An ominous journey on the trail of headhunters

Trekking through the jungles of Borneo was a risk worth taking, according to PAUL MALONE, who retained his head and tells of his expedition.

THE PLAN to go up the Headhun- ter’s Trail from Limbang in Borneo seemed like a good one until I read a book recommended by a friend. 

Stories of guides abandoning their charges and tourists being robbed or even beheaded put a few doubts in my mind. And here I was planning to go alone with a guide I had not yet met on a three or four day trek and longboat ride up the Limbang River and through jungle to the World Heritage-listed Mulu National Park. 

Maybe I should fly to Mulu as tourist operators recommended and as most people actually did?

But on paper my plan seemed a good one. The cheapest flights to Borneo were via Royal Brunei Air into Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of the tiny oil-rich state of Brunei. The flight would land early in the afternoon and then, according to Lonely Planet, I could take a 30 minute boat ride to Limbang in Sarawak,Malaysia,and be ready the next day to start trekking up-river to the national park.

But my trip did not get off to a promising start.The flight was fine and immigration and customs in Brunei a pleasure, but when I got to the wharf in Bandar Seri Begawan I found there was no boat to Limbang. The service had been discontinued! 

With the help of some locals I discovered that I could catch a boat to Temburong, still in Brunei, then a taxi to the river where a ferryboat would take me across and another taxi would take me into Limbang, where I could present myself to immigration. 

Limbang proved to be a quiet, pleasant little town. My guide spotted me on the afternoon I arrived, even though I had not planned to meet him until the next morning. 

‘‘There wouldn’t be any other 50-year-old European walkers in Limbang,’’ Clive Lim told me when I asked him how he had known I was his client when I’d simply been walking by the market. 

Clive proved an excellent choice. From the moment I met him I had no fear of being abandoned or beheaded. Speaking good English and having a wide range of contacts, including welcoming people in the longhou- ses on the river, he also turned out to be an excellent trekking cook.

The Mulu National Park is one of the jewels in Sarawak, boasting huge limestone caves inhabited by millions of bats, hundreds of species of butterfly, thousands of moths, 262 species of birds and 75 species of mammals.

But first I had to get there. I am relatively fit for a 59-year-old and I had trained for the jungle walks by throwing a six litre container of water and other assorted goods in my backpack and hiking up and down Mount Majura on the weekends before I left. 

But would this be good enough for the 11.3km real jungle walk which would come on the afternoon of my first day? 

The day started at 7am with an easy drive to the Limbang River where we boarded our longboat taking us on to the Medamit tributary and visiting two sharply contrasting longhouses. One was old and rundown, and the other tiled and sparking like a hospital foyer. For a modest charge, those who wish to can stay overnight at the longhouses, learning of the native people’s cultures. 

But after a rice wine toast and a brief chat we headed up-river to Kuala Terikan.

Thankfully, the trek to Camp 5 was pretty flat and the leeches scarce – only two got me. About half way along the walk, I was congratulating myself on how well things had gone. The morning had been sunny and I had not needed the poncho that Clive had insisted I have ready to wear. So far, it had not rained. Then I realised that it actually was raining. In the heat and humidity of the rainforest I hadn’t noticed. I was so wet one way or another, from sweat or tramping in swamps and streams, that I hadn’t felt the rain dropping through the canopy. 

Then it really rained– true tropical, belting down rain. In some ways this made things easier. There was no longer any point in trying to avoid the swampy bits on the path. The whole path was a swamp, so I might as well charge straight ahead,regardless of what it was like. 

The other surprise was the darkness. I had thought I’d been asked to bring a headlamp because we would be walking in caves. But by late afternoon the light was so poor a torch was essential. 

As for seeing the wildlife? There might have been 262 species of birds and 75 of mammals standing within 10m of me, but I saw none. For a start, you are forced to walk with eyes glued to the ground to avoid slipping or falling. 

And secondly, the forest is so thick that anything more than two metres into it is quite impossible to see.

You hear plenty – bird and animal calls, and branches breaking. At one time I heard a great crash in the forest and was reliably informed that it was one of the huge old trees falling. You do see many beautiful butterflies, including the large iridescent green-striped Raja Brooke bird-wing. 

Camp 5 was a joy – good clean showers and toilets, big airy rooms with vinyl sleeping mats and a sprinkling of tourists from around the world who’dwalked down from the Mulu park. Clive provided the mosquito net, guaranteeing a peaceful night. 

Day one gave me the confidence that I could walk in the rainforest. The more intrepid can take a diversion from the headhunters trek up Gunung Api to see the Pinnacles, a natural formation of sharp limestone spikes. 

Otherwise it’s an easy walk and longboat rides from Camp 5 to the Mulu National Park headquarters. On the way you take in some of the caves which are a major tourist attraction. 

In the late afternoon, providing it is not raining, hundreds of thousands of bats stream out of them, looking from a distance like a plume of smoke. There are said to be 28 species of bat in the park, with many dependent on the caves. 

Each of the caves offers different attractions, from viewing the stalagmite and stalactite formations, to adventure caving.

The easy way out of Mulu is to fly back to the coastal town of Miri in Sarawak. 

But there is another, more interesting way. It is possible to get a longboat from Mulu to Long Terawan and then another boat down river to Marudi. 

From there it is an easy express boat ride down the huge Baram River, just south-west of Brunei, to the coast. 

By doing this you have skirted round Brunei, taking in stays at the longhouses of the various tribal groups as you go. Finally, it’s a short road but a somewhat complicated multiple bus trip back to Bandar Seri Begawan airport.