In Mulu National Park

That's Matthew, our local guide, standing in the bow of the longboat. The man at the front makes hand signals for the motorman at the back of the boat and also uses a pole to help steer the boat. We are on the way to the Headhunters' Trail, traveling on the Melinau River to Long Berar. Several times we had to hop out and help push the boat upriver, as the water level was low in a few places. Later we had to leave the boat, cross a strip of root-entangled land, and ford the swiftly moving river (almost waist deep) while hanging on to a rope tied across from tree to tree. After that we started on the trail with our packs and plenty of water -- about 8 km of jungle, roots, rocks and mud.

Earlier we visited both the Wind Cave and the Clearwater Cave, both reachable by boat along the Melinau River. There were lots of stairs involved in seeing the caves, so I was not starting on the trail in fresh and rested condition. We had a cold lunch at Clearwater Cave, surrounded by swooping Raja Brooks butterflies (wingspan about 6 inches), but I had little appetite. We saw an adorable pygmy squirrel (you could have covered it with your hand) darting up and down a tree near our picnic table. I tried to drink plenty of water, but on the trail I started to get a dehydration headache. Took some rehydration salts, and the result was like a miracle -- suddenly my legs had strength in them again! But I'd been moving so slowly, we walked the last 1 km to Camp 5 in the dark.