Saturday, 18th Fabuary 2017
What you should do if you are on semester break for a week? Try new activities! But i am not doing alone this time, yeah with my roommates in matriculation. Before this, i ever know that Gua Tempurung provide package for caving haha so lame. I was once went there durig my school trip and it make me fascinated because my first time enter a huge cave. I decided to go there again after i know they provided packages for a extreme activities so i want to do it with my roommates. I arrived around 8.30 a.m.
My roommates from left; Suryana, Me, Saffa and Ayu.
Then, we went first to the counter to register. There were four packages provided and we decided to take 3rd stage not 4th. So we need to pay RM30/person. Fortunately, one of the rangers(Uncle Lan) asked us to join them for 4th stage without additional pays! And guess what? We did not prepare complete tools like torchlight, drinks and so on. So we only bought torchlight (low quality one but they do the good job) over water.
The first 20 minutes of the tour was lame(maybe because i went there long ago). We followed the concrete path up and down stairs in the sauna conditions. With nothing interesting to look at and no chat about the history of Gua Tempurung or any fun facts i thought the tour was going to be a hhmmmm.
Luckily that all changed when we got to the end of the 1 km concrete walkway. Our guide told us to turn off flashlights momentarily. When everything went pitch black that was the cue for adventure time.
Gua Tempurung cave is over 3 km long, 1.9 km of which we would be exploring. The largest limestone cave in Peninsula Malaysia is made up of five different domes. Each unique with different:
- stalactites & stalagmites
- water levels
- limestone and marble content
- temperature
Before we know it, we were shimming through small gaps, crawling through the rivers, jumping over gaps in the path and sliding on our bums and down levels. Our Gua Tempurung caving experience was now at the gnarly level we were looking for. I thought that i will died there because it really challenged me physically and mentally.
Yay for finding the light.
Two hours later we found light. It wasn't where we entered the cave but the turn around point. It's only 40% actually. We got a 15 minutes break and this gave me a chance to see just how big the cave was (see photo below).
Gives you an idea the size of the cave.
Time to head back into the cave. It's crazy to think we went back a different way, i saw no alternative routes on the way through. That's why you have a rangers i guess.
There was an adrenaline pumping moment on the way back. At one section you slide on your bum with no chance reclaiming your grip. You only slide for a couple metres but the rangers definitely needs to be there to catch you or else 8/10 people are going to break something! Here, i really depend 100% with the rangers and people there, i trust them to catch me down there *crying.
I don’t have the picture, so use from google.
After 6 hours of intense sweating and maneuvering our body like a pretzel we exited the cave.
My group that had a great teamwork!
Our new friend, Tom from Germany that worked at Singapore as an electrical engineer while further his master. He really helped me a lot in the cave, thanks Tom!
Our Gua Tempurung caving experience was epic. There was around 9 of us in the group and everyone had smiles hidden their exhaustion and wet clothes. I highly recommend this tour.
And one more, we were survived without drinks any water! I do really thank to my great group because they helped us a lot. There was one chinesse man in our group said that he really respected us because we did it until the end without exhausted and we do really had so much fun and totally enjoyed. So, for those who has not been here, go now and feel it!
I really miss you guys and hope we can meet soon other time.
With our rangers that guide us, Uncle Lan and Abang K.
Do follow @guatempurung.official for more info!