Greetings Family & Friends from the Wilds of Borneo,
Our 11 day experience with Wildland Adventures’ “Untamed Borneo” began in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, on the NW tip of the island of Borneo, meeting up with Jeff, our group leader, and friends Kurt, Joanie, Phil & Marilyn. We started with another outdoor food hawker stall dinner, dining on steamed grouper staring at us surrounded by rice, our choices orchestrated by our Malay guide Eddie.
The next morning we flew across Borneo to Sandakan on the northeast coast and drove to the Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre at Sepilok in time to experience the 10 am feeding with fruit for these orphaned or displaced Orangs. Three (including a mother & clinging baby) came for breakfast via 2 ropes strung cable-like from two nearby trees, swinging arm-over-arm to the platform. Shortly thereafter we had an encounter with a young Orang male, Toby, who was recently “cured of schizophrenia”. He was on the pedestrian boardwalk, mildly panicking us tourists with his menacing glares, at one point 2 feet from our faces on the boardwalk railing, all the while frustrating the employees madly trying to corral him. We then walked to the new Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, not yet open to the public. These small endangered bears have terribly sweet faces and 4” long razor sharp claws along with an aggressive nature as was displayed with 2 females fighting during the hour we were there.
Before heading into the Interior, we had lunch at a funky eatery built on stilts over the Sulu Sea, connected to a ramshackle water village built over the mudflats. We sped by boat over the Sea and up the Kinabatangan River to a small lodge on the river’s edge, near the village of Abai, where we later spent time with villagers preparing a wonderful meal for us. Spotting Proboscis monkeys along the way was a small indicator of what we would see in the next few days, both, in and along the river, in the trees and flying over the small boat used for our explorations: wild boar, Macaque monkeys scampering on mudflats, the Rhinoceros Hornbill (Sarawak’s state bird with a red/yellow/white upper beak, which is shaped like a Rhino horn), others of the hornbill family (Wrinkled, Helmeted, Oriental Pied, all with a signature loud squawk, which is especially endearing in the dawning hours), the 2 foot tall Crested Serpent Eagle, Storm’s Stork, Wallace’s Hawk Eagles, the small and beautiful Blue-eared Kingfisher and a White-Bellied Sea Eagle being chased from his high tree perch by a wave of angry wasps, whose nest it was obviously too close to. Our native guides had incredible eyesight and great knowledge of the fauna, including their Latin names! Obviously we were taking notes, sometimes hard to read later due to the humidity and sweat coming through our clothing.
Late afternoon and pitch dark rides up and down the Kinabatangan proved awesome as well. Our first exposure to the Pygmy elephant (not as small as it sounds…80% the size of Asian elephants) was a herd of 40 (15 of which we could readily count, including 4 babies, one nursing) ripping out foliage along the banks and stuffing it into their mouths, crashing around and decimating the area. We sat languidly in our open boat and watched 2 young male elephants frolicking in the river, submerging, rolling over, entwining their trunks, for over an hour, as the 2 drifted downstream and us with them, a video of this above. Eddie spotted an Orang 20-30 meters above lounging in its nest for the night and got it to move its limbs (so we could actually see it) by cupping his hands and making a specific call. Occasionally the presence of Malay Badgers onshore was made known by their skunk-like smells wafting across our bow. Most impressive was the sighting of a 4 foot crocodile in pitch dark, made by a slight reflection of its eyes via a quick panning of our guide’s “torch”. This sighting, as well as one of the Flat-Headed Cat (leopard family) who was almost completely hidden in riverside bushes, were facilitated by a green laser pointer deftly used by our guides to help us to pinpoint their location, without blinding them
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The zenith of the magical night river meanderings was the synchronized display of the fire flies, resting by the hundreds in a number of trees, flashing on and off together, reminding us of Christmas trees. We spontaneously broke into singing Christmas carols (in a Muslim country), with “O Tannenbaum” for starters.
On to the Danum Valley next for 4 nights at the Borneo Rainforest Lodge. After 77 kilometers in a 4 x 4 (with our guide, a driver and the 2 of us), on a dirt, gravelly and rutted single lane road, seeing a 3 foot Small-Clawed River otter undulating across the road, Red leaf monkeys flying through the trees, and a galloping Bearded Pig, we came upon a group of 10 Pygmy elephants blocking the road in front of us (6 km from the lodge). We counted 24 in front of us and eventually, 8 behind, effectively hemming us in. The menacing trumpeting, the warning foot gesture and the side-to-side head shaking did not conspire to create a comfort zone for us!! After a delay of 45 minutes and Eddie’s last ditch maneuver (to be kept a secret) we arrived safely at the lodge. We had a similar experience on a night drive in an open bed truck, trapped again by 30 elephants, one being 10 feet away from us hidden in the brush who trumpeted so loudly that one of our group dove headlong into his wife, both falling to the bed of the truck, who later humorously considered wearing Depends on future such excursions..:-). We had to turn around and take another route back. The elephants had their way with us this time.
We donned leech socks and hiking boots for most of our hikes in the area. Even so, 7/8 of us got “leeched” and earned certificates. One of the coolest sightings of all the hikes was a 10 foot King Cobra swimming/slithering, head raised high and swiveling side-to-side, down the river, which we learned was its way of taking a quick shortcut through the jungle. Our guide, Denny, had last seen one 4-5 years ago, making this a rare experience. Thanks to Marilyn for espying it in time to alert all to share this sighting.
Up at 3:30 am one day to witness sunrise at the Weather Station, an hour drive from the lodge. At 5:15 am we viewed vague, dark images of the forest canopy, protruding above the mist, which appeared as islands with pounding surf at points where the mist was rising from its base covering of the jungle below. It was as if there was a 2nd tier to our world as we know it. As the day dawned the sound of Gibbon monkeys began. First one, then another off in the distance in answer. Then a crescendo, rapidly progressing, increasing in volume, echoing everywhere like a game of Ping Pong, starting slowly and progressing with ever increasing volleys.
In closing this note, we will leave you with 2 visuals: (1) Our last day at BRL, while on a long hike, we became completely drenched after being caught in a 30 minute downpour, leaving shoes and all clothing soaked. What was one to do when reaching the waterfall and pool, but jump in with everything on, including shoes and leech socks! We continued the theme later when trekking upriver to put in for inner tubing 30 minutes downstream to our lodge and tubing fully clothed with shoes and pants, sans leech socks; and (2) In contrast, our last 2 days with Wildland Adventures in the sun and snorkeling at Kapalai Resort on a remote sand bar in the Celebes Sea.
At this writing we have stayed in 16 different lodgings for a total of 31 nights…many packings and unpackings, with 3 more lodgings over 7 nights to go and have completed 13 of our 17 flights.
We hope this finds you all well. We have appreciated hearing back from some of you along the way. The final dispatch will summarize our upcoming experiences in Cambodia at Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.
Travelingly yours,
Stan & Maggie