Merapoh 2013 Pt 2 - Gua Guri, Ara Babi, Air Mata Dayang etc

On 3 Feb we went to an unnamed hill in the Gua Hanuman and Gua Hantu Menari area. The first cave we found, Gua Guri was named after an earthernware bowl we found in one of the many entrances.

The cave is quite short. In the first entrance was a jaw bone, probably monkey

and an insect 'house'

We continued round the hill, next was Gua Kulit Musang, only about 20 m long, half walking and half crawling. The name comes from the grey markings on the walls.

From here we found several entrances with interlinking passages so we grouped them all under Gua Ara Babi.

In the entrance passage Juki spotted some tiger footprints in the mud, probably mother and cub.

In the left hand passage we found a dead wild boar, first time I've seen one (dead or alive) in a cave.

In another side passage are some thick roots on the floor and some roots going from floor to roof. Of course the boys couldn't resist climbing them!

There were roots even deeper in the cave, these ones are on the floor -

The main passage ends in a pretty grotto. Another passage had some ant "tunnels" on the floor and walls.

Some other inhabitants -

Further round the hill was a passage with some large bats, unfortunately 2 crashed into us, so were photographed. They are Hipposideros, probably diadema.

In another section was the remains of an animal, some of the bones were already calcited into the floor. Maybe a porcupine.

After lunch we went to see Gua Air Mata Dayang.

We did the dry section of cave, then at the far end Juki got into the water and had a look but there was no ongoing route. When we got back to the main entrance I decided to go for a swim to explore the lake part of the cave as no one has done this yet. Juki followed me, filming at the same time. We had to swim the whole way, I don't know the distance, maybe 50-70 m. There are lots of bats inside and the chamber ends with no dry way on, so maybe there is a route underwater. See video.

From here we drove round the hill to look for more caves. The first site wasn't actually a cave and we sunk up to our ankles in grey mud.

Next was a cave full of bats and some fish apparently not normally found in caves, ikan sepat, so the cave was named Gua Ikan Sepat.

In the next hill we found had a lake in the entrance and a deep section with a nice blue colour, so we named it Gua Kolam Biru.

A nice ending to a good weekend of caving.
-----
See Part 1 Feb 2nd.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

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.
------------------
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

Radio broadcast of Croatian caving expedition in Merapoh

A radio broadcast of the 2012 September Croatian caving expedition to Merapoh in Malaysia as well as their trip to Mulu. It was aired on HRT Radio Sljeme on 02 Feb 2013. In Croatian language.

Bat caves

Bat Conservation International are doing a project to identify priority bat caves around the globe. The information will be used to prioritize their international conservation work in the upcoming years.

I was asked for info about such sites in southeast Asia. Although there are many caves containing bats in Malaysia, there are few in the peninsula with significant colonies of bats.

And few of these caves have been studied for bat species, so it is unknown if there are any rare or endangered cave bats.

© Liz Price No reproduction without permission