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Bat emergence

7/22/2014

I spent today staring at the ceiling of the upper cave, mapping out all the colonies of bats and swiftlets. Didn't take any photos, but hope to go back and get photos of lots of the colonies soon.

But we stayed late and watched the bat emergence. Something like a million bats (mostly wrinkle-faced bats) pour out of the cave at sunset every evening, and it is amazing to watch. I think Guy got some great video footage.

Lots of wrinkle-faced bats on the wing

Since it was dark when we got off the hill, I had a look around to see if any animals were around. Not many, but some.

A frog I need to look up. Too late tonight to pull out the guide books. NEW it is a four-lined tree frog (Polypedates leucomystax)

A real traffic jam of caterpillars

Cute guy up in a tree. Will have an ID tomorrow. NEW it is a palm civet

Kuris pit

7/21/2014

The internet here has been so slow the last few days that I haven't been able to put up the stories that I would like. Last night took 1.5 hours just to get one picture up before I gave up. Tonight things seem a bit better so I am going to try and show some pics from today's adventure at the Kuris Pit entrance to the Black Cave (Simud Putih).

First thing we did was head over to the cave area and pack up all our camera, video and vertical gear. This entrance leads to a catwalk used by the nesters who collect the bird nests, and we weren't sure what we would find but we were sure there was an 85-meter sheer drop at the lip of the pit.

An awesome butterfly along the trail

We reached the entrance and had a very nice view. The first part is the protected buffer forest around the caves, which is a bit over 3,000 hectares. Beyond that are oil palm plantations on most everything except the other steep hills.

A view of lowland Borneo

To get in the entrance, we had to go through the guard hut. These guys protect the bird nests from thieves.

Nest guards in the kitchen

Just outside there was a hawk-eagle sitting in a tree. I think it is a Wallace's hawk-eagle

Hawk-eagle hunting

At first, the guard for the entrance we wanted to work in was scared to let us in. For good reason, as he wasn't aware we were coming and wanted some assurance from his boss that this would be okay. After a few phone calls by the surface manager on the hill, it was confirmed that we had permits to enter the cave and so the work began. First up, Guy filming Benjamin as he starts the first laser scan on the entrance.

Wonderful scenery on the surface above the Kuris entrance to Simud Putih

Manfred clipped in and on the lip of the 85-meter drop. Of note, this is where I was clipped in for a long time taking photos of the work

So they brought the scanner to the lip and ran it.

Getting ready to make the map scan

Next up, Don McFarlane forged the way down to the catwalk with a short rappel. There was a lot going on at this point. Benjamin was watching the scanner, there was a local with a safety harness attached to a rope to keep an eye on us, the area boss for the entrances in this area was making sure things went well, and then there is Don playing at the top of this big pit

Don, far right, reaches the catwalk

Taking a break as they move the scanner to the catwalk

The guard shack is right at the cave entrance, and all the metal sheeting is so that any thieves would have to make a lot of noise to get in the cave.

So, the scanner is down on the catwalk and they get the scan.

Discussion going on while scanning from the start of the catwalk

And finally, the crazy mappers took the scanner out the catwalk to get a final scan from around the corner and the last part of the cave we hadn't mapped in this area. Success!

Getting to the final scanning site on a catwalk way above the floor. In this area the catwalk is a series of four-inch wide boards

Our day off

7/20/2014

Because this is a three-week caving trip, we built in one day off. And that was today, so of course, we went to some caves. There is a hill with some caves in it that have 500-900 year old wooden coffins in it. Just had to see that.

Agop Batu Tulug is a small limestone hill just beyond Gomantong. There are three caves that they note, but they have a trail around the hill and there are a couple of other short caves as well.

Don McFarlane in the lower cave Agop Suribak

Carved wooden coffins in the upper cave Agop Sawat

Agop Batu Tulug, the hill with the coffin caves

Since this went so well, we went off to find something to make a mess of. We chose trying to find the elephant sanctuary. There is a sign along the road and we turned into a massive oil palm plantation. Drove in, many turns no signs. Drove out. Found a guy on a tractor who pointed to the correct turn. Drove in. Just when we figured all was lost we found a dilapidated sign pointing the way. Drove through a mud bog in the 12-seater mini-bus. Parked the bus and could see a building. Started walking. No one spoke English at the building (a construction site) nor seemed to know where the elephants were. Failed. Now our trip was complete.

The misadventures of the Speleo Seven. At this mud bog we got out and walked to lighten up the bus. The next bog stopped us and we parked and walked from there to, well, nowhere

More from today

7/19/2014

One more try to put up a few more pics.

After all the traverse pics, here is one showing the 50-meter drop that we have been working above. It is way steeper than it looks in the photo

Mapping across the traverse

7/19/2014

This morning we climbed the hill with much gear. Earlier we rigged the traverse to a section of upper cave that we could not map otherwise. Today we mapped it.

Manfred Buchroithner, the master mapper, hauling gear down a slot. The big white balls are for placing around the cave so that the laser scanner has specific points of reference as the survey moves along

Guy is first across the traverse

Manfred coming back for more gear

Benjamin Schroeter with the scanner on and scanning at the ledge

As usual, the internet is brutally slow. And yet again I note I am not able to write great text nor get in all the pics I would like to. Hope you like what I am able to post

Simud Puteh (Putih)

7/18/2014

Some passage shots from the Black Cave.

Don McFarlane on the left, and Warren Roberts further in. There is a guard shack to the right of Warren that is stell way further down (this passage is going down steeply)

Looking out the entrance

Internet is too slow tonight! Will try one more time to load anothe photo but after one hour I just have two pics up. Gonna sign off unless a miracle happens and things get faster.

The hut below the main entrance

Still high in the cave but working our way down (Don McFarlane)

Big eroded stal (Don McFarlane)

In many caves this would be a significant alcove, but here it just a little thing (Warren Roberts)

That's Warren Roberts in red standing next to a guard house down a huge slope. Did I mention that these are big caves?

It is too late to do more tonight. So hoping for faster internet tomorrow so I can put up more photos and spend some time describing what is going on with the caves and all.

Random photos

7/17/2014

Just some fun pics

Big rain last night. I was very late getting the blog up

A deep black squirrel very high in a tree. It has a maroon belly, and is a Provost's squirrel

This tree squirrel got close, but wouldn't come out in the open. Seems like a Low's squirrel, but unsure

Great venation on this dragonfly

A turtle in the drainage ditch along the road to the caves

Always interesting stuff here, and check out the last couple posts because I put up more than one set of pics today

More adventure on the way to town

7/17/2014

Last night was once again a wildlife experience while walking to town to post the blog. This was just coming out of the side of the road as Warren and I passed...

A black snake with bright yellow rings.

And then it just kept coming and coming out of the bushes. Finally, all eight feet or so of it was heading across a yard and the dog there was really frightened of what is a very beautiful animal. A mangrove snake

Almost all of a mangrove snake. I thought I had it but cut the tail off. Big snake

Up to Situm Putih, the White Cave

7/17/2014

Finally got into Situm Putih today. The laser scanning of the cave is nearly done and I wanted to see it with the whole team in there to maybe get a photo or two. I will be spending more time there, but it was fun to see the place finally.

I only have a couple photos from the trip for this post, but they should give a sense of how big the passages are.

A shaft of light from over 100 meters up strikes the hut of a nest guard near the end of the cave

Guy van Rentergem (front) and Don McFarlane (way out there) in a passage near the end of the cave

These guys guard the swiftlet nests. It is off season for collecting, but thieves are always a threat. They make regular patrols with lights to check all the pit entrances. They don't live down here full time, but rotate out in shifts and do get to go home to family regularly

Who knows what

7/16/2014

Note that this is my third blog post tonight! Internet is good but it is very late here and I will suffer tomorrow from the lack of sleep. Just trying to get things posted and so remember to scroll down after this post as there are many new photos up.

And now some random photos...

A most fine-looking beetle that I have no idea about. Totally wild structurally and has great color patterns

Honestly, I want to call this a Kinabalu squirrel, but need to double check that

This caterpillar has so much going on. Very cool critter and found him on the handrail of the visitor's center.