Mulu: The rain forest

In December 1975, Gunung Mulu Nation Park was gazetted in the midlands of Sarawak, in Borneo. In a very forward thinking action (for the time), the Malaysian Government were looking to protect a large area from the effects of the massive areas of logging concessions being issued to large corporates. Having protected the 210 square miles, they had no real idea a/. what they had within the park (other than a general idea), and b/. how they wished to utilise the park.

Shortly after, by chance, a letter from the Roman Catholic Bishop of Miri (a small city in Sarawak) to Robin Hanbury-Tension suggested that he visit Borneo. At the same time Hanbury-Tension was approached by the Director and Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society to make use of a recent expedition grant, and Borneo had been ear-marked.

These three events led to Robin Hanbury-Tension leading an expedition which ultimately was to provide a draft management plan for the National Park. In order to achieve this, they had to first establish a base camp, and some more permanent outlying camps, and carry out a massive exploration and survey of all that was contained in the National Park.

This book covers this from the inception (as noted above) through to some of the general outlines of the draft management plan (but not too much detail). In general it is split into two phases - the establishment and exploration, then ‘the work'. It is an easy read, it is not bogged down in detail, but offers enough to explain what is happening, it is not so heavily scientific that non-scientists can cope easily with what is being explained.

Anyone who has visited Mulu NP (and I was lucky enough to do this several years ago) will know that the park has three primary features - Gunung Mulu (Mount Mulu), ‘The Pinnacles”, and the caves. This is of course a massive simplification, as there is a lot in Mulu, but they remain the biggest of the attractions to tourists.

Chapters in this first part of the book explain some of the explorations and processes, and the people who carry them out. They also cover some of the relationships built with the local tribes, and their contribution to the workforce extensively as guides, describing their already advanced methods of conservation of their food supply. Also covered are the general logistics, the access (by river) and how the work was set up.

The second part of the book is broken into chapters and outlines some of the findings. Chapters titled ‘The Land' and ‘The Caves' tackle some overview and then these dominant features.

Mt Mulu had been climbed previously (By Edward Shackleton, with Tom Harrisson in 1932) but not since, and it was only after several attempts that Hanbury-Tension's expedition succeeded, such was the complexity of the geography and flora. Now there is an excellent, but technical track, and from the main tourist centre is takes four day, three night return hike.

The Pinnacles are amazing limestone spikes which line a large saddle area. They are a bizarre natural formation, and quite unique. Now there is a tough climb up from one of the outlying camps, making this a three day, two night hike from tourist base.

The caves - (and there are many of them, not all open to the public, or accessible) are spectacular and varied, the Deer Cave - the worlds largest known cave (the line they use is you could fit St Paul's Cathedral inside it five times), with its bat population of around 3 million who fly out each dusk and return before dawn - the bat exodus is an amazing sight as they literally pour out of the cave for a period of what seems like an hour. Lang cave is nearby, which is much, much smaller and dominated by stalactites and stalagmites. Both are a relatively easy visit from the main accommodation.

As well as exploring of the physical features there were also loads of scientists examining every imaginable plant and animal, insect and birds. These are explained in chapters titled: The Vegetation, Forest Ecology, Mammals and Birds, reptiles & Fishes and Insects. As well as these, there are two appendices which list the Birds and the Mammals found in the park. A third appendix lists the scientific projects undertaken.

The last two chapters are ‘Tourism, Park Management and the Penan” (the Penan are one of the lesser developed local tribes, who have recourse to hunt within the National Park), and “Looking Back”. These are the chapters which try and tie together an ending - which discuss broadly the management plan. At that stage, there had been no formal decision on whether to open the park to tourism, or try to protect it as a scientific research zone. Obviously one of these returns real money, they other has significant costs, which would be weighed against results, but would likely require significant external funding. Obviously, the outcome was managed tourism, for which I am probably not only person grateful!

For completeness there is also a Foreword, by Lord Hunt, and an Afterword by Lord (Edward) Shackleton.

I enjoyed this book - probably all the more for my familiarity with the park, I am sure. It is not a long, or an in-depth book, but very readable. Obviously not able to disclose too much of the resulting management plan, and a formal decision not having been made makes the end of the book somewhat wishy-washy, but either way that wouldn't have effected the good work carried out by the expedition.

4.5 Stars for me, rounded down to 4.

As a conclusion to my own experiences at Mulu, the whole time spent there was excellent, but the opportunity to wander about in (relative) isolation and observe the animals and birds in the rainforest setting was great - but not always easy. There were always groups of people out walking with similar intent, but they seemed unable to prevent them selves from talking and laughing, therefore reconciling themselves to see few animals and birds. There were definite restrictions on where you could wander - timber walkways in the main areas with barriers to prevent you wandering out, disturbing the rainforest floor, so luck in avoiding ‘those people' played a part. I particularly liked the climb to, and the time at the pinnacles, they were fantastic.