Loagan Bunut National Park

Loagan Bunut is an oxbow lake in the Tinjar basin covering about six hundred and fifty hectares when full, and its behaviour is the point: the lake has no outflow of its own except through the Sungai Bunut, which connects it to the Tinjar, and when the Tinjar drops, the lake drains backwards through that channel until the bed is exposed as a plain of cracked mud - which happens two or three times a year, unpredictably, for a few weeks each time. Fish are stranded in pools, birds arrive in numbers to take them, and then the river rises and it fills again. The Berawan people fish it with selambau, a lift-net technique developed for this cycle. Peat swamp forest surrounds it and the bird list is long. Which state the lake is in when you arrive is a matter of chance, and both are worth seeing for different reasons.

What you actually see

• A lake that empties - drained backwards to cracked mud two or three times a year.
• Selambau lift-netting - the Berawan fishing technique built around the cycle.
• Peat swamp forest - surrounding the basin with a long bird list.
• Two entirely different places - full lake or mud plain, depending on when you come.

When to go

All year; the draining is unpredictable. Two days.

Honest expectations

Whether the lake is full or dry is chance and cannot be predicted more than a few days ahead. Facilities are basic. Access is a long road from Miri. Mosquitoes are severe.

Nearby

Niah National Park is south-west; Miri is north.