sign in a cave in Laos

7 February 2013

Merapoh 2013 Pt 1 - Jinjang area & Gua Seribu Cerita

Feb 2-3 2013 was our first caving trip for 2013. Once again I joined Laili and the Merapoh Nature Guides to look for new caves. We stayed at the newly opened hostel in Merapoh.

On 2nd Feb we started at the Gua Jinjang Pelamin hill but approached it from the west side. In the first cave we met a river a few metres inside the entrance.



The streamway was really well decorated and there was a variety of fauna, such as a cave racer, turtle, a scorpion, fish and bats.


 We soon came to a duck and 2 guys took off their shirts and went through and said it continues. So we all got wet.


After a short distance there was another low section and then we realised we were in Gua Jinjang Pelamin! We went up into the bat chamber which leads to the Twin Towers. So we had discovered a new entrance to the cave and extended the river passage.
My feet in dry guano -
 Purple colour on rock


We walked round the hill for a short distance and came to a river going into a cave.

The cave goes through the hill and we came out the other side and named it Gua Anak Jinjang. A nice cave with formations and we saw a turtle, Black Snakehead small fish, toads, 1 gecko and bats.

Black Snakehead - Channa melasoma - (thanks to Nick Baker for ID) -


 Outside we all posed by the Alocasia macrorrhizos (Colocasia gigantea) leaves.

A bit further round the hill we came to Gua Jinjang Pelamin main entrance. Walking back we stopped at a small alcove with a solitary drawing of maybe a monitor lizard.

Some flora -


Before going back we explored a short tunnel that is home to a lot of bats, Gua Jinjang Terowong Kelawar.


We then went to see the drawings at Gua Seribu Cerita. The main daylight part of the cave has 100s of charcoal drawings, some of stick figures, a few of animals, and many seem to have no real meaning. Thankfully there is no modern graffiti.
This group of photos is outside the main cave -


Group looking at the drawings

Some of the drawings in the main section



See a video of me talking about the Gua Seribu Cerita rock art, it was taken from the film Misi Merapoh.
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See Sept 2012 blog on Gua Jinjang Pelamin

And see more on cave drawings in the area at Gua Lima area.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

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