Mulu, Borneo

The Lost World, Mulu- Borneo

July, 2013, Mulu- Malaysia

Back in the 1980s my father stayed with a tribe in Borneo. He had photos of a blowgun hunt for monkeys, green tree snakes and smiling children. A girl rolled into the fire one night and had to be taken through the jungle to hospital. It was a day down the river with her mother cradling her. She was too burnt to cry. You fly in now but the river still winds its way to Mulu and some of the largest cave chambers in the world. Beyond a strip of jungle behind the riverbank, the forest has been flattened for wood and palm oil. The jungle had become a footpath for elephants.

I stood in the caves and heard stories about how there used to be great herds of deer that would come to these places and lick salt from the walls.

At some point in time the roof had collapsed and sunlight broke through. It was millennia of daily rains that had eaten away the limestone. Trees took over this lost world. Drips of water fell from the ceiling. One hit me in the face and I let it roll off my cheek.

While I was staring at the light in the cave, darkness had fallen outside. The humidity threw down a furious roar. I laughed to myself, listening to the frogs and raindrops. We were all singing in our own way.

I had a giant waterproof lens cover for these moments. I pulled it over my head and strode back to camp through the hot sheets of water. I was breathing in dirt and the fumes of a million leaves mixed with particles of the poison they used to kill primates.

I inhaled the crumbling cave and the drifting stench of bats while chasing fireflies and the light from my torch.