The Mulu Caves, comprising a network of caverns and passages, sits in the 52,860ha Gunung Mulu National Park, slightly over 100km away from Miri visitors can take a half-hour flight from Miri airport that lands on a single strip in the middle of a jungle. Speaking at a TEDxHull event in Britain in 2013, he said that he didn’t want to be an adventurer who travelled to the North or the South Pole, but an explorer – “I actually wanted to go to where men have never gone before.” An expedition member examining a ‘Star of Api’, an unusual karst formation in a cave in Gunung Api.Uncovering Mulu’s marvels Besides his caving work in Sarawak, Eavis has also explored caves in France, Papua New Guinea, and Guangxi, China.
In 2018, Eavis was presented with the prestigious Merdeka Award for his outstanding contributions to the people of Malaysia. Nowadays, the technology is used in self-driving cars and augmented reality. Together with other expedition members, Eavis has contributed for 40 years to the fields of geomorphology, hydrology and cave science in the mapping of Mulu caves.įrom as early as 2011, his team has been using a technology that would be familiar to iPhone and iPad users today to scan and map the complex subterranean network in Mulu: LiDAR, or light detection and ranging. The Sakai Cave had not been explored since its discovery in 1984. The last expedition by the society to the Mulu National Park took place between Dec 29,2019, and Jan 17,2020, during which expedition members explored and photographed caves and passages with such intriguing names like Troll Canal, Cream and Cheese, Blue Moonlight Cave, Sakai Cave and Deception Cave in Gunung Benarat. “The other 25 people will be continuing their exploration and surveying and photographing the wonderful caves, ” he explains in an e-mail interview recently. This time, the expedition will number 30 people, including five cave scientists who will be studying various aspects of the caves’ ancient history. The interior of Deer Cave, looking our towards the entrance with water falling from the roof reflected in the light. “Who knows what there will be round the corner?” says Eavis, whose work has been instrumental in discovering, among others, the world famous Sarawak Chamber. “I am heading there this autumn with a large expedition, coronavirus and lockdown permitting, to continue the exploration and scientific study of these wonderful caves. In those years, they have discovered underground rivers and caverns, including the Sarawak Chamber, one of the largest in the world by area, as well as a Garden of Eden and photographed Abraham Lincoln’s distinctive profile on the 154m-high entrance to the Deer Cave.īut apparently, that’s not quite enough for ardent speleologist Andrew James Eavis.Ĭome November 2021, and barring any new Covid-19 triggered restrictions, the 73-year-old Briton will be part of a team mounting a new expedition into the Mulu Caves.
Scientists and cavers who are members of Britain’s Royal Geographic Society have led 20 expeditions into the depths of Mulu Caves near Miri, Sarawak, since the 1970s and explored over 500km of trails.
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