Sarawak Hidden Gems 2015 - Deer Cave

If you are not interested in more adventurous caving, then there are basically only a few caves to visit - the Deer Cave, Lang Cave, Cave of the Winds and Clear Water Cave. These are already enough to keep you occupied for a couple of days. The cave visits usually take around half a day - either in the morning or afternoon. Visits to the Deer and Lang Cave leave the Park Headquarters at 2.00p.m.

To get to Deer Cave, you need to trek through the jungle for around 45mins. There are proper footpaths all the way so it is a relatively easy walk. You arrive at the Bat Observatory and from there it is another 5 min to the mouth of the Cave.

Deer Cave is billed as the biggest cave passage in the World. It is a passage - meaning it is open at both ends. The cave is around 170m wide and 120m tall. The small entrance to the cave does not prepare you for the awesome sight once you get into the actual cave passage.

The cave passage is huge. Try to spot the people who are just little specks in the photos.

Deer Cave is also where you see the famous Lincoln's profile.

At the end of the cave, passage is the Garden of Eden. It is a beautiful sight.

The cave is home to around 3 million bats, so the floor of the cave is full of guano. The smell can be quite intoxicating in some parts. The visit to the cave ended around 5.00p.m. After that, we headed back to the Bat Observatory to wait for the bat exodus - a truly amazing sight which I saw during the last visit. The bats normally fly out from the large opening on the side of the mountain.

Sadly luck was not with us this time around and the bats refused to come out even though we waited until 6.30p.m. By then it was already quite dark so we reluctantly head back to the HQ.