This past September, nine cavers from Croatia (from SOŽ – Speleološki odsjek HPD Željeznièar and SOV – Speleološki odsjek PDS Velebit), plus myself (based in Kuala Lumpur) joined up with Malaysians from the Merapoh Nature Guides Association to look for caves in the Merapoh area of northern Pahang on the Malaysian peninsula. There are dozens of limestone hills running in a north-south line through this area and only a few of them had been explored by cavers. The expedition was very successful, in seven days of caving we looked at 26 caves and surveyed seven of them. One of the best finds, a 927 meter (3041 foot) long river cave, was found on Malaysia Day and so named Gua Hari Malaysia. It is a through cave and has a wide variety of cave fauna including several colonies of bats. In the streamway outside the cave, both up and downstream, we found elephant bones. |