. We anchored off the North side expecting a Southerly wind shift during the night which didn’t really happen. We spent two nights off Tiga changing anchorages for the second night as we weren’t really in a hurry to reach Sabah’s biggest city.

Our next stop was to be at the Sutera Harbour Marina and Country Club a nice marina with attached golf course, tennis courts, swimming pool, hotel and fitness centre. The efficient staff shoehorned the rally boats into the small available space and were extremely helpful in all ways.

The rally was due to arrive on Friday and there was a special clearing in and out session arranged for Saturday. All of the necessary officials would be in attendance and it would save us all rushing round the various offices. As we arrived on Thursday, having left Brunei three days before, we felt that it was best to do our own clearance in. Sarah completed the marine department clearance on-line, thereby saving a 20km taxi ride and we just went to health and immigration. Customs didn’t want to see us until check out, all very fast and efficient. We also managed a small amount of shopping and some laundry. we were glad to have completed our own clearance in as the Saturday session was very hectic and a number of people were missing pieces of paper at the end.

Sarah had booked us a flights and accommodation for three day visit to Mulu National Park starting Sunday. The only ways to get to Mulu are by a short flight in from Kota Kinabalu or Miri or possibly by a long boat trip, 2 days, from Miri. I don’t think anyone now comes in by boat.

Arriving in Mulu after our short flight Diana, from Diana’s Homestay, collected us and drove us to our accommodation. We had a nine bed dormitory with en-suite all to ourselves, all the smaller rooms were booked. Home stays are a common type of accommodation and Diana’s provided not only B and B but transport to and from the Park Office if you wanted it and tasty evening meals. Staying in places like this allow you to meet local people but also other interesting travellers, we met German and Japanese families and a Polish couple who were recording sounds from the rainforest to incorporate into music compositions.

Diana’s Homestay

In the afternoon we walked to the park centre, registered and paid for the guided tours we had booked. Mulu has been a World Heritage site since 2000, satisfying all four of the requirements. It is probably best known for its cave systems and its limestone pinnacles. The pinnacles were too far away to visit on our short trip but we could visit Lang and Deer caves, Cave of the Wind and Clearwater cave and do some of the shorter non-guided walks. We had tried to book a night walk but there were no available spaces.

Most of the short walks have raised boardwalks for ease of walking and to protect the rainforest environment. Monday we did the Paku loop walk, 8km, which gets away from these structures and allows you to appreciate more natural areas of the forest and then in the afternoon went to Lang and Deer caves, another 8km round trip. Lang cave has some really good formations, Deer is the home to millions of bats which can be observed in late afternoon flying out to feed. Walking back through the forest from Deer Cave allowed us to hear the twilight sounds. Apparently the loudest sound we could hear was made by a small gecko, just like in the Caribbean where often the loudest sound comes from the smallest frog.

Off the board walks on the Paku Loop track.

This scorpion crossed our path.

Formations in Lang Cave.

Massive cavern in Deer Cave.

Some of the bats flying out to feed, this was a small flight, the largest exodus we saw lasted about five minutes.

Tuesday we went to Clearwater cave and Cave of the Wind. This involved a trip upriver by longboat, stopping at a village on the way to buy souvenirs. These villagers used to be nomadic, living in the forest and hunting. Since declaring the area a National Park and it being awarded heritage status, the people have been moved out and settled in these concrete villages so as not to disrupt the scientific studies. Not sure about the logic in that.

It was a short visit but well worth doing to see inland rainforest, at this time of year there were few animals to see but plenty of butterflies and insects. The one mammal we saw was a Pigmy Squirrel it’s about the length of your finger.