Gua Tempurung @ Gopeng , Perak

..: 

Gua Tempurung (Tempurung Cave) has existed since early 8000 B.C. and it is one of the larger cave systems found in the scenic limestone hills of Perak. In fact, it is the largest natural limestone structure in Peninsular Malaysia. The cave measures 1.9 km in length and 120 metres in height. The cave follows a direct course through a mountain range called Gunung Gajah-Tempurung, located south of Ipoh towards Gopeng and Kampar. It is a cavern inside Gunung Tempurung (Tempurung Mountain) standing 497 metres high and is about 250 million years old. This means Gua Tempurung is even older than the mountain that rises majestically like a karst tower. Visible from the North-South Expressway near Gopeng, the mountain is an erosional remnant near an ancient coastline. Years of mineralisation of the limestone rocks yielded deposits of tin, with some tungsten minerals and other minor ores. In several locations inside the dry upper chambers of the cave, vein deposits of tin (cassiterite) are evident in walls and ceilings. Within the karst tower, there is a river-cave system. The river, Sungai Gua Tempurung runs about 1.6 km. It originates from the north and south outlets of a small catchment derived from the granite upland area to the east.

There are 4 tours into Gua Tempurung, read about them here . We decided to go for Tour 3 -Top of the World & Short River Adventure-which , from the website, should take us about 2 1/2 hours .

We called Gua Tempurung 2 weeks before the date, to make a booking for the guide. You can turn up without making reservations, but we called, just in case –after reading on the net of some poor chappie having to wait a long time for a guide. For Tour 1 and 2 – the shorter tours, there were no need to make reservations. The minimum group size for Tour 3 is 8 pax . Don’t worry if there are no enough of you in your group, you can join with some other group to make up the numbers.