Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia

The Gunung Mulu National Park is a lush tropical jungle with fast-flowing streams and jagged limestone outcrops. It is overlooked-by a 7,798-foot mountain and is rich with spectacular and immense caves— some of the world’s largest.

The Gunung Mulu National Park is located close to the southern border of Brunei with Malaysia Sarawak, about 100km east-southeast of the town of Miri and 100km due south of Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, is the largest national park in Sarawak. It lies between the headwaters of the Tutuh River, a tributary of the Baram River and covers 544km2, ranging in elevation from 50 meters to 2,376 meters. The Gunung Mulu National Park is also important for its high biological diversity. Besides that, it contains seventeen vegetation zones, exhibiting some 3,500 species of vascular plants. The Gunung Mulu National Park was first constituted on 3 October 1974 but only opened to public in 1985.

The climate at Gunung Mulu National Park is influenced by the north-east monsoon between December and March, and the south-west monsoon between May and October. Rainfall is generally high, with seasonal averages ranging from 4000 to 5000mm. There is no marked dry season, although rainfall does show distinct seasonality, being highest from April to May and October to November, and lowest between August and September. Mean and maximum temperatures in the Melinau lowlands range from 23ºC to 26ºC and at Gunung Mulu between 14ºC to 18ºC.

The Gunung Mulu National Park has three mountains, Gunung Mulu 2,376m, Gunung Api 1,750m and Gunung Benarat 1,585m. Many of Mulu’s attractions lie deep below the surface. Hidden right underneath the forested slopes of these mountains is one of the largest limestone cave systems in the world. These huge caverns form in the limestone bedrock because fractures in the rock are widely spaced, the limestone is strong, and the torrential rainfall, nearly 20 feet per year, carries away dissolved carbonate and insoluble sediment. Anywhere else and these huge caverns would collapse.

The massive Deer (Gua Payau) Cave, with its evening emergence of nearly two million free-tailed bats, is the main feature that attracts adventuresome visitors to the park. There are also many other impressive caves at Gunung Mulu National Park, including Lubang Nasib Bagus, which contains the world’s largest underground cavity, Sarawak Chamber, approximately 330 feet high, over 1,300 feet wide, and 2,300 feet long. Sarawak Chamber is the world’s largest natural chamber within a cave (Gua Nasib Bagus – Good Luck Cave). The chamber measures 600m long, 415m wide and 80m high and could contain 8 Boeing 747 aircraft lined up nose to tail. Another, Clearwater Cave, contains an extensive river system that winds its way underground through over 30 miles of passageways; Clearwater Cave also contains the largest windblown stalactite, at over 1 metre in length.

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