Two Nights and Three Days in the Maliau Basin.

We woke up this morning at six (for Dad), and seven (for me) for a seven thirty pick up to the Maliau Basin.  The driver arrived at seven instead of seven-thirty, which scuppered my plan to have a shower.  I grumpily put on my light weight trekking kegs and a pair of trainers and completed the packing I should have completed the night before.  The hotel had agreed to let us store of luggage there between visits. 

Neither of us are really sure what to expect so we have two complete sets of trekking gear, one for wet, one for dry, a towel, hiking boots, light weight socks. Cameras, head torches and binoculars. as well as my Nexus here.  Dad suggested leaving it as it might get very wet but I figured that it was there to be used.

The journey was a long one.  We stopped for food at a small village and ate some rice, noodles (which I must stop getting as they are terrible) and chicken.  It was serves with a nice soup that was a bit like weak OXO with spring onions in it.  It might be that I was so hungry that anything would have tasted amazing, rather that the chief being a genius.  With hindsight, it was served at room temperature.

As soon as lunch was over it was back in the little van for the rest of the journey. So far I had thought that the journey was a bad one.  A little van with almost no leg room and a metal bar placed to hit your head combined with the terrible Malaysian roads. It all  had me feeling a little hard done-by.  It was to get so much worse.  After an hour the road ended and we were driving along dirt path used by the loggers.

It was painfully bumpy and we would be on it for another four hours, at least it would have been four hours if the wheels hadn't got stuck in mud, then, from revving, buried themselves even further in until the chassis of the van was almost flush with the floor. 

The sun was scorching and I'm on my hands and knees with the driver trying to dig out the van with my hands.  We tried pushing and rocking the van  but it was stuck solid.  Someone drive up in a 4x4 and saw we needed help so, in the spirit of helping a fellow traveller, offered to give is a tow out... for twenty ringots.  It took another twenty minutes as the van was too buried to get a tow rope under and, when it was finally attached, it snapped.  

A second attempt got us out and we were on our way again, as speedy as before and just as painfully.

It made us smile that we weren't the only unfortunates.  One of the massive log transportation lorries had also over turned.  We saw two Malays relaxing in the shade, waiting for a pickup.

After a few more hours and bruises and we arrived at a little hut next to a bigger hut next to a massive, luxury hut/conference centre.  The driver finally admitted that the van that had tried so hard couldn't get up the 20%, wet muddy climb ahead of us and that we'd have to transfer to a 4x4 that was waiting for us.  The centre keep track of everyone who is in the basin, I assume so they know how many people to look for if they vanish.  We had to signed in, it actually made me feel kinda important.

The journey from the gate to the accommodation complex was even more bumpy, even in the 4x4. We were joined by a teacher who was there with a Malay school and a ranger, they were called Man and Boy (honestly).  We stopped mid journey to see one of the satellite camps.  It was a scary introduction to jungle wildlife.  Giant ants with enormous pinchers  called Campinotus gigas.

I also saw a tiger leech, it had sensed that we were near and was frantically feeling the air for a bit of us to get a hold of.

I looked into a latrine and saw some very large wasp/hornet things.  I took their picture and one of them spotted the flash and chased me for ten minutes.  Totally uncalled for, I think.

I was actually glad to be back in the van and back on the bumpy trail.  There were some heart-in-mouth moments involving shear drops, steep hills and wet mud.  I'm sure the driver was secretly a little concerned when the truck started to slide towards the rather large drop that we were less that a metre away from.  We didn't fall.  We made it to the complex and, after signing in, we watched a safety video and had some lunch before our night time trek.

The dinner was good, and as we are the only guests we had it all.  We'd been told that we'd go for a night trek if the weather held out so we went back to our cabin and got changed.  Almost as soon as our shoes were on the heavens opened.  Within minutes there was water pouring off the roofs.  Forever hopeful we put on our anaracks, head torches, binoculars, cameras and Crag Hoppers (we must have looked like such tourists) and tried to find Cairo, our guide/minder.  He was nowhere, he'd said that we wouldn't go if the weather was bad and it was awful.  It really brought out some quite amazing insects though.  The rain forest came make big insects.  The Cicada is an armour plated, stupid flying bullet.  It sounds like a garden strimmer.

Like most flying insects it's flummoxed by the lights but with the cicada you really know it.   It'll ceaselessly headbutt walls, ceilings or your head.  Sometimes it'll stun itself for a few minutes before try in again.  Sometimes it'll hit the fan which, it is not armour plated enough to beat, though it comes close.  The floor is littered with poor cicadas that have damaged a wing.  Its wings are quite something too, they are clear bar some veins and very tough.  Apparently, the chicata is so top heavy that if it falls on its back it can't right itself and will die.  Like a fatty.

There is also a moth, an enormous moth with a wing span of about four/five inches.  When it lands you can can see the wing pattern.  It's a charcoal grey with bright white lines running around it.  The wings are thick and furry, it really is very handsome indeed.  Again tough, the floor was gathering more and more of their bodies in varying states if destruction.

Now wet, we went and sat in a AV room for a while and out ranger eventually found us there.  We talked a bit about what we'd do tomorrow and then left for bed.