Sunday 14 August 2022

Julan Fall - the Mother of all the waterfalls in Sarawak (part 5)

Day 3: I woke up around 5am cos I was shivering inside my hammock. The temperature was dropping to around 20°C or below.  Then it started to rain again. Our plan to 2nd tallest waterfall- Eastern Julan Fall has to be postponed cos it's impossible to cross the river now. So, we decided to cut the trip short by going back to camp 1 in the afternoon. My team mates decided to go up the plateau to look for the remain of an abandoned private resort there; "The Millionaire's Club". When they reached there, almost everything was rotten or overgrown by jungle. I was told that all the materials were airlifted by helicopters. So much money spent there but they failed to open the resort. (Usual case in my country 🙄) Meanwhile, me and a friend of mine stayed back at the camp 2. I needed to rest after I injured my knee in the valley.  Few hours later, all my team mates came back to our camp safely even they were lost for a while in the jungle but they saw some beautiful places like the lost world: mossy cliff, mossy boulders & giant tree ferns are everywhere up there.  The rain was on and off when we walking back to camp 1. Almost everything was wet & leeches were everywhere. I was exhausted & no time to pull those leeches off me. By the time we reached camp 1, it was almost dark again. The last night in the jungle, I couldn't sleep well. Almost everything was wet. I woke up from time to time after I found got a land crab living inside a burrow next to my hammock. Unfortunately, I couldn't photograph it as it's very sensitive to light. Day 4: It was still raining on the way out to our car. Our new plan to visit another waterfall, Jamo Fall has to be cancelled as well cos of the bad weather. We took a good bath in a river on the way back to Miri. Our main mission is completed but there are still so many places to explore in northern Sarawak. I shall be back to Baram river basin of northern Sarawak soon.


Begonia plieranensis



Selaginella

Sonerila sp.

Ibanum sp.???






Probably Calanthe sp. (orchid)


Begonia sp.


Alocasia longiloba (aroid)

Probably Calanthe sp. (orchid)

Cicada

Sonerila sp.

Cinnamon tree frog (Nyctixalus pictus)


Cyrtandra sp.

Cyrtandra sp.


Schismatoglottis csp. (aroid)

Young stick insect

Katydid

Probably Homalomena ardua???

Ibanum sp.???

Begonia sp.



Julan Fall - the Mother of all the waterfalls in Sarawak (part 4)

Day 2: Around 4.30pm. Rainbow appeared on the bottom of Julan Fall. My friend decided to fly his drone but unsuccessfully due to no GPS signal in the valley. It only managed to fly a few feet high & captured the image of the waterfall with the rainbow. At that time, I had to start walking back to camp 2 cos jungle was getting dark very soon. At a creek, I could not see properly due to the dim light. I fell down on a slippery boulder, hit my left knee & my walking stick hit the head of my guide by accident. Both of us shouted at the same time. 😅 Around 5.30pm, I hardly could see the trail at all & my body was completely exhausted. Thanks to the guide waiting for me and my friend who were walking in very slow pace while most of our team mates already reached the camp site to prepare for the dinner & set up the tent. At 6pm, we reached the camp 2. Setting up our hammocks using headlamps cos it was dark already. There was no water for us to take shower there except a bit of spring water for drinking & cooking. A few of us got the "bloody red" shirts caused by leeches. We ate the late dinner & then slept early to prepare for the next challenge on the next day to attempt to cross the river to the next waterfall - Eastern Julan Fall. ......to be continued.

Mischobulbum sp. (orchid)


Cinnamon tree frog (Nyctixalus pictus)

Piptospatha sp.

Unknown snail


Borneosa sp.

Begonia sp.

Everettia sp.


Ibanum sp.???


Bulbophyllum dearei


Waterfall without name is everywhere

Phyllagathis sp.

Nepenthes reinwardtiana

Volcanic cliff

Melastomataceae