Borneo Mulu Caves Expedition

Gunung Mulu National Park, Malaysia · Malaysia

Challenging7 daysAsia~£1,400 est.

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Overview

Gunung Mulu National Park wears its superlatives lightly: beneath the rainforest lies the Sarawak Chamber, the world's largest known cave chamber, the vast corridor of Deer Cave, and hundreds of kilometres of surveyed passage still growing every expedition season. The accessible show is extraordinary enough — at dusk, two to three million wrinkle-lipped bats spiral out of Deer Cave in smoke-like ribbons, one of Borneo's great wildlife spectacles — while guided adventure-caving routes through Racer and Clearwater caves run from beginner wades to full expedition trips. Above ground, the Pinnacles are the test: a three-day return climb to a viewpoint amid 45-metre blades of silver karst on Gunung Api's flank. The final morning gains 1,200 metres in 2.4 kilometres, the last stretch on ladders and fixed ropes — brutally humid, with park-enforced turnaround times. The five-day Headhunters' Trail continues out of the park by longboat as an alternative exit. Mulu is fly-in only, thirty minutes from Miri, which keeps it quiet; book park accommodation and guides ahead. A week including Miri flights, guides and the Pinnacles permit runs around £1,400. It is hot, wet and leech-rich year round — February to April is marginally drier.