On a sunny day in 1984, Dick Willis, Dave Checkley and local guide Lagan Kalang followed the Melinau Paku downstream, looking up through the trees to try to locate a possible entrance under a cliff on the side of G.Api. Lagan saw it first and with great enthusiasm cut a track up the sharp limestone. True to form, there was an entrance with a strong wind blowing out and a spectacular view across the Paku valley.

Inside was a steeply sloping, roomy chamber with a 30m high stal pillar. We passed that and continued downwards under an arch and onto a wide, flat mud floor. From our stance on the right wall, the left side of the passage was invisibleÉ so we surveyed in a zig-zag along the passage, going from wall to wall but eventually stopped for the day. Secure in the knowledge that the cave continued, we returned to the entrance and met Lagan, who had been off looking for other entrances.

On a subsequent visit with Nick Airey, we continued the survey along the wide and well-decorated passage to an area of breakdown. Fortunately a low bedding on the right (obviously popular with snakes and porcupines) led back into the main drag and onward to an entrance on the south-west tip of G.Api. In fact there are three entrances at this end of the system, one slightly to the north, at the culmination of The Fast Lane, and a small entrance to the south, guarded by a pool of still, clear water.

Lagan’s cave offered the promise of a connection to Racer (aka Simon’s) Cave or even, at its easterly end, to Wind Cave but despite considerable efforts and some very un-Mulu caving, neither has been located.

The view from the balcony at the Paku entrance, as darkness begins to fall on the forest, is one of the most beautiful in Mulu. Mist begins to shroud the trees and, if you are very lucky, a flight of hornbills will pass below you on their evening flight back to their roosts, their wing beats sounding a little like a very slow helicopter.