After a 6 hour bus journey we arrived at Sepilok Junction, where to our dismay there was no taxis in sight. The sign said 2.5 km to our Forest Edge lodge where we were staying, and with all of our stuff in this heat, and still aching after our mountain climb, it just seemed too far. I suggested calling the lodge for a pick up but the girls decided to walk, I don't think they realised that this would take about 40 minutes, I tried to object, but to no avail, so walk we did! After a few minutes some other people who were also on our bus managed to flag down a pick up, and we jumped on board and thankfully were driven quite a way down the road before they dropped us off. Even from here it was still a fair way and I was so glad to finally arrive and drop off my backpack as my neck was feeling sore again now and it was very overweight, I definitely need to lose some stuff before we hit South America!!
As we settled in for dinner, the rain also settled in for the night and it poured and poured, I believe we are in the wet season still this side and it rains here often so it was expected. We finished dinner, and got ready for our day at the orang utan sanctuary.
Feeding time for the Orang utans is 10am, so we rush breakfast and aim to get there about 9.30am, it is just a 10 minute walk and we get there in time to see the first orang utan approach the feeding platform with her baby clinging on to her. I was not aware that orang utans are only found in the wild in Borneo and Sumatra now and have been wiped out of the rest of Asia and China due to destruction of their habitats, until the point where there are only 20-30,000 left in the wild now. They are the most similar species to the human race with something like 96.4% of the same genetics, the only reason we are watching them and not the other way around is because our brain makes up 2.1% of our body while theirs is only 0.6%. Their life span in the wild is about 35 years and a female will only ever have about 2-3 offspring in a lifetime, her first not until she is about 15-17 years old, which is another reason why these animals need to be protected.
The main aim for the sanctuary is to rehabilitate these animals back into the wild, after they are found sick, injured or orphaned. This can take up to 10 years as they have to be taught everything by humans that their mother would have taught them, even to the point where they are taken home by the staff for their night feeds, and sometimes they never really leave and return to the feeding platforms as their security blanket, but mostly they are successful and many rehabilitated orang utans have their own offspring now and never return, but live in the reserve where they are protected from harm and deforestation. Males have even been taken to parts of the wild jungle and placed there to help increase the population in the wild. An adult male is 4 times stronger than a human male and they are very solitary animals only coming together for breeding, or when with offspring which stay with the mother for about 7 years, or when she has another baby, and sometimes when fruit is in abundance in one place there may be a group there eating together. However when they are babies they are very dependant on their mother and love hugging and contact, they are so cute!!! In the nursery they are dressed up in jumpers to keep them warm and given toys to cuddle up with and to encourage play!
After the sanctuary we went to the Rainforest Discovery Centre for a walk through some of the forest trails and canopy in the trees, and to see the giant tree.
While up on the canopy I saw a blue wasp thing trying to eat a dead spider, which was slightly bigger then it, and as I was trying to get a picture of it, it got defensive of its prey and warned me off by flying at me and landing on my leg, with the spider, which I have a phobia of, and I just screamed and shook my leg until it flew away, so glad I wore trousers, so aggressive!!! There were a lot of leeches here as well, and we all got a few clinging on to us when they could, especially Carmel as she was only wearing thongs and shorts! All we could hear was screaming coming from behind every time one clung to her!! The rain was back and we were getting pretty wet now so we finished our walk and headed back to the lodge to book our jungle trip for tomorrow.
The next morning we were up bright and early to start our jungle adventure!! We headed out in the rain and were driven to the Kinabatangan river, where we loaded our bags, desperately trying to keep all our stuff dry from the now heavy rain, onto a small boat with no cover. Oh well we wanted a proper jungle adventure, looks like we are getting it! About 40 minutes later, we arrive at the jungle lodge, absolutely soaked!! Our first boat cruise is at 4pm for some wildlife spotting on the river. Thankfully the rain had cleared by now and we enjoyed a pleasant evening taking in the views of the jungle. We spotted some snakes, this place is full of them, lots of birds, including kingfishers and egrets, a crocodile and eventually what we were most excited to see, the rare proboscis monkey, only in the wild in Borneo!! The male has a really long nose but was too far away to get a good photo, see below.
Other than that we saw lots of monkeys, playing around and generally just causing mischief!!! They are so funny to watch and very entertaining, we could sit there for hours, but we dragged ourselves away and headed back for dinner. The food at our lodge was amazing, and made us wonder how in the middle of the jungle we can get served better food than we have been offered in most of Malaysia. We then played uno for a while and our guide showed us a card trick, which was pretty cool, before we headed off to bed as we were up early in the morning for our next river cruise!
The following morning we were greeted again by heavy rain! We sat and waited for a while for it to clear and as it eased we made our way up the river, loaded up with waterproofs, umbrellas and anything else we could find. This time we were going prepared!
We went to a lake which ran off the river, and were lucky enough to spot a wild orang utan swinging through the trees!! Unfortunately the rain had kept most of the other animals at bay so we did not spot much else, an eagle and more snakes and monkeys!! We went back to the lodge, had breakfast and got ready to leave.
We boarded our little boat again with all our bags in the pouring rain for the 1 hour journey back. I was glad when we finally arrived and jumped in the car and then a bus and made our way to Semporna to do our diving.
When we arrived we were too late to book anything for the following day, so we just chilled out as there is really nothing to do here. The next day we had snorkelling booked at Sibuan Island, which is a very small desert island and very idyllic. The snorkelling was so much fun here and we saw many things, including a mandarin fish, which we are told can fetch up to $2000 as they are so pretty and much sought after for fish tanks. We also saw a nudibranch, turtles, crocodile fish, and many colourful reef fish, too many to name! The coral was so pretty here too.
We then headed onto the island for lunch and just snorkelled around looking at starfish for a while before chilling out on the beach and heading back. When we were back and showered we realised how burnt we had got even though it wasn't really sunny, poor Carmel had started to come out in blisters and was worried about our dive the next day. We just rehydrated with loads of water and tried to get some sleep!
Next morning Carmel was feeling so sore, she tried to change her dive date but it was too late, she was so upset! However she persevered and brightened up when we got to Sipadan. This is classed as one of the top 10 dive spots in the world with such a diverse eco system, and a depth which can reach 500 metres! Rob our dive master was patient with us and took his time going through everything and said we would take it easy on the first dive and see how we got on. I was worried about my ears and being able to equalise properly and he made us all go down slowly and steady and all was fine :) The reef was awesome!!! There was so much to see as soon as we hit the water! Fish everywhere!! We wanted to see some of the bigger stuff and we were not disappointed!! White tip reef sharks, grey reef sharks, huge turtles, moray eels, giant trevelly, barracuda etc… we most enjoyed swimming with the sharks and turtles and jumping into the water straight into the middle of a shoal of jackfish, hundreds of them, swimming all around us, it was such an amazing experience!! The reef and all the colourful fish were so beautiful too, as we watched them chasing each other, and trying to camouflage themselves against predators. It was like being beamed into another world!! The underwater world!!!
We completed our 3 dives and I managed my deepest dive ever of about 18 metres!!! Eardrums still intact, bonus!! We headed back, exhausted, and chilled out, treating myself with a beer and some fresh seafood!!
The next few days I had a headache I could not shift, I think created by a pain in my neck, not sure but must have hurt something. I just stayed in the room and watched movies and slept, everything just catching up with me again. After a massage as a last resort to ease the pain, all was better, although she was not gentle with me, but I guess it was what was needed!
We finally boarded the night bus back to KK and made the 10 hour journey back to the city! We arrived about 6am at Borneo Gaya lodge where we stayed previously as we enjoyed it so much. Headed straight to bed for a few hours and then just chilled out all day watching movies and searching the internet for hotels for Singapore, where Nicola and I are heading tomorrow, whereas for Carmel the trip ends and she is heading back home to the comfort of the Gold Coast!!!
Next stop Singapore!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment