Welcome to the next chapter of our adventure, We stayed at KK for one night, again at Sensi Backpackers. Even though we arrived at 11.30pm it gave Nick the perfect opportunity to catch up with the football/rugby world cup. The following morning was spent at Jalan Gaya Sunday Market on our doorstep. Both of us enjoyed this far more than we did the handicraft/central/night Market.

As we were flying to Mulu, we then headed to the airport by taxi as apparently you cannot use public transport if you need terminal one. It took us 14 mins from leaving the hostel to the airport, it certainly was a luxury being able to get from A-B in no time.

When our plane arrived, Helen was horrified to find that we would be flying on a propeller plane (Malaysia Airlines). Our plane only had 11 passengers and we felt like we were flying first class after our trips with Air Asia as we had free food and drinks. We flew along the coast and then turned over the rainforest, all of Borneo is covered in trees apart from the occasional kampung. No wonder wild life flourishes here.

We landed at Mulu airport which was just a building rather than an airport...the next five days will be spent staying at the Gunung Mulu National Park, World Heritage Site. It is within this park that the largest cave chamber (Sarawak Chamber) can be found, Sarawak Chamber can accommodate 40 Boeing 747 aircrafts and it has an intricate network of caves.

We had booked ourselves into a longhouse as the hostel was full which had an effect on our budget but we thought it would be money well spent seeing as we probably wont get the opportunity to visit Mulu National Park again. Plus it was nice not having to think of other people and make a mess of our room.

The next morning we travelled by longboat along the Melinau River, which would take us to our destination - Cave of the Winds and Clearwater Cave. Our first stop was at a local Penan handicraft village at Batu Bungan Longhouse. Nick bought another bracelet to add to his growing collection, his view is that it makes him look more a traveller than a holiday goer!

Cave of the Winds used to have an active river flowing through it but these days it's about a 250m steep walk down. We found this cave amazing as there were loads of stalagmites and stalactites, we even had a science lesson as there were boards explaining how they were formed etc. Back to school for us! Cave of the Winds has a chamber called the Kings Chamber which had amazing formations, hard to believe this is all the work of nature.

Our next stop was Clearwater Cave, named for it's crystal clear river that flows through it. This cave is supposedly the longest cave in SE Asia. This cave was breathtaking as there were huge chambers and holes in the cave. From looking at the entry it's hard to believe it has over 150km of passageways! The afternoon was spent resting our weary legs and working out our budget!

On Tuesday we went on the Garden of Eden Valley walk, this involved scrambling over rocks, wading through rivers, trekking through the rainforest and getting ourselves covered in bat guano.

Our first stop was Deer Cave which is the largest cave passage in the world. Deer Cave gets it's name from a 'natural chain of events', the bats poo which in turn creates lush grass which attracts deers. Sadly the deers no longer live in Deer cave as the local Penan community hunted them all down. Deer Cave also provides a habitat for up to 16 different species of bats, the largest population of one species is 3 million wrinkle lipped bats. The bats were roosting 200m above us and there were millions of swiftlets flying around.

The first part of Deer Cave was easy as we were walking on a walkway then once we reached the end of the 'show cave' we clambered down to the river wading through it and climbing over rocks covered in bat guano. On closer inspection there were loads of golden earwigs, some kind of louse, super sized spiders all relishing on the nutrients from the guano. Helen was fine until she saw the true number of insects and refused to use the rocks for her balance to prevent the insects crawling all over her. Thankfully Nick was a true gentleman and was always available to lend a helping hand in particular as the guide (Ishmael) b*****ed off half the time. After scrambling over rocks we came to this opening that opened up to the Gardens of Eden, it was amazing coming out of this opening. The scenery was beautiful, you will see from the photos. We continued walking through the rainforest for an hour until we came to this waterfall and pool where we settled to have some lunch and a swim. Helen was particularly glad to wash off all the bat guano.

Unknown to Helen and Nick a return journey was had, and more wading through rivers, clambering over rocks and getting covered in bat guano again. We then made our way to Langs Cave which is the smallest show cave here in Gunung Mulu, it was equally as extraordinary due to it's speleothems. Langs Cave is where the Bat Exodus is, we waited for three hours in the hope of watching millions of bats streaming out of the cave. We gave up as it was raining, however after talking to Tom and Beth who waited with us they managed to see the bats an hour later. Patience certainly is a virtue.

Helen found the trek particularly challenging as the guide did not have any patience and everything was done at supersonic speed. Those who know Helen know that she likes to do things carefully. At one point she was nearly at breakdown point. Nicks verdict on the tour was that it was awesome, but our guide was hopeless.

The following morning, we did the Mulu Canopy Skywalk, which at 480m long makes it the longest tree based canopy skywalk. Both Helen and Nick enjoyed this as it was done at a leisurely pace and our guide, Undi was miles better than any other guide we have had here at Mulu. He wasn't petrified of talking to us as we were Deaf and he always kept us involved when things were spotted. We managed to see a woodpecker and some strange insects (see photos!)

As we missed the bat exodus yesterday our plan was to give it another try via Paku Waterfall for a swim, however whilst having lunch the heavens decided to open and it continued raining all day long. Apparently the bats won't come out if it's raining so we decided to play board games all afternoon!

Our last morning was spent packing, drying our clothes and playing games. Nick even went for his first run, which was apparently good(!) the scenery was beautiful however he struggled with the humidity but still he managed an impressive one hour's run. Nicks chest managed to hold up after several weeks of a cough and he hopes this will be the first of many more runs.

We took a transfer bus to Mulu airport which is less than 5 mins drive from our resort but trekking 1k with a heavy backpack didnt bear thinking about. We took our return flight to KK where we stayed for one night, again at Sensi Backpackers. The time was spent sorting out our backpack, clothes and our itinerary for the next couple of weeks in the Philippines.

Our flight to Clark, the Philippines marks our one month anniversary of travelling, hard to believe that the time has gone by quickly.