Kota Gelanggi Caves!

I'm in Jerantut for two nights. I left KL yesterday and headed here as a stop to have a look around the area before heading up to Taman Negara tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm staying in Kuala Tahan, across the river from Taman Negara. I'll be there until Saturday or Sunday.

Today, with things to look at around Jerantut, I headed to Kota Gelanggi Caves.

Parking area, looks like you can camp here to

Map of cave locations

Gua Penyu (Turtle Cave)

I headed where the map told me. But I'm not sure where I ended up. The distance between 6 and 7 on the map is about 10 meters, but there were no other caves visible near there. I either ended up at Gua Penyu or one of the caves marked under 9 on the map. Although I saw no stairs, and the trail seemed to end where I got to. It also wasn't a well defined trail either, I tried my best to follow it and wondered what kind of wild cats they have here...

At the end of the trail along the steam you come to this overhang. High enough to walk under and duck occasionally.

Further along. The cave is that dark patch just to the left of center.

Moving inside a little further, the left lit by the daylight, the right by my torch.

There were some other people in the park who went to Gua Balai first. I could hear them faintly from the end of this main cave.

Litttle bit further. There are railings in there, all rusted and knocked over. Light painting with my torch!

The cave was quite tall, maybe 5m or so to the ceiling. And it looked like it could go on for ages. To the right of the above photo was another little room off the side of this main cave. The floor was damp, and there looks like there was a ladder in here at some point so you could get up to another part of the cave. I didn't take the camera in there though.

Wandering further into the cave, walking along pointing my torch in places to get some light in there.

Further in, more walking and pointing the torch. The bright spot at the top is when I was looking at bats.  

This is as far in as I went. There's some railings there and a sign at the end which I didn't get to. The sign just had the word for city and a name below it.  I though I'd be able to read it from the photo. Oh well, I'll never find out what that was! Also the bats were flying around a bit and making creepy noises :D

Back towards the entrance, light painting and daylight.

The left is the overhanging rock from the first couple of photos. This area looked like people had camped in it recently.

Caves are awesome. What was weird about this place was that once you pay the entry fee, you're on your own and free to wander about the caves. There were hardly any rails or clear paths, you just go in and explore. With this big cave I wandered in about 50m or so and explored a couple of branches off it. I didn't get to the end, but I got to a point where my torch wasn't working so well and the floor became slippery from bat droppings or water... It was fun to wander around this all alone, but it would have been bad if i fell in one of the many holes in the ground. Would have been better to have someone with me to get help if needed, then I would have gone a lot further in towards the creepy noises :D

Gua Balai

I'm pretty sure I went into this cave. There was a sign out the front, and stairs, as per the map.

This is from a large opening in the rock face that isn't the entrance, looking into the cave.  

There are archaeology digs in this cave. This is in the center of the first picture.

On the left of the first photo there was a path that led up here. This is looking out the top of this cave. 

Another view. This part also seemed to be separated from the area on the right of the first photo.

Stairs! Who would have guessed. Looking down from the entrance.

In summary: Caves are awesome. I need a better torch. And it's very hot in these caves.