The Secrets of Gua Kandu: Revealed

"Kinta is a curious valley, walled with abrupt limestone cliffs and pinnacles, and ranges of weird hills full of caves, which gave the landscape the same wild character as those of Moulmein."

-C.M. Enriquez, Malaya: An Account of its People, Flora and Fauna, 1927.

The lush rainforests of Gunung Kandu.

Towering white cliffs draped in lush vegetation overlooking the vast valley below, Gunung Kandu (Kandu Mountain) has remained as it is millions of years ago. It has seen Paleolithic men chasing wild beasts across the bushlands, early Sumatran settlers clearing forests for fruit orchards and colonial era western adventurers wandering into its forests. Now, in its old age, it is inviting a new breed of visitors- tourists. And here I am with them, beating through the belukar (regenerating bushlands) on its foothills.

The forests near the entrance of Gua Kandu.

Minutes later, we emerged from the thick foliage and into a treeless chasm. A large, dark and forbidding gap in the hill signals the entrance to the ancient geological formation of Gua Kandu (Kandu Cave). Spanning 1100m in length with multiple entrance and passageways, it is the 7th longest cave in the Malay Peninsular. Having been shortlisted as one of the ten most important karst conservation sites in Kinta by the Malaysian Nature Society, its hill owns the typical karst title as one of the significantly high endemic wildlife diversity locations in Perak state, Malaysia.

Thus, it takes no time to spot one. I found these ferns, most probably endemics, growing on calcified red guano.

However pristine the cave may be, Gua Kandu has its fair share of vandalism by irresponsible visitor.

Our guide, David of Gopeng Rainforest Resort, made a quick briefing to our motley gruop of thrill-seeking tourists and wildlife enthusiasts. Soon, we were heading into the darkness through a low passage. It seems that Gua Kandu used to be a water cave with a stream running throughit, much like that of Gua Anak Tempurung.

The water stains along the wall of the cave possibly shows water levels of an ancient subterranean stream.

Dried crystals along the cave ceiling may well be growing wet crystals thousands of years ago.

As in many caves in Kinta Valley, Gua Kandu is a communist guerrilla hideout during the Malayan Emergency days. The insurgents made use of the impenetrable darkness of the cave as barrier for their enemies. Therefore, it is no surprise that we found remains of their presence in the form of graffiti (as seen below).

Remnants of a dark past on the walls of one of the cave's chambers.

Walking deeper into the cave, we came across an area with active, wet speleoterms (stalactites and stalagmites).

Various colours of stalactites indicate a rich composition of minerals and dissolved metal oxides.

Beaitiful "pillar" speleoterms displaying rust colours due to high iron contents in the dissolved limestone.

A smaller version of the "cascading" speleoterm can be seen along the cave walls. these are quite rare.

Surprisingly, there are a small number of fungus growing on bits and pieces of plant debris deep in the cave.

45 minutes into the cave, we had to clamber between a narrow sandwich of rock and guano floor before emerging into a larger chamber. The scene here is surreal with large sinkholes across the cave floor and a low ceiling over them.

One of the sinkholes in the low cave chamber.

Coming out of the tunnel, we passed a deep pool of water with steep guano deposits on its side. Roosting bats chattered high above us as our flashlights broke the darkness of the chamber. Larger flow stones can be seen on both sides. Magical "curtain" stalactites soar up into the chasm above.

An otherworldly scene in the cave.

Large curtain stalactite reminiscent of a frozen waterfall.

Another speleoterm resembling a pipe organ bathed in natural light from a cave opening nearby.

The two cave openings that allow some light into the dark recesses of Gua Kandu.

Passing several circular cave openings, we walked across a guano filled platform flanked by walls reaching up to 20m to the end of the passage way. Here, a small cliff gave way to a lower cave floor. We descended down the cliff with assistance of a rope and squeezed through a natural undercut at the cul-de-sac of the lower platform.

A strange composition of a rock vein resembling Statute of Liberty.

The chamber behind this structure was even more impressive with its ceiling almost 30m above us and speleoterms perching up the rocky slopes on both left and right, like guardians of an ancient temple.

The immense size of the chamber with its majestic formations.

A stalagmite with the uncanny appearance of a perching monkey.

Scaling to the top of the slope on the right, we spotted a peculiar shaped rock with the features of a lion head. Bright sunlight floods the area with two large openings facing the North-South Highway. From here, its a long way down a deep algae covered rock valley before climbing back up to the cave opening and out into the forests. However, we chose not to pick that path and descended back into the dark valley we had came out from instead.

The Lion's head is arguably one of Gua Kandu's most famous icon.

The cave opening facing the North-South Highway.

The deep valley between the slope and the cave opening is rugged and tricky to navigate.

A long beam of sunlight can be seen travelling down from the upper part of the cave and illuminating a section of some beautiful "cascade" formations below. It is a truly amazing sight yet surprisingly natural. We followed the path through the lighted area and ascended to the small exit on the other side of the cave. Turning over a sharp bend, we crossed a dried section of some large "cascade" speleoterms before reaching out through an opening and into the bright forest outside. I have found some Brotia costula varicosa (Torschel 1837) freshwater snail shells with their apex removed lying around loose soil at the cave opening. This is definitely a prehistoric food leftover as there are no sign of any water bodies in the immediate vicinity and this location is some 30m above ground level from the valley below.

A large "cascade" formation near the cave opening. It is a highly sought after find for speleologists and cave enthusiasts.

Finally, we were out under the forest canopy. Now, it's a slow descend down slippery moss covered limestone and avoiding pitfalls disguised by fallen leaves all the way to the foothills.

A typical scene of a karsts' forests on the upper elevations- thick beddings of relatively wet leaves interspersed with algae and moss covered rocks, shrubs and gnarled trees.

The strange thorny leaves of a probably limestone-endemic shrub. Most plants living on limestone soil contains high concentrations of calcium in their tissue which serves as a shell-building source for snails.

A perfect way to end the trip- I've found an interesting snail! This is Platyrhaphe lowi (de Morgan 1885). It fuses mud with its calcium rich mucous and glue them onto its shell, blending it into the soil habitat.

(Note: My special thanks to Gopeng Rainforest Resort for their assistance in making this trip successful.)

Reference:

1.Liz Price, 2001 Caves and Karsts of Peninsular Malaysia. Gua Publications, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

2.Khoo Salma Nasution & Abdur-Razzaq Lubis Kinta Valley: Pioneering Malaysia's Modern Development. Perak Academy, 2005

Gua Naga Mas: The Golden Dragon of Kinta Valley

Nestled atop a typical creeper-draped hill on the side of the busy North-South Highway is a hidden cave with a secret that would entice anyone who stumbles upon it......

Gunung Pua's densely vegetated peak.

As our group (a motley crew of nature lovers and adventure seekers) turned around a strangely silent and empty road with cow manure scattered across it in an industrial park, a small limestone outcrop emerges from behind the metal roof of a warehouse - Gunung Pua (Pua Mountain, which actually is more like a hill) is just a hundred metres away. We pulled into a sandy, uneven road flanked by grass and shrubs typical of Kinta Valley's post-tin mining terrain. A few bumps and splashes of water and we have reached the foot of this forest clad hill. Creepers droop down from the cliffs, blanketing their rugged features from view. Peculiarly low trees and shrubs with patches of bamboo colonies occupy the upper reaches of the outcrop. Perhaps they are signs of human disturbances or forest fires sometime ago?

Trekking up the steps towards the cave.

Our guide made a headway by slashing the undergrowth that covered much of the path leading up to the cave. Rocks have been placed in a manner that resembles a staircase along the steep cliffs. It must have not been used for ages. But who built it? What's the purpose of it? Taking my mind off that matter for a moment, I scanned the boulders and strange rocky features for rare and endemic plants and wildlife.

This herb with blue fowers must be a limestone-endemic.

The peculiar leaf of another plant.

This palm is probably rare and endemic to limestone forests of Kinta Valley.

A cluster of plants with elongated leaves and bluish flowers attracted our attention. Further up the cliff, a large palm and another peculiar plant with paw shaped leaves adorns the understory section of this forest. They must be rare limestone-loving plants, found only on this hill and probably the nearby ones.

A strange yet beautiful rock formation.

Results from a small packet of soil sample shows plenty of small snails including Rhiostoma jousseaumei , Alycaeus perakensis, Discartemon leptoglyphus, Georissa monterosatiana, Philalanka sp., Diplommatina nevilli, Allopeas clavulinum, Opisthostoma megalomphalum etc.

Mosses covered most of the exposed limestone with one little outcrop having flaky, vein-like protrusions across the surfacing reminiscent of Salvador Dali's surrealistic sculptures. There were visibly no large snails around, so I proceeded with collecting a bagfull of dirt at the base of the rockface for microsnail examination back at my "home-lab". We continue up a forest clearing with regenerating shrubs. Before long, the path's bushes gave way to rock and dirt. Looking up, large stalactites encrusted with green algae hangs from a wet, carved rock ceilling above. We've reached Gua Naga Mas which literally translates as Golden Dragon Cave in Malay. Guano spread across the floor into the dark end of the cave chamber where a flight of algae-green, slippery stairs leads to a long abandoned Chinese temple. According to the book "Kinta Valley: Pioneering Malaysia's Modern Development" by Khoo Salma Nasution & Abdur-Razzaq Lubis, this temple and the stairs seen earlier was built in the 1800(?) when the valley below (known as Tekkah) was a hotbed for tin mining activity by the Chinese. A tin economy slump soon brought the industry to its knees and thus, workers abandoned the area including this cave temple. This makes it almost 2 centuries old! The stillness of the air added an eerie feeling to this abandoned religious site.

Beautiful speleoterms at the entrance of the cave. Note the large stalagmite in the centre resembles a sea lion.

The abandoned Chinese Temple.

Loose guano (bat droppings) on the ground across the cave indicates it has been relatively untouched by man for a long period of time.

However, it is not this temple that is the most interesting here. We'll leave this to the athropologist to explore instead. Following our guide up another flight of steps to a smaller chamber off the main cave, we gazed across the rock wall, anxious to catch a glimpse of the well-known attraction. Up here, the limestone abruptly gave way to irregularly shaped brownish ancient mud deposits stretching up to the chamber's roof with occasional exposure of the underlying limestone at eroded and fall-off chunks areas. We used torches to assist our search. An area close to the roof sparkles and shines under the beams of light emitting from our torches. This is the main highlight and the namesake of the cave - an almost complete set of mammalian fossil embedded in the drab rock. It was first discovered by the Malaysian Nature Society when they were on an expedition to survey karsts of Kinta Valley. Since then, there were many views to its possible species including mountain goat, leopard and wild cat. However, no positive identification can be obtained yet as the skull and many other parts are half embedded and eroded. Besides, there's little interests in researching the bones to date.

The mudstone encrusted chamber where the fossil was found.

A general view of the mammalian fossil. Note: the eroded skull below the piled up front limb bones at the bottom-left section of the picture.

After spending some time speculating about its species, I decided to scour the ground instead for other interesting critters. Sure enough, I discovered a "stone-anvil" commonly used by predatory birds to crack snails' shells for their meat. There are also some bat bones nearby, which probably means this cave is home to bat colonies although none have been spotted during our presence there. Another pleasant discovery, a first for me, is a rock containing brochiopod or bivalve like fossils stacked under a pile of limestone.

A predatory bird's victim Cyclophorus malayanus (Benson 1852), smashed into pieces on a rock.

Bone fragments of a bat lying on the dry cave floor.

A fossil embedded rock, probably a group of bivalves or brachiopods.

The sun soared over the hill and it was time for us to bid farewell to this fascinating cave. As we decended, the midday sun shines upon the taller karsts at the distance, exposing vividly every hue of the blasted limestone cliff and reminding us how fragile these beautiful hills are. Hopefully, this rare natural heritage that could be of huge significance in national and regional paleontology will be protected and preserved indefinitely.

Some articles and reports of similar interests:
1.Star Metro (Wednesday October 7 2009)- Good Lord! It's a leopard!

2.Heritage news (November-December 2008)- Rock of Ages: Treasures of Malaysia

3. Liz's site: Gua Tambun & Naga Mas

4. Adi Taha Harnessing Science and technology for preservation and conservation of cultural heritage of Malaysia, Department of Museum and Antiquities.

5. R.F. Muhammad, D. Yoshida, A. Tani & P.L. Smart (2002) Implications of Electron Spin Resonance and Uranium-series Dating Techniques on Speleothems in the Kinta and Lenggong Valleys, West Malaysia Advances in ESR Applications, vol.18 pp.19-26, (2002)

6. Liz Price 2008 A Speleotourism In Peninsular Malaysia Pesquisas em Turismo e Paisagens Cársticas, 1(2), 2008

7. Caves of Malaysia: The Sun (20 October 2008)- No protection for Gua Naga Mas' Fossil

Discovering Kinta Valley's Natural Treasures: Gua Anak Tempurung

"The water in the river is very cold but clear as crystal. Gunong Gaja (sic. Gunung Gajah) comes close down to the river and overhangs. It comes down about 100 feet sheer. It is very striking with caves and stalactites. It must be photographed."

-J.W. Birch, First British Resident of Perak.


Gunung Tempurung as seen from the North-South Highway.

For centuries, Gunung Gajah-Gunung Tempurung complex has fascinated travellers and locals alike. Early Sumatran settlers believed caves in these huge mountains are adobes of genies while western explorers noted and surveyed the karsts' geology, archaeology and biodiversity in awe and wonder. Today, tourists flock to the most well-known of the caves, Gua Tempurung, to get a glimpse of the wonderful stalactites and stalagmites it has to offer. However, little is known about the other dozens of caves that lie off the beaten path. I am about to step into one of them.

The rolling green hills of Gunung Gajah.

Being 6km long, the G. Gajah-Tempurung massif is the largest and southernmost karst in Kinta Valley. Gunung Gajah's summit is 372m high while G.Tempurung's southern and northern peaks are 612m and 497m respectively. This makes G.Tempurung one of the tallest karst in Peninsular Malaysia. To the west, the flat alluvial plains stretch over the valley while the 1234m high granitic Gunung Bujang Melaka dominates the southern landscape. The dome shaped granite mountains facing the eastern flank is Gunung Chantik.

Entering the serene valley of Sungai Siput (South) village, one could imagine how much of Kinta Valley was like centuries ago. There was the characteristic twin-humped Gunung Gajah towering over the western horizon and then there's the sheer dolomite cliff of Gunung Tempurung soaring hundreds of metres above the thick emerald forests which overshadows the valley below. In between these giants stood minuscule wooden shops and houses with reflective pools of water surrounding them, the remains of tin mining in the alluvial flat lands in the heydays. It is here that I met up with the Malaysian Karst Society (MKS) members to gear up before heading into the hills.

Pinnacles on the southern peak of Gunung Tempurung.

We followed the dirt road winding between G. Tempurung and G. Chantik. The vegetation here are mostly of anandara belukar (regenerating bushland). I found some common pitcher plants (Nepenthes gracilis) climbing on trees.

A common pitcher plant Nephentes gracilis growing in regenerating bushland.

A fruit bearing fig tree Ficus fistulosa.

After crossing several kilometres of muddy road with landslides in between, we finally arrived at the entrance of Gua Anak Tempurung, literally translates as the Tempurung Child Cave. There were man made rock barriers on the banks of the stream flowing into the cave, signs of human disturbance. I tried locating landsnails around the thickly vegetated banks. Strangely enough, little was found in this location apart from some broken Dyakia lahatensis (De Morgan 1885) and Cyclophorus malayanus (Benson 1852) shells. After a quick briefing, we entered the cave through the upper dry entrance (there's another wet entrance nearby).

The chamber at the entrance of the cave.

A Cyclophorus malayanus (Benson1852) shell midden. Predatory birds probably used the rocks here to break the shells to extract the animal inside.

The entire cave passage is wet as a stream runs its course across the length of the cave.

Being a river cave, Gua Anak Tempurung is wet throughout its passage although some dry areas can be found in larger chambers. Spanning 1100m, this cave houses myriad of interesting subterranean organisms such as cave crickets, long-legged cave centipedes, the endemic primitive trapdoor spider (Liphistius tempurung), blind cat fishes, bats and possibly freshwater crabs too. Most of these organisms concentrates on the dry guano-sand banks of the cave stream.

A cave huntsman spider Sparassidae species probably feeds on cave insects.

A tailless whip scorpion Sarax brachydactylus (Simon 1892) scurrying for cover. This creature is often associated with wet caves and are fairly widespread across the world.

Silk strands betrays the presence of rare glowing cave worms Arachnocampa species(?) . It is famous in Australia and New Zealand due to them glowing in the dark by their thousands, much like a starry sky.

Another species of tailess whip scorpion? or perhaps a molting form of the same species?

Fungi growing on a rock covered with tiny particles of organic matter.

A common cave cricket Diestrammena sp. .

Surprisingly, there are even cave catfish Clarias sp. here. This fish has evolved its eye to blind or semi-blind conditions due to the absence of light in the cave.

Besides that, the cave's historical significance can also be viewed along its walls and dry stream banks.

A tin bearing vein in limestone fissures. These used to be mined extensively by the Chinese in the early 20th century until it was banned by the British administrators who found them too dangerous to be worked on. The veins here are fondly called Jehoshaphat veins by geologists.

Rocks are piled up to form a bunker as a barrier for the communist insurgents against the government forces back in the days of Malayan Emergency in the mid-20th century.

The highlights of the cave is of course the impressive limestone formations including stalactites, stalagmites, cave straws (thin, young stalactites), cave "teeth" and many more.

A large stalactite in one of the chambers.

The tall but narrow chamber along the cave passage.

Brown stains on the speleoterms are the products of iron oxide mixing with calcium rich water.

This chamber is easily 30m high.

A miniature "cascading" flow stone. This is a rare sight.

The scenery inside the largest chamber in Gua Anak Tempurung.

Black and white wave lines of marble polished by millions of years of flowing stream water.

An exceptionally tall stalactite stretching all the way to the ceiling of the chamber.

These serrated teeth-like stalactites are rather rare in Malaysia. According to our guide, the only other location with several structures like these is in Kedah, northern Peninsular Malaysia.

After two hours in the pitch black with only torchlights guiding our way through the cave, dim sunlight finally breaks from a cave opening. We have reached the end of the cave.

We stumbled out into the sunlit forest beside the white cliffs. There is a swamp near the cave entrance with broken shells of Pollicaria elephas (De Morgan 1885) and Cyclophorus malayanus (Benson 1852) fallen from above. Scanning the algae covered bluish-green limestone wall in the shades of the forest canopy, I could spot some endemic Monophyllaea elongata plants growing in clusters. While far above them, another iconic Kinta limestone endemic flora Paraboea verticillata displays its silver rosettes under the sun.

The scene outside the cave exit is filled with vegetation-typical of the Kinta Karst area.

The endemic Monophyllaea elongata growing on wet limestone.

Finally, we emerged from the bushes and into the logging road and made our way back to civilisation.

The Tempurung-Gajah complex indeed holds lots of fascinating secrets awaiting discovery. The ecological, geological, historical and tourism value of these massifs far outweights the value of cement, marble and other limestone materials extracted from them. Hopefully, they will remain as they are- rugged and majestic, yet serene and beautiful for generations to come.

Reference:
1.Liz Price, 2001 Caves and Karsts of Peninsular Malaysia. Gua Publications, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

2.K. Dittmar, M.L. Porter, L. Price, G. Svenson, M.F. Whiting, 2003. A Brief Survey of Invertebrates in Caves of Peninsular Malaysia. Malaysian Nature Journal, September, 57(2)221-233. (click here)