Gua Anak Tempurung, Gopeng Perak 29 September 2012

Direction to Gua Anak Tempurung - Gopeng Exit. Turn left. Drive straight, pass Jeram town on your right side. Take the first left turn after Jeram town. After the left turn, "Klinik Desa Jeram" is on your left. Drive straight, cross a bridge and turn to your left. You will see GB Kuari on your left. Follow the curvy road.  Pass Sg Siput Selatan. Shortly after that, turn left into the gravel road. Follow the bumpy trail. Take the left if you come to a fork road. You will see "Ma Tau" signage. Stop at where the photo shown above.

If you have a 4-wheel-drive, you can drive up here. 

The path to the entrance of Gua Anak Tempurung is on the left where the group of cavers were standing.

As this is not a commercialized place, there aren't any signages leading to this cave.

Walking to the entrance from where we parked.

The cave.

Climbed down at the beginning of the path.

Walked through the trees.

Went over the fallen tree trunk. 

Our group leader, Ryan entering the cave's entrance.

This is what we saw after we crawled through the entrance. 

Torch light is a must as the cave is in total darkness.

Some part of the cave has very low ceiling that we have to crawled. 

Helmet is a compulsory for safety. 

My older child was wearing a bicycle helmet. I borrowed a yellow construction hat from someone.

The information sharing by the MNS cavers were excellent.

Gua Anak Tempurung is a river cave with a mere length of 0.9km. 

 Be prepare to get wet.  It will takes approximately 15minutes to just walk through it. We took about 1.5hour as we stopped along the way to marvel at the cave and listened to the information shared by MNS cavers.

Spot the cricket with long legs.

Below are some excellent photos taken and shared by Jimmy Chew.

Tailess whip scorption

We were puzzled by the yellow and blue paints on the wall. 

These are straws.

Dark Cave, Batu Caves Selangor 18 March 2012

We always know about the existence of this limestone cave, but it never crosses our mind to explore this. Well, today we finally did.

The entrance fee into the cave. 

The huge chamber at the mouth of the cave serving as registration counter. 

They distributed torch light to every participant.

Zasree, our guide, briefing us on the trip ahead of us and the do's and don;t's. I thought we were lucky to have him as our guide, as he was very knowledgeable about his work.

Walking into the cave. There is no man-made light seen, except for our torches.  

Can you spot the green colored viper? The guide said the snake is not the inhabitant of the cave and it is there most probably taking cover from the incessant rain that poured in the past few days.

Observed our first inhabitants of the cave, centipede roaming on the surface of bat guano. It led me to conclude that the cave's ecosystem is still functioning.

Tiny snails among the wet rocks which are peppered with bat guano. The snails feed on the water that carries the all important calcium that formed their shells. The snails also feed on the bat guano.

Roaches. 

 

Long-legged Centipede. Note the long legs and if you are very close to one, you will see that the centipedes have a pair of very long antennae, which helps to feel their way in the midst of total darkness. They do have a pair of eyes, but it was told to us that they are most probably blind. Nature at work.

This is one of the species of bat living in the Dark cave. A fruit-eating bat. There are about 12 (or maybe 20) species of bat inhabiting the cave, said the guide.

Metal railings along a cemented 4' wide path. It can be slippery at a certain portion as a result of dripping water.

Stalagmite. Living.

Flowstone. Still alive. We observed water still flowing down from the ceiling of the cave down to the bottom.

Flat worm, endemic to the Dark cave. Can't find nowhere else. Living in the pool of water just beside the flow stone. We were told that it has very special regenerative capability. Should one cut the worm into half, both will regenerate themselves.

Spinal millipede, another endemic inhabitant of the Dark cave. Real size about half a centimeter. Likes to hangout in the area behind the flow stone.

 

The guide also shared with us some of the other living organism of the cave. 

The snake that slither up the walls of the cave and lunch bats. This Cave Racers are constrictors. 

At certain juncture of the journey, Zasree will stop to point out and explained passionately about features of the cave and its inhabitants.  I thought he is very passionate about his work. By far, he is the best guide that we have encountered. 

As we were heading back, we saw a cave dwelling cricket. The guide to told us that this cricket will eat its own hind legs, should they be hungry enough. However, the legs will grow again. 

Spelunking Tour 4(Grand tour) at Gua Tempurung, Gopeng, Perak 14 January 2012

Grand tour starts every half hour from 9am to 11am.

Our tour took about 4.5 hour to complete. It was highly strenuous for me but the children found it not.

Tour packages at Gua Tempurung

Previously Hui ended at Tour 2 and we waved goodbye as dad and En climbed down the over 200 steps to the dark cave to complete Tour 3.

Today, Hui decended the stairs with us to complete Tour 4. From these steps onward, the cave was in total darkness.

Some Chinese inscription on a rock.

Slid on our bum all the way down (below) 

And jumped down.

Water level at Hui's waist.

Some part of the caverns come with rather low ceilings.

From afar, I thought I saw white styrofoam boxes lay strewn everywhere in the dark. It turned out to be white shining rocks.

A total pitch dark. Headlight is a must for Tour 3 and 4.

Reached the end of the cave where we came to lush jungle greenery.

The adults admired a brave 4.5 year old Hui. 

Amazing rock formations.

We have to creep through this very low opening.

Sliding down a 9meter high cliff.

Here comes Hui.

Jumped into the hole and moved away before the next one jumped onto you.

Walked through all sorts of rock formation.

Yay! Finally, the end of the torture and my body ached terribly.

Read Tour 2 and Tour 3 at Gua Tempurung