Adventure caving at Lagang Cave

As I had given up hope for the Pinnacles, I arranged to try the easiest adventure caving trip at Lagang departing at 1330. This gave me the whole morning free so I got the internet at MYR5 per day (expiring 0800 tomorrow when they change the password).

Charlotte (whom I was hanging out with, travelling with her friend Douglas) was also free. She also got the internet and bought their flights out of Mulu. Arriving in Mulu without departure tickets isn’t a good idea as internet is poor and payment by credit card is iffy. All due to poor communications which I think is dependent on the satellite. It was her lucky day I guess, as the sun was shining and the dish was getting a good connection.

Reporting for the Lagang adventure caving, we met our ebullient guide Jesper who took me on the Deer Cave trip yesterday. We had a short boat ride of about 15 minutes on the Melinau river before walking about 20 minutes to the cave entrance.

At the locked entrance, we donned our helmets and turned on the attached lamp. I had been told that by Park HQ staff that “adventure caving” is walking in a cave on the cave floor whereas in the showcave, one is on plankwalk. That was probably an oversimplified explanation. While parts of the walk was no different from hiking on a rocky mountain, the challenge at Lagang was traversing a very low section.

The cave ceiling got lower and I started ducking. As it got even lower, I had to squat-waddle then crawl on my hands and knees. The girl in front said it was easier to get through the lowest part (0.5m high for 50m) by lying on her side and shuffling forwards. I tried that and it worked fine until my shoulder was touching the ceiling, so I resorted to crawling on my elbows.

We were all relieved when the lowest part was over and returned to normal walking. There were a few more low bits before we exited again. I was very thrilled at what we had just done. A little muddy, very sweaty but very thrilled. I had been warned by Park HQ staff that I would get muddy but not wet. I think even if you don’t go in to water, you get sweat from the humidity.

Jesper said that what we had done was the intermediate circuit rather than the beginner’s, even though it was a relatively easy version of intermediate. That made me even more chuffed and I was keen to go on a true intermediate caving adventure next.

One of the Aussie girls was feeling quite sick. She actually looked unwell too with very dark circles emerging under her eyes; something I hadn’t noticed earlier. She needed rests on the way back to the boat and also threw up. She thought she had eaten something dodgy but perhaps it could have been dehydration or anxiety.

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I had drinks with a Kiwi family (dad, two sons and one son’s girlfriend). Such a lovely family! Even though the kids are adults (one is perhaps mid-thirties), they still do family trips together.

Catching up with the sick Aussie girl, she had the biggest meal on the menu in front of her. She seemed recovered. She had been to the village clinic and had been given a drip and a morphine injection. All that for MYR23 (around USD6). I thought she could have asked for “tar pau” or takeaway morphine as well and sold it on the market for a lot more! I’ve spoken to doctors on my travels before and they say rural or country practice is very different from in cities. In places like this, doctors make do with very limited range of medication to treat a variety of ailments.