Gunung Mulu National Park, Borneo

Gunung Mulu National Park

Mulu, or Gunung Mulu National Park to give it its full name, (gunung means mountain in Malay), is located in Miri District of northern Sarawak State, close to the border of Brunei and roughly equidistant between the South China Sea to the west and Indonesia’s Kalimantan to the east. The park was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2000 due to its spectacular karst landscapes and exceptional biodiversity including a high number of endemic species. Although Mulu National Park covers a relatively modest 750 square kilometres its limestone outcrops and tropical rainforest is said to be home to more than 80 mammal species, 270 bird varieties (including no less than 8 different hornbills) and 130 reptile and amphibian species. (Precise figures – including the size of the park – do, of course, vary considerably depending upon which website you’re looking at. We’ve also seen estimates of 550 square kilometres so the 750 presumably includes peripheral and secondary zones.)

For casual visitors, Mulu National Park’s best known geological features are certainly its caves and its most famous residents are probably the millions of bats that reside therein. Newly discovered cave systems and extensions to already known ones are regularly added to the park’s inventory although due to the highly sensitive eco-systems involved, the vast majority of such systems are off limits to visitors. At present, four of the most spectacular and easily accessed sites have been opened as ‘show caves’ and include walkways and artificial lighting. These are; Deer Cave, Wind Cave, Clearwater and  Lang Caves. (A number of other underground complexes are open to experienced cavers with permits if accompanied professional guides.)

The vast Deer Cave is best-known for its daily, dusk, bat exodus when some 3 million wrinkled-lipped bats head out for breakfast but also contains a 2 kilometre walkway traversing the main chamber. This emerges into a huge, jungle-filled sink hole known colloquially as the Garden of Eden. (See featured image.) This is a relatively easy route although although while the lush, hidden garden was spectacular, when we did the hike, the number of leeches was equally spectacular. Needless to say, the majority of visitors then stick to a shorter section of walkway along with making the most of the seating provided out front for watching the famous exodus. A visit to Deer Cave is usually combined with nearby Lang Cave, famous for its stalactite and stalagmite formations.

Clearwater and Wind are also usually combined as they’re reached by a short boat journey from the Mulu National Park HQ up the jungle-lined Melinau River. Both are well lit and feature concrete and wooden walkways. Once again, only certain sections are open to the general public and bearing in mind that Clearwater is considered one of the longest caves systems in the World, with over 250 kilometres of interconnected passages, that’s a sensible policy.

Although Mulu is far from being one of the largest of Borneo’s national parks, (Kayan Mentarang National Park. for instance, just over the border in Indonesia’s Kalimantan, covers a huge 13,000 plus square kilometres), a large percentage of Mulu National Park is off limits to regular tourists.  However, the area around the park headquarters features easy trails and boardwalks accessible to any visitor while longer hikes can be organised with park authorities. These include a challenging hike to the Pinnacles rock formations, a multi-day trek to the summit of Mount Mulu and the famous Headhunter’s Trail which requires at least 2 days and 1 night. The latter offers a foot and boat access route to the park for those skipping the flight to Mulu Airport. Note, authorities have deliberately avoided constructing access roads to the park so a relatively torturous boat and hiking trip or plane into tiny Mulu Airport are the only means available of reaching the park.

Nevertheless, for a 2 or 3 day visit to the park there’s certainly enough to see and do in the vicinity of the park headquarters which is also the location of the park accommodation. There are shorter hikes in addition to the aforementioned boardwalk trail plus boat trips on the Melinau and the above cave visits. (This may sound like a lot of caves but they are all different in style and feel and, after all, this is what Mulu National Park is famous for.)

In accordance with the authorities’ admirable policy of limiting development in the park, private accommodation in the area is very limited. There is a rather incongruous, luxury Marriot Resort and Spa (proving that money overcomes the best of intentions) and a number of homestays in the local villages. (As far as we know, there’s a solitary mid-range option so good luck getting a booking there.) Most visitors then rely on the park accommodation which, while lacking a pool and spa, is simple but perfectly acceptable for a couple of nights – bearing in mind you are in the middle of the Borneo jungle and the park deserves the extra income as well. Again, while Mulu is never going to be the culinary centre of Borneo, there are a couple of excellent local cafes serving classic Malaysian fare and you can always splash out in the Marriot if that’s your thing.

Our Borneo Adventure includes a 2 night stay at Mulu with the above cave visits, boat trip, boardwalk hike and of course the bat exodus. We did once try to access the park by road and boat – up the Tuloh River we think it was – which sounded great in theory but proved far less so in reality. Firstly the transport was unreliable – never good for an organised group tour – and secondly it was best described as long and somewhat torturous.  We now take a flight from Kuching, our tour’s starting point, to Mulu followed by a short hop to Kota Kinabalu – also the kick off spot for our shorter, Land Below the Wind, Sabah tour.  You can find all our Borneo and Peninsula Malaysia tours on the corresponding Malaysia tour page.