Batu Kurau is an isolated limestone outcrop, near Anak Kurau in Perak.
My first visit to Batu Kurau was in August 1998. On that trip we surveyed Gua Kelawar, which is the biggest cave. It is 157 m long. To reach the cave you have to walk through the river
This entrance is quite small and hidden by vegetation in 1998
We used this entrance in 2007
The main feature of the cave is the bats. Lots of them.
The eye shine of the fruit bats can be seen on the bats
The main chamber was amazing. It was packed full of bats. The floor had a semi-solid lake of liquid guano. It was brown when stirred.
There was an incredible heat given off - I've never experienced this before. The noise of the bats was also new to me, as noisy as a steam train whistling. The bats were packed solidly on the roof. Their eyes were quite bright. They are probably all fruit bats. Even the Bat Cave at Gunung Tempurung doesn't seem to have the heat of this chamber. Needless to say we couldn't survey very accurately here due to the stench and the fact we weren't going to cross the guano lake! There were cockroaches on the walls.
There is a nice shaped 'window' leading to the main chamber
Looking out from the main chamber
Bats in the smaller passage
Evans wrote about the Batu Kurau caves in 1920 but doesn't seem to mention this particular cave.
Gua Kelawar register number Prk 59/11.
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barber shop.
© Liz Price No reproduction without permission
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