Today's photo is a view heading up-river from Marudi to Long Terawan. I can't say if this is the Tutoh River or still the Batam Barang but from the width of the river, I'd guess it's not the Tutoh River..
This was the next leg of the Miri-Mulu journey – a smaller boat from Marudi to Long Terawan. It's a 75-mile journey by boat but only 25-miles as the crow flies. As you can see, there were no kung-fu movies on this leg!
I was glad it was an overcast day. Had it been sunny I would have ended the journey like an over-cooked strip of bacon! The journey, as I remember it, was quite exhilarating and boring. Exhilarating because of the openness and the marvelous views. Boring because it took a long time to get to Long Terawan. The ‘Long' in Long Terawan refers to the longhouse – the traditional village dwelling structure of the indigenous people – not the duration of the trip.
Clearly this boat had seen better days. The windshield and side glass had long since disappeared. I wondered if in fact they had been plexiglass that had turned yellow and opaque. Note also that there is no-one steering up front! As you'll see in tomorrow's photo, even this wire and pulley arrangement was no longer in service, the steering mechanism having been superseded again. But despite the engineering modifications, the boat floated and it got the job done.
The hills rising in the distance are part of the Mount Mulu complex of limestones and sandstones and it's in the limestone hills around mount Mulu in the Gunung Mulu National park that the fantastic caves have been found, including the largest known chamber in the world, the Sarawak Chamber.
Color version first, Black and White below that.
