Dick Sblog

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Miri airport, Sarawak.

I’m sitting at a table in a well-known brand of global coffee shop, about to go cyber-incommunicado for 3 weeks in the heart of the Mulu National Park, exploring more of the world’s greatest caves.

It’s a novel experience these days – there’s no internet connection, no GSM network and, as we are based in a steep gorge, a satphone connection for only about 3 minutes at a time, if you’re lucky, as a satellite passes directly overhead. We haven’t got one anyway, so that’s irrelevant on this trip.

It’s such a difference from my first trip here in 1980. Then it was a 3 day journey on ferry and outboard powered-canoe to reach the Park, the great brown Baram River meandering through seemingly endless forest – now it’s a 40 minute plane ride over cleared land and palm plantations.. Then our base camp was a simple wooden structure with a tin roof – now on the same location is the 180 bed Royal Mulu Resort. Then, a trip into Deer Cave, the largest single cave passage in the world, was a rare privilege – now hundreds of tourist go there to watch the spectacular evening flight of bats (and there is even a live webcam, focused on their roost).

In those days, when I set out on an expedition, work was left behind as a distant memory – now I’m accessible online right up to the Park HQ and this netbook will come with me so that I can exploit every useful moment (assuming we have fuel for the generator!)

It’s a shrinking world, in time, space and diversity. I’m not sure that it’s better for it.