Getting Down And Dirty

Are the stresses of urban life getting to you? Do you find yourself ‘sweating the small stuff’ all too often? Perhaps it’s time to go back to the basics and get in touch with nature with a rather unusual activity: caving -- also known as potholing or spelunking -- or the exploration of caves.

This writer spent one and a half weekends doing exactly that with several members of the Malaysian Nature Society’s (MNS) caving group - surely the nicest bunch of people to have one’s first caving experience with -- along with some 20 participants, most of them new to the activity. Among the newbies, many have had experience trekking or participating in some sort of outdoorsy activity before, but there were a handful who, like me, were new to the world of nature-related physical pursuits.

Now, there may come to mind the question of why people would want to explore caves -- defined as naturally occurring holes in hills or in the ground -- at all if they’re not archaeologists or palaeontologists. Far from being dull however, these often damp, pitch-dark passages and caverns are places where the excitement of adventure and discovery is enough to draw some people back again and again to crawl, climb, wade, explore and observe all the wonders that each cave has to offer.
Before doing any actual skulking about in the dark, some preliminary knowledge on speleology -- the study of caves -- was covered in the Basic Caving Course on a Saturday afternoon at the MNS headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

After a brief introduction to the MNS, Selangor branch cave group chairman, Yee Chun Wah and experienced cavers Yee Yoke Chuan and Lawrence Leong imparted basic information on the geology and ecology of caves and regaled participants with anecdotes of past expeditions.

Caving safety and particularly ethics and conservation were strongly emphasised. It is a potentially dangerous activity, and it’s easy to get hurt -- a lapse in concentration could result in slipping and consequently twisted limbs and broken bones, or worse -- but this can largely be avoided if you keep your wits about you and take responsibility for your own safety. Then there’s your responsibility to nature: once a cave has been entered, its natural beauty begins to deteriorate, and each person who enters it has a moral duty to leave it as untouched as possible, so that it may be preserved for others to experience the same wonders you have seen.

We were also briefed about the sorts of conditions we would encounter in the caves and the suitable clothing and equipment required. There were even demonstrations on how to tie various basic knots and notes on their practical uses in caving, which we would observe later, during the actual trip.

General Geology of Malaysian Caves

A cave can generally be described as being horizontal or vertical, and most of the caves in Peninsular Malaysia are the former, while vertical caves are usually found in Europe, Australia, and the US. About 80% of caves are located in limestone hills.

Caves are formed primarily via erosion, and limestone caves, due to chemical erosion. A chemical reaction between the weak carbonic acid in rainwater and the calcium carbonate in the rock it flows upon gradually erodes the rock, simultaneously producing calcium bicarbonate or calcite, which explains why river and ground water in limestone terrains is usually saturated with calcite sediment.

Limestone formations such as stalagmites, stalactites, flowstones, helictites, curtains, cave pearls and other wonders (collectively and more accurately known as speleothems or decorations -- the term ‘formations’ is deemed unsatisfactory in speleology) are created due to water bearing calcite sediment (courtesy of the eroded limestone rock and acid rain) dripping into the caves and evaporating, leaving small amounts of calcite behind and gradually forming solid deposits known as dripstone. Most speleothems are formed this way. This process is slow and continuous, and it takes thousands and thousands of years for the large speleothems you see in caves to grow to the size they are. Due to Malaysia’s tropical climate however, you may be able to find changes to a cave on a repeat visit within a few months, as the natural humidity speeds up the formation process.

A-Caving We Go!

On the Friday night following the theory session, the whole lot of us departed Kuala Lumpur in about 14 cars. The journey to the Tekam Plantation Resort in Pahang, where we would be staying, took about four to five hours.

Our party was to explore several of the many caves within the Kota Gelanggi complex, which, besides being a fairly popular place for the activity, is a site of historical importance. The archaeological studies and findings on the cave complex first appeared in the Royal Asiatic Journal in 1882, and within the past few decades, the Malaysian Department of Museum & Antiquities excavated human remains dating as far back as 1500 years. Some of these were found in Gua Balai, which has a large auditorium-like chamber within it, and cool breezes drifting through from one entrance to the other.

We also went into the Gua Terang Bulan (Bright Moon Cave), a show cave with indicative signs as well as steps and paths leading to and within it, allowing casual visitors to enter it without any special gear apart from portable lights. The more interesting Gua Sanding had a small entrance that required a little more effort to get into -- we crawled through tiny crevices vertical and horizontal, rocky and slippery, getting quite cold and muddy in the process -- but the effort was definitely worth the sights that greeted us inside! I’m not going to spoil the fun for you by describing what’s within this cave, though -- go find out yourself, as the cavers are fond of saying!

Besides the amazing speleothems, we also encountered various cave creatures, including mole crickets, earwigs, cockroaches, scary, long-legged centipedes, an assortment of beetles and spiders, as well as toads, a snake called the “cave racer” and of course, bats.

The unmistakeable smell of guano assailed our nostrils in every cave. Nose twitching slightly, I commented on it to a fuchsia-suited caver, who described it as a rather ‘green’ smell -- I’d describe it as ‘earthy’ -- that you get progressively accustomed to with each cave explored. And we heard rather than saw the creatures that produce this guano: hundreds or more likely thousands of bats flying around the voluminous room and roosting on the dark ceiling high above us.
Probably the most important animal in a cave, the droppings from these flying mammals are the main source of food for most troglobites (animals that are unable to live outside caves as they are physically evolved to survive within a cave). It is because of this that without the presence of bats, a cave is more often than not a ‘dead’ one.

With the delight at the sight of the variously shaped speleothems, and the squeamish wonder with which we regarded each newly spotted insect, there was also dismay. Some of the MNS cavers pointed out to us the stalactites, stalagmites, and other formations that had been destroyed by unthinking visitors and possibly crystal hunters. Seeing what had taken thousands of years for nature to form broken in a short moment by the callous hand of man brought back to mind what we learned during the course about the importance of conservation in caves.

Off the Edge

Besides the exploration of caves, the other major activity done by the group during the trip was abseiling. To the uninitiated, abseiling (or ‘rapelling’, the French term used by Americans) is basically controlled descent on a rope. In German "seil" means rope (pronounced ‘sile’, not ‘sail’) and "ab" means to descend.

Abseiling is actually a part of the SRT or Single Rope Technique, which is a major way to move up and down vertical passages in a cave and thus an essential skill for all serious cavers. Although we didn’t observe its actual application in caving, we nonetheless had the chance to see how the ropes are secured (this is where the basic knots we learned to tie in the course came in) and set up in preparation for our descent.

Standing at the foot of the cliff we were going to abseil over, each participant pulled on and fastened a harness and the other gear needed such as the carabiners/crabs and descenders before hiking up the hill to the descending point.

To alleviate some of the nervousness some of us clearly felt as we waited for our turns to abseil down, we were reminded of the importance of taking care of the equipment used: Never to step on the ropes because when dirt gets into the fibres the material will start to deteriorate, and being careful never to drop the carabiners, descenders, ascenders and other equipment, as not only are they expensive to replace, your life depends on them and you cannot afford for them to fail at crucial moments.

Let me just mention that abseiling is a truly good way to rid yourself of your fear of heights, or at least lessen it -- take it from one who suffers from acrophobia! Leaping backwards off the edge of a cliff, albeit attached to a rope, is not for the fainthearted -- although if you do not have height-related phobia, you will probably find abseiling a real fun thrill right from the first try.

To cave or not to cave (again)?

Instead of the arduous experience I’d half-expected, caving was actually rather fun. Being in a cave is a refreshing change from the hustle and bustle of the city, and is, more often than not, very quiet. Sometimes your surroundings are so silent that you can hear your heart beat. How’s that for a meditative experience!

And as you may have guessed, Malaysia is endowed with a vast number of caves, some of which have been opened and turned into show caves. However, although major expeditions have been carried out by local interest groups as well as foreign parties such as the British Caving Research Association and the Royal Geographical Society (London), there are yet unexplored sections in many known caves and probably even more caves that have yet to be discovered.

There is thus something for every level of expertise; Malaysian caves offer the experienced caver many exciting possibilities for adventure, beginners may take things at their own pace with the ‘easy’ caves, and staunch non-cavers can just take a stroll through a show cave and come out relatively unruffled. So the next time you’re thinking of doing something out of the ordinary for the weekend, consider going caving -- you may get hooked!