Day two! Up early to meet our group for the Deer and Lang Caves trek. 3 million
wrinkle lipped bats live in the Deer Cave (so-named for the deer that
used to be hunted here by the locals), along with swiftlets, little
birds that make the kind of nests you'll find in birds nest soup. We
waded through the underground rivers to come out on the other side; the
green rainforest here is named Garden of Eden. We headed up the hill,
delayed slightly by Alfie finding a leech on his leg, up to a waterfall
where we had an hour to swim and eat lunch before trekking back down
again.
After this we headed over to Langs Cave, just next door and much smaller, but with an array of formations and a few more bats (in case we hadn't had enough).
Afterwards the idea was to sit at the amphitheatre facing the Deer Cave for the Bat Exodus that occurs most days - all 3 million bats swarming out to feed at dusk. The rain hit us though, which had the double effect of making the bats less likely to poke their noses out, and us wanting to get home for a hot shower much more.
A pretty good trek, although going in a group and being told 'eat now, swim now, walk now' kind of detracted from the fun after being independent travellers these past few weeks.
