Instead of taking a boat up the river to the other two caves as everyone else was doing, Ken and I opted to walk the 4km trail between camp and the Cave of the Winds. The trail followed the river through the rainforest for an hour before a long set of steps ascended into the trees. 425 stairs later, we came to the entrance of Moonmilk Cave, which is named for the strange white gooey layer of calcite crystals that has formed on the walls. The passage was quite narrow, and we had to duck and squeeze through a few spots between pillars and stalactites. When we emerged at the other side, it was a steep descent back to river level on extremely slippery algae-covered steps that were built at just enough of an angle to prevent you from getting a good foothold. Ken bailed a couple times and I had a few close calls too, but eventually we made it to the entrance to the Cave of the Winds, where a dozen others were waiting for the tour to start. Normally, a cool breeze blows through this cave from another entrance deeper inside, but today it was so hot out that there wasn't much of a breeze at all. The limestone formations inside were beautiful - especially an area called the King's Chamber, where dozens of tall, thin pillars appeared to hold up the roof. We retraced our steps to the entrance and followed the trail along the river to the mouth of the fourth of the main show caves - Clearwater Cave. This cave system was originally mapped by the Royal Geographical Society (Britain) in 1977, and multiple expeditions have occured since then, the most recent one being in 2004, which discovered more and more levels, branches, and passageways in the cave system that are so convoluted on the map that it's hard to believe it was all explored by hand. The current estimate is that the Clearwater Cave system contains about 140km of passages, which ranks it in the top ten longest caves in the world. Although it is difficult to estimate, it is thought that in terms of volume, this is likely the largest cave system in the world. Odds are also very good that many more passages will be discovered with each subsequent expedition. Visitors to the park can go on 'adventure caving' trips, where you are taken deep into the cave to climb/scramble/jump/squeeze/swim your way through the maze of passages with only a helmet and a light. If we had more time here, that would definitely have made it onto our itinerary!
The entrance to Clearwater Cave is at the top of 200 steps that take you up the cliff face above the churning pool of fresh water that is forced up from a submerged cave to become a river. Framing the entrance are a collection of strange single-leafed plants that all grow facing towards the sun. This cave is unlike the others we've seen because a fast-flowing river races through the cave, still working its erosive powers on the floor and walls of the cave, much like it has for centuries. The walls are a storeyboard of the river's history, as ridges and scalloped edges indicate how much water was flowing and in which direction it was moving. A large skylight allowed sunlight to stream down into the cave, and the guide pointed out a small opening that dropped down out of sight like a manhole beside the trail. Apparently, this route links up with the Cave of the Winds in a wild 8 hour trip through the belly of the mountain in the pitch black. As exciting as that sounds, we opted to take the longboat ride back to camp for some lunch and a shower instead :)
We spent the lazy afternoon reading the rest of the displays in the Discovery Center, napping, and wandering slowly down the various rainforest trails around the camp to see what sorts of creatures we could find on our own when we really looked. Later in the evening, we went with a guide for a night walk, where we walked slowly with flashlights to see what was crawling around in the dark. In addition to all the strange/large/disgusting beetles we found, there was also a big black tarantula, two cute little bright green tree frogs, lots of fireflies, moths, giant ants about an inch long, pitcher plants, a huge white "moon rat", and a big lizard that darted across the trail running on its hind legs. The rainforest hummed with the sounds of insects and frogs. Some we heard sounded like ambulance sirens, the Jaws theme song, a swinging rusty gate, a digitized water droplet sound, and a car alarm! When we were about a kilometer from camp, we heard the telltale thunder rumble overhead, which meant only one thing - get out your raincoat, and get it FAST! The downpour started within seconds, and the dense rainforest canopy was no longer any help at keeping the rain off the trail. Within a minute we were absolutely drenched (all but the cameras, thankfully), and we surely raced past lots of great jungle stuff on the mad dash back to camp, but we had already seen a lot! A bunch of people were still on the patio eating dinner when we walked up in the dark, looking as though we had fallen in the river. Apparently we were a pretty funny sight! So now our room is a haphazard mess of newly wet and previously washed clothes that will hopefully dry by tomorrow morning (they won't!) or else they will develop a smell when packed in our bags that can only be described as toxic. We will certainly not take our clothes dryer at home for granted after this trip!
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