Monkeying About in Borneo

Day 69, 15.12.2018 , Kinabatangan River, Sabah, Borneo

We had an early flight to Sandakan and as a first stop, went to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. The orangutan obviously didn’t get the memo as none of them turned up for feeding time. Next we went to the nearby Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre. I’m sure they do good work here but with electrified fences (to protect the trees from the bears) and stainless steel boardwalks, it was no more interesting than a regular zoo.

Then we were loaded onto a motor launch for a very fast ride for about 90 km through mangrove swamp and up the Kinabatangan River to the very remote Sukau Rainforest Lodge. We are staying here for a few days. Can’t beat the wildlife on the river. There are plentiful esturine crocodiles, proboscis monkeys and even a rhinoceros hornbill. The scariest beast of all is the logodile – there are a lot of trees in the water and when you are going over 55 kph in a small boat you don’t want to hit one as then it would become feeding time for the crocs.

Before dinner at the lodge we took a smaller slower boat trip with just the two of us and a guide and went down a branch river. There were more proboscis monkeys there than you could shake a stick at. Of course, they don’t encourage stick-shaking these days.

 

Day 70, 16.12.2018 , Kinabatangan River, Sabah, Borneo

We had an early morning pre-breakfast boat trip setting off through the morning mist. There were barrels of monkeys everywhere. Almost all the birds are brightly coloured. The eagles and fish-owls maybe have the dullest of plumage but this is so they can sneak up on the others.

We have already bagged most of the “Big Five” for this area. Proboscis Monkey (hundreds), Esturine Crocodile, (dozens); Rhinoceros Hornbill, (a few); Orang Utan, (one high up a tree). The remaining one is the Pygmy Elephant but there have been no sightings recently so we may miss out although we have seen a lot of old tracks on the river banks. Other monkeys sighted are silvered langurs, short-tailed and long-tailed macaques. We got several species of hornbill, a couple of different kinds of kingfishers and several types of bird-of-prey.

We had an evening trip down-river which was mainly macaques and after dinner a night trip with just H and I and two guides with searchlights. Strange how some birds just don’t move when there is a light on them.

 

Day 71, 17.12.2018 , Kinabatangan River, Sabah, Borneo

We visited Gomantong Caves today. These are huge caves where edible bird’s nests are harvested. The nests are basically birdspit and for some reason the Chinese pay enormous prices for this soup ingredient. The nests were being collected while we were there with workers shouting to each other at dizzying heights on poles and dangling on ropes.

The floor of the cave was alive with cockroaches and fellow travellers rummaging around in the mountains of guano. Presumably eating dead swiftlets, bats and careless bird’s nest collectors.

Just before dark, we watched hundreds of thousands of wrinkle-lipped free-tailed bats stream out of the cave chased by bat-hawks and even hornbills.

 

Day 72, 18.12.2018 , Danum River, Sabah, Borneo

It was mostly travelling today with a boat to connect with a bus to take us two and a half hour to the town of Lahad Datu. The landscape on the way was mostly oil palm plantation. At Lahad Datu we changed to a 4WD truck to drive another 83km down dirt tracks through secondary rain forest, that has seen some logging activity in the past, and entered the pristine primary rain forest conservation area of the Danum Valley. Our destination was the Borneo Rainforest Lodge. This is a nice place with individual wood chalets, with balconies and hot-tubs, overlooking the Danum River. The chalets are connected to the main lodge with raised boardwalks. The food is excellent and best of all there are not many other guests. As it’s several hours of rough driving to get to the nearest shops, it’s a good thing that it is comfortable.

The rain forest is what you get. Lots of rain and lots of forest. This is the wet season and the rain is torrential for most of the day. I don’t know a stronger word than torrential but that is what it is. There is usually some thunder and lightning to go with it. The trees are enormous.

The wildlife seems to be more scarce or better hidden than at Sukau. A lot of elephant poo on the tracks though. We didn’t get to see much on a drive at night except for a flying squirrel gliding overhead in the spotlight and also some red-leaf monkeys hanging around the lodge.

 

Day 73, 19.12.2018 , Danum River, Sabah, Borneo

There was a tree canopy walkway walk in the morning. This climbs very high up in the trees. The route is not as long as originally constructed as some of the huge trees the cables are attached to have been destroyed by lightning strikes.

Later, we had a rain forest walk over more rickety rope bridges to a waterfall and swimming hole. we wore “leech socks” to keep the little buggers at bay. The sole of one of my boots fell off on the way which didn’t help climbing through the undergrowth.

There was just ourselves at the pool and we had a swim but the water was filled with the kind of fish you see in spas that nibble dead skin off your feet. They don’t just nibble feet when you swim with them and it got to be too disturbing to linger.

Heike got attacked by a tiger on the way home and there was blood everywhere. A tiger leech that is. Nasty little things. This was on her back. The “leech socks” only being good for legs. I prised it off and flushed it down the toilet but it was soon back sat on the toilet seat waving around looking for fresh blood.

A later walk in the forest at night didn’t bag many new creatures. There was a tarantula spider, a couple of frogs and a snake.

 

Day 74, 20.12.2018 , Danum River, Sabah, Borneo

A 04:00 start this morning to drive to a sunrise viewpoint about an hour down a dirt track from the lodge. It didn’t go exactly to plan as a big tree had fallen across the only access road. The forestry people had to be roused from their beds to clear a path with chainsaws.

The viewpoint was a wooden tower near a global-climate-change monitoring station. Our guide and driver laid out a pre-breakfast breakfast at the top of the tower and we watched the rain forest in the valleys below emerging from the low lying morning mist. Gibbons screeching provided the sound track.

 

Day 75, 21.12.2018 , Travelling, Borneo to Singapore

There was an 83 km drive mostly on a track through the rainforest. It was our last chance to see Pygmy Elephants but we didn’t. Just lots of poo and broken branches. We had a quick stop at a Buddhist temple on the way and H got to set light to hundreds of joss sticks.

Arrived at tiny Lahad Datu airport and got a small plane to Kota Kinabalu. Then another flight to Kuala Lumpur and a final flight to Singapore. Amazingly our bags followed.

 

Martyn