Merapoh 2012 - pt 4

4th day, 14th Sept. Today we went on motorbikes to look for caves. The hill was Gua Tukang Gunting. This is one of the hills that may be quarried by YTL so I was eager to check out the caves.

We started trekking to Gua Tukang Gunting, but couldn't find it, as we were not close enough to the hill.

When we came to the Sg Merapoh we gave up and went back. Whilst we rested, Hamdan continued looking. There was white cotton thread laid out, I wonder if it was part of the quarry survey.

We continued by bike to check out the area, going past the valley which has been mined for gold.

In the afternoon we returned, this time by 4WD, and with Hamdan's 76 year old father, who found the cave within minutes. Gua Tukang Gunting gets its name from the fact it was used as a barber shop during the war in 1942. I'm not sure if it was the Communists or Japanese who used the cave. There is no graffiti and no relics of any kinds.

A slope leads up to the large entrance.

The cave is a series of passages on different levels, leading through to a back door. We found a porcupine at the bottom of a rift passage, it is obviously a good climber to get down there. We also saw a cave racer and some bats.

We then crossed the Sg Merapoh

and went to Gua Goyang but the cave was not very interesting.

Nearby was a long rock shelter

The river bed outside has been dug for gold

We then had a long tiring walk back to the car. The short cut turned into a long route when we found a river was too high to cross. Thankfully our driver had done some '4Wdriving' and met us in a different river

June 2013 update :
Botanists from FRIM have done a study on Gua Gunting. See the report and a nice slide show on the Secret World of Gua Gunting.

© Liz Price
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