Headhunters' Trail Adventures
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2006
1
66
118
Trip End
Aug 29, 2007
Gunung Mulu,
Malaysia
Friday, May 4, 2007
We stayed here three nights in total, hoping to meet other intrepid idiots who were up for doing the Headhunters' trail - unfortunately our luck was not in on this occasion and we ended up having to hire guides and pay boat fees on our own - an expensive exercise! Anyways, while we were in the National Park we saw the largest cave in the world, and got to see three million bats emerging to feed en masse at dusk - an incredible sight, the whole trip was worth it for that. We also walked the longest rainforest canopy walk in the world (an immense 480m) and saw zero wildlife - definitely overrated this one.
Anyway, off we head in our boat with some others to take in a couple more caves (I mean, these are big caves! One even had water in it... zzz...) and on to the trekking leg where we walked for 8km through the jungle to a camp called, imaginatively, Camp 5. Here we chatted with other folk who were attempting the Pinnacles, a very tough climb to see some unique rock structures which we also wanted to do but had to give a miss because of the cost of the Headhunters' trail. Anyway, the following morning we headed off with our guide - the chief and headman of headmen of the local longhouses, a very smiley and friendly old gent. We'd arranged for him to come get us, trek the Headhunters' trail, and then we'd stay at his longhouse before heading upriver to civilization, i.e. Limbang. Anyway, because it's been raining like crazy the track was extremely muddy, so our kind guide brought the boat about 6km closer to us to speed things up a little - cheating! The boat trip was brilliant though, we had to basically punt our way around and under fallen trees, even getting stuck a couple of times, all the way along to the end of the trail, about 5km or so. When we got there the chief had prepared the coffee and had the biscuits and bananas out! Bizarre, sitting there off the trail by the side of the river, surrounded by thick jungle on all sides, sitting there supping our coffee and checking our leech bites.
Did I mention the leeches? Yes, the little buggers were everywhere. You're walking through thick jungle, sweating like crazy, drenched through, and what next? You feel a slight pain, check it, and find a leech getting stuck in. A leech is like a mouth on the end of a worm which only exists to connect the mouth to flesh. Grab it and it slimes away. Flick it and nothing happens. We saw two effective ways of coping: one was to dab some DEET cream (mosquito repellent) on it and watch it suffer before flicking it away. or two, use your lit cigarette, enjoying the aroma of seared leech flesh before flicking it away. We had normal leeches (which can get through your sock), and the bigger tiger leeches, which are brown or green and tend to aim for the midriff region. Nice.
Anyway, the boat trip was fantastic, the jungle towering over on either side of the water, no noise of the engine, gliding along with the current... We didn't see any wildlife to speak of on the whole trip but hey ho, it was excellent getting stuck into the jungle properly. We stopped at the Ranger's station at the edge of the national park for our lunch (instant Maggi noodles, just like home) before heading off upstream, this time with the help of the engine, to the longhouse to spend the night. This time it was a Taboon or Tabun (dunno the spelling) tribal longhouse as opposed to an Iban one like we'd visited before in Kapit. It was grand, the people were friendly and we were well fed and also dry as the heavens opened for probably the heaviest downpour we've seen yet, seconds after we got under shelter.
The whole trip from Miri has been a real adventure for us. It's cheaper and faster to fly into Mulu from Miri, and then fly onwards to wherever (Kota Kinabalu for us), but it was good to get a feeling for just how remote we had got to. In fact, even though we're in Limbang now which is a fair sized town, we still have to make our way via the island of Labuan to get to our destination of Kota Kinabalu! Maybe we're a bit mad but it's nice to travel with the locals and to see every inch of waterway and jungle we pass through... Some of the highlights that we'd experienced by not flying were the beautiful sunset as we approached the national park by longboat, the smiling and waving locals at the longhouses that we passed along the way (including not just the children, but also the occasional tattooed tribesman, grinning from ear to ear at the ang mo), the stay at another longhouse, and the sharp pain in the buttocks from sitting for too long on wooden seats with your knees by your ears...
(UNRELATED NOTE: Take a look at this on the Borneo Post's website - told you we're famous!: http://www.theborneopost.com/?p=17267)
