Sabah - Borneo - page 176

But oh what rocks. Rock climbers grade the formations here F5a - F6b, which is jargon for a mix of slow sloping
walls and vertical cliff faces. Fieldskills Adventures ( Click here ) in Kota Kinabalu runs 2-day/1-night rock-climb-
ing trips out here for RM500 per person.

Berhala was a leper colony during the colonial period, and the Japanese used the island as a civilian internment
centre and POW camp during WWII. Agnes Newton Keith was kept here awhile, as was a group of Australian
POWs who managed to escape the island by boat and sail to Tawi-Tawi in the Philippines.

Sungai Kinabatangan
The Kinabatangan River is Sabah's longest: 560km of water so chocolatey brown it would
pose a serious safety risk to Augustus Gloop. It coils like the serpents that swim its length
far into the Borneo interior. Riverine forest creeps alongside the water, swarming with
wildlife that flee ever-encroaching palm-oil plantations. Lodges are set up all along the
banks, while homestay programs pop up with the frequency of local monkeys. Dozens of
tin boats putter along the shores offering tourists the opportunity to have a close encounter
with a rhinoceros hornbill or perhaps a doe-eyed orangutan.

Sights

Gomantong Caves
( 089-230189; www.sabah.gov.my/jhl ; adult/child RM30/15, camera/video RM30/50;
8am-noon & 2-4.30pm) Sarawak's Mulu and Niah caverns may be more famous, but
for our ringgit, we think the Gomantong Caves give them a run for their money: a massive
crack in a mountain, a cathedral-like grand inner chamber formed of limestone, spot-
speckled with tubes of golden sunlight and a veritable small hill of bat shit, cockroaches
and scorpions. The Gomantong Caves are disgusting, yes, but they're also magnificent.
The forested area around the caves conceals plenty of wildlife and a few good walks -
we spotted a wild orangutan out here, which local staff said was rare but not unheard of
(sadly, that's because increased logging is pushing the primates into protected areas like
this). The most accessible of the caves is a 10-minute walk along the main trail near the
information centre. Head past the living quarters of the nest collectors to get to the main
cave, Simud Hitam (Black Cave). Venture into the main chamber and keep walking
counter-clockwise on the raised platform, which hovers over a steaming soup of bat crap
and a chittering, chitinous army of roaches, centipedes and scorpions. The same lovely

CAVES