I ate delicious fried noodles with veggies for breakfast at 5:30 and we
loaded onto our boats for the ride back to the boat dock at Sukau where we
climbed onto our bus for the 30 minute ride back to the Gomantong Caves. We
birded along the road trying to lure out some of the more difficult skulkers,
birds often brightly colored, but very difficult to see as they jump and run in
the under story and stop behind clumps of leaves. I missed the Hooded Pitta, a
really lovely small bird with a black head, aqua green body with bright red
under parts that I just couldn’t manage to catch in my bins (binoculars).
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| Walking in the Gomantong Cave |
We drove up to the park headquarters where we had observed the bats
swarming out of the caves two days ago. This time we put on our boots, hats,
and grabbed our flashlights and set off on the 1 km walkway to the large cave
entrance. The main cave is a huge room carved out of limestone with smaller
entrances on the far side and top. There is a boardwalk that runs around the inside
of the main cave which we entered. Millions of Wrinkle-lipped Free-tailed Bats
live in these caves and the floor is covered with a thick layer of bat guano,
along with millions of cockroaches scurrying around. The boardwalk and hand
rail are also covered with guano and quite slippery, so one is very careful to
not slip and have to grab the rail!! The smell, as you can imagine, is really
intense! Pretty disgusting, but very interesting!
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| An intrusion of cockroaches
|
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| A bizarre Arthropod |
Also inhabiting the cave are three types of swiftlets: the Mossy-nest,
Black-nest, and the White-, or Edible-nest Swiftlets which is why we were
there. These are the nests that are harvested for the famous and expensive
Birds’ Nest Soup. The nests are situated very high up, along the top of the
cathedral roof and are collected just after the birds first build them. The
birds then re-build the nests and are allowed to raise and fledge their young
before these nests are also collected. The White Swiftlet nests are made
completely from swift saliva and are the most valuable. The others have twigs
and mosses mixed in and require more work to extract the saliva. I can’t
imagine how anyone ever thought to eat such a material and collecting and
processing the nests has to be one of the worst jobs in the world!
For some reason most of the nests were not occupied and so we only were
able to identify the Mossy-nest Swiftlets for our list. We finally emerged from
the cave and breathed fresh air once again! We returned to our lodge at 12:30
and dashed in for lunch: cabbage and fried veggies with sweet corn soup and
sliced pomelo (similar to grapefruit) for dessert.
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| Boating down the river |
We had until 4 PM off so I showered in our lovely bathroom and washed out
my bat guanoed clothes! We boarded one of our motor boats and this time motored
way down the river towards the ocean. The air was lovely and fresh - a really
beautiful day. We turned off onto a new tributary and after a while saw a
family of Proboscis Monkeys high in a tree on the horizon, and then we saw a
big old male lounging on a branch next to us. Suddenly across the river a
bachelor group of young un-mated males started crashing through branches and
jumping into thickets and making as much noise as they could to frighten the
alpha male and/or impress the females. The alpha calmly sat on his branch,
eating fruits with some of his harem nearby.
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| The Alpha Proboscis Monkey |
A group of about ten Silvered Leaf Monkeys (Langurs) sat crowded on a branch,
quietly grooming and playing with each other. These vegetarian monkeys seem to
be the most playful and peaceful monkeys here. We saw Dusky Leaf Monkeys in
Thailand some years ago and they behaved in a similar fashion.
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| Silvered Leaf Monkeys |
It was getting late so we started back and motored into a brilliant
sunset, arriving at the lodge at seven just in time for dinner.
Bob and I got
rum and cokes and sampled the good variety of the buffet dishes. After dinner
we had 15 minutes to get ready for another evening boat trip! I didn’t want to
miss another one so joined the group. We were out about 90 minutes and managed
to see a Buffy Fish Owl, a Reticulated Python, a Large Flying Fox (fruit bat),
a tiny sleeping Blue-eared Kingfisher and a couple of Bearded Pigs, large wild
boars with shaggy beards. It was a warm evening and very pleasant on board - a
nice end to a full day!
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| Sleeping Reticulated Python |
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