Monkeying around

We arrived on the island of Borneo on Friday afternoon. Up in the air we'd flown over the mountainous interior to the Sabah province on the north east side of the island, specifically Sandakan, a city on the bay of the same name. Surrounded by a swathe of lush hills and, sadly, ever- expanding palm oil plantations, its big draw is its proximity to the Kinabatangan River, whose 560km wind their way through some of the most dense rainforest in the world. We were to spend the next 3 days exploring it.

1000 yr old Yellow Seraya

Canopy walkway

Our first night's port of call was the MY Nature Resort in Sepilok.  Built as cabins backing on to the jungle, the first thing that hit us was the intense humidity - way hotter than KL! Even though the Rainforest Discovery Centre was a 10 minute walk down the road, we were ferried there in air-conditioned comfort only to emerge 2 hours later having lost about half our body fluid. I'm joking, but under the canopy of the trees, some reaching 40m in height we dripped. Nice.  But this was our first taste of jungle, and we couldn't get enough  Hence staying in the heat for 2 hours. Unbelievable trees, so tall that even on the 147m long canopy walkway, 28m above the ground, they still towered above us. The noise of the jungle creatures was non-stop, life all  around us, and yet we couldn't spot any animals or birds, other than a single black squirrel and a few million ants, but we were new to this game and had some learning to do...  

Ants!

Sitting on the resort deck at dusk after a much needed swim, a jungle guide helped us spot flying squirrels and fruit bats. Finally we were getting this wildlife spotting thing. Room for improvement but very cool nonetheless.

Mr Big Orangutan

The next morning we were picked up and joined a cruise shipload of 12 coaches at the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. Unfortunate timing but it didn't detract from the amazing work this centre does rescuing young orangutans from illegal captivity and teaching them to live in the wild. Orangutans stay with their mothers until 7-10 years old, so these orphans need a lot of help to be reintroduced to jungle life. And as their habitat is shrinking (to palm oil) and Borneo is the only place where they still survive, it was fantastic to see juvenile orangutans playing and eating up close. We were also treated to a rare appearance of a very large dominant male who calmly sat in the 'playground' and ate all the tastiest bananas. And why not. He's a big m*@#*##*#r.

Lone orangutan sneaking a banana

Macaques invading the feeding platform

We proceeded to the feeding platform - only one lone Orangutan decided to show up today, but an entire extended family of 40 of macaques entertained us until the keeper left at which point they swarmed the platform, fighting and pinching whatever they could.

Sunbears on film!

Next stop was the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre; another rehabilitation park for the world's smallest bear. Utterly adorable we were treated to seeing 5. You can't help but fall in love with these hunted creatures whose numbers have declined 30% in the last 30 years.

Leaving Sandakan for Kinabatangan River

Sandakan 'water houses'

Writing this, it seems like we'd had full day already, but it was only 11am and the day was going to prove very much more exciting on the wildlife front than rescue monkeys and bears. Joining new fellow travelers and guide Abas, we set off for the jetty. Sandakan is nicknamed Little Hong Kong due to the creaky water villages that extend from the shore, narrow walkways separating colourful wooden houses built on stilts in the water. At the far end of such an alleyway was the motorboat and driver about to transport us up the Kinabatangan River to our first deep rainforest lodge. The bay took us past fishermen and dramatic islands (think Bear Grylls - this is where they film The Island) and up the estuary of the muddy waters of the Kinabatangan. Passing pristine mangrove forest we were all excited just to be there and totally unprepared when Abas yelled "Orangutan! On the left, over there!" Fumbling for our cameras and phones it took multiple finger pointing before we spotted her. Our first sighting of a truly wild orangutan. Magic!

Our jungle crew

 Settled into the lodge, and by now firm friends with our fellow explorers, Duncan and I went for a short walk round the lodge's raised walkway (it's all pretty swampy so everything - cabins, restaurant, walkways - are on stilts) and in the space of 20 minutes saw another orangutan (they are solitary animals so you never see more than two, mother and infant, together), a family of macaques and a male proboscis with his hareem (I'm not kidding - Google it). We'd graduated from novice to intermediate in a mere 24 hours!!

Probiscis antics - taken on an iPhone. They really were that close..

Spot the probiscis

Off on the evening wildlife nature cruise upstream.  6 of us, plus Abas and our driver in an open  boat, we hit the water just before dusk, when animals are settling down for the night on the river banks, and back  well after dark. One of the reasons for this is to catch animals too elusive or difficult to see during the day, such as crocodiles, fireflies and my favourite, kingfishers and small birds. Perched on low branches overhanging the water, the are so dozy you can almost touch them. Just unbelievable. I would go into more detail about how glorious it was, but it's late here and I've written a lot already. All I will say is that we were seriously lucky. Here's what we saw....macaques, more proboscis monkeys, red lipped monkeys, leaf monkeys, baby crocodiles, yellow hornbills, baby and adult bearded pigs, a family of pygmy elephants, ruddy kingfisher, Oriental dwarf kingfishers, Malaysian blue flycatcher, bronzed drongos, Oriental pied hornbill, rhinoceros hornbill (only 400 left), brahminy kite, while bellied sea eagle, great egrets, little egrets, chestnut bellied malkohas, agitant storks, storm storks, ashy tailorbird, servant eagle, leopard frog, black scorpion and some other frogs and spiders I can't remember the names of. Oh and another orangutan with her baby Phew!  Quite a day. Not sure we can top that tomorrow....