Niah Caves and Bird Nest Soup

Today we had a surprise day off, which is nice as I was so friggin tired, I got up later than usual but I had booked a taxi to take me to Niah National Park. It is a small park of only 3400 hectes but the caves are some of the biggest in the world, the cave system covers 10.8 Hectares about 20 acres so these are huge caves, the biggest by far i have seen in my life, the cave system in in a limestone ridge that are completely hollow, the caves are maybe 500 feet tall and just so wide, biger than any cathedral. just immense and to make them even strange they are full of bats and Cave swifts, now these cave swifts are pretty special, these are the ones that make nests that humans eat, now this is really a disgusting part and only adults of a stern disposition should read on, the nest is basically congealed bird saliva, with a few feathers and bugs and shit probably. Why anyone in there right mind would eat congealed bird saliva just defeats me. So I am in this cave system and there are thousands or bats and birds inside this cave flying about, squeaking and clicking like cave flying animals do, and to no surprise there is a large amount of shit involved with living with birds and bats, just mountains of the stuff, maybe hundreds of feet deep and that is no exaggeration, well the smell was incredible just enough to make you vomit, so luckily I hadn't eaten yet, there were other creatures that feed of the shit, like cockroaches and giant crickets, it is a weird ecosystem, but to say it was impressive is an understatement, it was the most impressive natural wonder I have seen since I saw Jabber the hutt in the steak place the other day. The drive was longer than I expected, about 2 hours and the walk was about 4 hours, around 9 Km, whats that about 6.5 miles in the steamy jungle, I was wet through, it was good fun but not a single soul wanted to venture out with me, so I went on my todd and had a great time and maybe i will sleep like a baby tonight for the first time this trip.

The huts are full size and give you and idea of how big the caves are