In search of Pongo pygmaeus - the jungle dweller.
Source: Audley itinerary
Borneo
Source: Audley itinerary
Our determination to visit Borneo goes back a
long, long way – all the way to 1974 in fact, when our good friends Alan and Meg
Kemp came back from working in Borneo.
By that stage, Alan was recognised worldwide for the outstanding work he
had done on Ground Hornbills in the Kruger National Park and was becoming
heavily involved in co-authoring a book about the Hornbills of the World. The rhinoceros hornbill is Malaysia’s
national bird and the Malaysian Government had invited Alan and Meg to make a
study of hornbills in Borneo. On their
return, they plied us with stories about the jungles of Borneo, they told us
about their experiences whilst sharing accommodation with head-hunters sleeping
in the longhouses of the Iban people, and how frustrating it had been studying
birds which they heard, but could not see, due to the density of the canopy of
the towering forest trees. They presented us with a book called “In Search of the Red Ape” - the
beginning of it all ... A mesmerising
account of a simply fascinating part of the world that warranted placement on
our ever growing “bucket list”. Prior to this we’d had two attempts to get
there, which failed for various reasons but this time, on the third attempt, it
proved lucky as usual!
The
book we read - “In Search of the Red Ape”
also accounts for the title given to this story of our own adventure In
Search of Pongo pygmaeus - the forest dweller (a species not
to be confused of course with “Pongo pommiensis”, the Pale Ape, which one
commonly finds in the UK!!).
Sunday 13th August
-
“D-day” … the day of our departure for Borneo,
began with a few last-minute jobs like mowing the lawn at Westfield Farm for
Daniel, as he was away in France with his children. That painful farewell was
over but we had very special people popping in to wish us well beginning with Lenny
and Elaine bringing presents to add to our frightening load. The delivery of a very touching, hand-painted
card of an iris by Natasha, from “the Ramsdens next door” expressing the very
same sentiments we also felt so deeply, at present. Sharing the grief
associated with the passing of our beloved Justy has created an unbelievably
strong bond between us along with the incredible support we’d received from
Emma English, who arrived on her trusty old bike; from Tina McCormack; Dan and
Claire Scott, Emma Tilby and of course, Elaine and Lenny travelling down to
Norfolk that day.
Whilst sitting outside beneath the grapevine
on such a nice, warm sunny day in the presence of so many good friends an
impromptu party developed – with people finishing off puddings left over from the
marvellous dinner we’d been served up the previous night at Matt and Sue’s; while
some of the hardened drinkers saw their way clear to damaging a bit more of
Dan’s stocks of beer! Come 3.00pm however, it was time to leave, the tears to
flow and the last hugs.
Matt kindly drove us to the local Humberside airport
and within no time we were aboard a small City Hopper, winging our way to
Amsterdam feeling safe in the knowledge that we were finally underway. Or so we
thought … Once aboard the massive Boeing 747 (Airbus) destined to take us to
Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia – an eleven and a half hour, journey ahead of us - we
were pleased to hear the Captain’s assurance that we would be taking off in six
minutes time. The next announcement advised us of a delay as two passengers
with the same name had been allocated the same seat and the matter being sorted
out. In due course, having removed one of the passengers, a check had to be
conducted to ensure nothing had been left in the overhead baggage
compartments. Consequently, everyone was asked to take down their hand luggage
and place it on their laps whilst a search was undertaken. With everyone growing
increasingly anxious yet another hour passed amongst repeated apologies from
the Captain. Government was now handling this security breach. Another hour
followed until, shortly before midnight we were all asked to disembark. Too
many security factors for the Captain to risk taking off without all the
luggage in the hold being removed and everyone having to re-board!! By that
time, the staff required to do so were off duty so everyone aboard the plane would
be required to return to immigration before being allotted hotels. With 400
tired and anxious passengers to accommodate KLM had an unenviable job on their
hands and all this took another couple of hours of standing around or sitting patiently
on the carousels in the arrival hall, waiting for vouchers to be issued and
hotels to be allocated.
At 2.30 am we landed up on the 4th
floor of the Hilton hotel, handed a “midnight snack” of a brown paper packet
containing an anaemic looking sandwich, a coke, a chocolate bar and a small
naartjie!
Exhausted, we simply fell into bed. Borneo was
still a long way off and we weren’t really making a great deal of progress!
Worse still was the knowledge that our connecting flight to Kuching would now be
missed and the itinerary in place, would have to be revised.
Monday 14th August -
The first thing we did upon wakening was to
send an email to Hannah Alderson at Audley, the UK travel company who’d set up
our trip to Borneo and alerted her to our predicament. Meanwhile, breakfast in
the “Bowery” at the Hilton went down very well – gorgeous crispy bacon and hash
browns, honey in the cone and beautifully hot tea- all that means much to ‘the
man’!
Hannah phoned and assured us that once she
knew the flight number of the plane scheduled to take us to KL at 4.00pm, she
would advise Audley’s partners in Kuching (Diethelm Travel) of the delay. We
also mentioned that after a long-haul flight the prospect of spending our first
night in an Iban longhouse on the Lemanak River, 300km from Kuching, may not be
a good idea … but agreed to keep the option open until our arrival. Predictably,
we spent the rest of the day killing time, sitting in the foyer of the Hilton
Hotel or, after passing through Schiphol’s security and immigration for the
second time, sitting in the departure lounge waiting to re-board the very same
aircraft we had reluctantly abandoned the previous day. On re-boarding, we
found a letter of profuse apology from KLM on every seat along with a box of
“stroop-wafels” (caramel filled waffles)! Needless-to-say there were more apologies from
the Captain and another hour-long delay before taking off. Followed by a long,
uncomfortable, sleepless night. A night brightened in George’s case, by listening
to the sound of the “Highwaymen” on his earphones, deliberately played
repeatedly while Lea watched films.
Tuesday 15th August –
With a mass of bustling people, chilly air-conditioned
interior, lifts to different levels, crowded train between terminals and lack
of seating, Kuala Lumpur airport was not George’s idea of fun. Having missed
our connecting flight to Kuching, we encountered our next problem. Our luggage
had not been put through to Kuching as we’d planned. It turned out to be a
separate leg and along with collecting our baggage we had to buy new tickets. All this took time trundling our trolley full
of luggage from floor to floor making enquiries. Our opinion of KLM sinking by
the hour whilst wondering how, and when, we would ever be able to claim the
compensation they had offered, in cash not vouchers! By 2.00pm we were sitting at
the departure gate for Kuching killing time once again. However, shortly before
the appointed hour we were told to move to another gate – a gate which happened
to be at the opposite end of the terminal. After we’d rushed there, we were informed
of another delay! “The joys of airline
travel” … We were so tired we could hardly keep our eyes open and the chilly air
conditioning in the airport added to our misery. The thought of a long journey
into the jungle followed by a night on the floor of a long house bothered us.
After another tedious, frustrating day, we
finally began circling around Kuching preparing to land. In what little light
remained, we had our first glimpse of Borneo. Large meandering forest fringed rivers,
oxbow lakes and muddy deltas in the near-shore area. We had arrived but not
before clearing immigration once more, having our photographs and fingerprints
taken again and re-claiming our formidably large pile of luggage.
Given the understandable confusion concerning our
whereabouts over the last few days we had half expected there would be no-one
to meet us at the airport as arranged. We found a taxi to take us to the Waterfront
Hotel in Kuching, a 20 / 30-minute drive away. Once there, reception was quick
to advise Diethelm Travel (Audley’s partners) of our arrival and in next to no
time their representative, Doris, arrived to welcome us and discuss our plans
for the morning. All we wanted to do was lie down flat and go to sleep and that
didn’t happen until after 10.00pm. We slept better knowing that if all went
according to plan we were scheduled to catch our first glimpse of Pongo
pygmaeus next day!
Waterfront Hotel, Kuching.
Wednesday 16th August -
The
view from our bedroom window
After a good night’s rest, it was gratifying to
open our curtains and look down on the Sarawak River with Kuching’s State
Legislative Assembly building, resplendent beneath its glistening “payung” (golden)
roof, on the opposite bank; and to later emerge into the warm (28⁰C) humid air
of Borneo knowing that we had all morning to relax. We bought a cheap bag for the princely sum of
£2 to lessen the load in George’s back-pack.
A stroll along a beautifully laid out and
quiet river frontage.
On our way back to the hotel, through a narrow
street, we had Lea’s fob re-attached to her gold chain with a small twist of 22
carat gold wire using the services of one of the many jewellers advertising
their expertise. A fitting anniversary present for our 49th next day
as we head into Gold!
Having abandoned the night in a long house we
had to move to a new room in the Waterfront Hotel- which they had thankfully
found for us within their heavily booked hotel. At 1.30pm we were ready to be
collected by our guide, Cornelius, a very likeable local, and taken out of town
to the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre (SWC). Whilst our driver James concentrated on
weaving his way through the traffic Cornelius gave us a brief rundown on the purpose
of the SWC as well as some of the Orang-utan characters we could possibly meet,
regaling us with stories about “Ritchie”, the once dominant male who had been
known to bite the fingers off a ranger as well as his rivals; stories about
bags and food being snatched from visitors, even the clothes being torn off a lady
unfortunate enough to have the audacity of laughing at him!
To George’s mind the best story of all was
about Delima (aka “Hot Mamma”) who, on hearing the cries of a baby that had
been left in its stroller while the parents were busy taking photos, had come
down from the tree to comfort it. The only problem was that Hot Mamma decided
to take the baby back up to the top of her tree and look after it for the next
three hours! The parents beside themselves with anguish. As a result, babies in
prams are no longer allowed into the reserve!
(Photos - courtesy SWC)
We were impatient to meet any of the inmates.
However, when George saw busloads of people, congregating before the
3.00pm feeding session, his heart dropped. Far too many people … but there was
nothing we could do about it.
Feeding took place in the forest on a platform
(with ropeways attached to it from various trees to make access easier for the
Orang-utans).
The Ranger periodically uttering “Tarzan calls”.
Other calls echoed across the valley. The intention,
to advise any Orang-utans in the area that it was “tea time”. We learnt their non-arrival is regarded as a
good sign because the SWC want released Orang-utans to find food for themselves
and it is for this reason the food, provided twice a day is not varied. They purposely
want the food on offer to be boring and monotonous.
No Orang-utans arrived early and we gained
simple pleasure just watching large, attractively striped black squirrels cautiously
trying to sneak up on the fruit, to the background sound of forest birds and
cicadas singing all around us. It felt like being back in the top end of
Australia especially when half an hour later, the trees began to sway and
whisper loudly from wind announcing the advent of a rain storm. The heavy rain
brought Orang-utan watching to an abrupt end! Those without rain gear stood
packed together under the roof of a small shelter, watching the path we’d
followed into the forest turn into a river, while those lucky enough to have brought
umbrellas splashed their way back to the buses.
At least, we learned a lot more about Pongo
pygmaeus from our visit to SWC. Two subspecies exist, the one in Malaysia
being entirely different to that in Kalimantan on the Indonesian side of the
island. And how, on admission of an orphan Orang-utan the youngsters are
thoroughly documented, placed in quarantine for at least ninety days, undergo
all sorts of medical checks and their behaviours monitored daily. Only then are
they introduced to a nursery where they are fed twice a day and encouraged to
climb and play. Once they have acquired climbing skills they enter a “primary
school “where they are let loose every day and allowed to climb and explore
trees in the forest, introduced to jungle food and shown by a ranger how to
build nests. In “secondary school” they are brought into the forest for
overnight stays and learn greater survival skills, fed irregularly and closely
monitored. The Orang-utans are only released into the Semenggoh forest reserve
once their skills, health and behaviours have been carefully evaluated. They
are then left to themselves, occasionally receiving supplementary feeds. Where
possible they are monitored daily during this period but in fact are seldom
seen again. Satellite / radio tracking has proved unsuccessful as collars are simply
ripped off and transmitters in the form of implants are similarly removed.
This
schedule is of interest as 18 of the 29 Orang-utans were born here.
Even
more interesting, one of the orangutans born in the centre, Edwin, has at the age
of 21, subsequently ousted 36-year-old Ritchie as the dominant male. Dominant
males, weighing up to 100kg, are twice the size of females and have a unique
physical appearance with prominent cheek pads and throat pouch. The cheek pads
are flanges of fat and only develop, due to hormonal changes (testosterone?)
when the animal is about 15 years old. Orangutans are solitary creatures. Once
a suitable girlfriend, in season, has been selected by a male he will
apparently drag her around, holding firmly onto one of her arms, for 2 to 3
weeks at a time!
Returning to our hotel, Cornelius regaled us
with more stories. How Ritchie had taken a dislike to some of the trainee
guides, of which he was one, and how they had to lock themselves up in a hut while
Ritchie walked around pounding on the walls and doors! He suggested that Orang-utans
are very good at facial recognition as long after they have taken a dislike to
anyone. They are remembered the moment they are seen again!
It was still raining when we ventured out of
the hotel at 6.00pm but armed with an umbrella supplied by the hotel we made
our way down to the river esplanade and the Magenta Restaurant established in
what was once a fort overlooking the river. Great meal upstairs in a quiet restaurant with
good views.
Magenta Restaurant overlooking the State Legislative Building. All aglow with fountains of ever changing colours and lights…
Thursday 17th August
This morning, again in the company of
Cornelius and James, we were on our way to the Sarawak Cultural Centre which
lay about ¾ of an hour away. Once out of the city, we began passing through
extensive mangrove / palm dominated swamps, crossed the Santubong River and at
the base of Mount Santubong, a national park, spent the next three hours
wandering around the 17 acre grounds of the multi-award winning Cultural Village
established by the Sarawak Government to display and celebrate the ethnic
diversity of the State.
Map of village
We were taken to seven traditional houses
built around a man-made lake. The longhouses of the mountain dwelling Bidayuh
people, made primarily, water conduits included, of bamboo; the longhouses of
the river dwelling Iban people, built of axe-hewn timber tied with creeper
fibre, palm wood flooring and roofs of leaf thatch; the rough shelters of the nomadic
jungle dwelling Penan tribe – the manufacturers and adept users of blowpipes;
and the solid ironwood houses of the river dwelling / rice growing Orang Ulu
people, with exterior walls made from bark; renown manufacturers of the Bornean
guitar (sepe) and the makers of hand forged swords derived from locally smelted
iron ore.
We saw the tall houses of the Melanau people
who, frequenting coastal areas, are built on 8m high stilts tall enough to
accommodate Borneo’s massive tidal range. They live on a diet of sago – a
starch extracted from sago palms that grow in the coastal swamps and eat the borer
beetle larvae found in the stem of the palms. Due to the threat of pirates, the
floor of their houses is see-through. Large vats of oil and water kept constantly
on the boil to pour down on anyone suspected of being a pirate. The Melanau
people combat illness by carving little figurines out of wood and floating them
out to sea on the outgoing tide.
We visited the fashionable ironwood houses of
the Malay people are also built on stilts but they have indoor plumbing, curtains,
prayer rooms and proper, comfortable looking beds; and the mud-floored houses
of the Chinese, characterised by their household shrines and roofs thatched
with palm fronds.
There were many interesting things to see and
hear about (a music show put on in the village theatre included) but it was the
making of blowpipes that really caught George’s fancy, particularly after
having had a shot with a blowpipe and hit the target! Being well over two
metres in length and beautifully hewn and polished from dense, dark ironwood it
was how such uniformly sized holes could be hand–drilled through the centre that
left George perplexed. It was all very well seeing the drilling platform from
which the piece was worked (see photo below). Quite apart from the skill and
patience required, how a hole could be drilled so accurately by hand remained unclear
to him. Cornelius pointed out that nowadays an aluminium tube, encased in
timber, is the modern way of making blowpipes. That, was cheating in George’s
mind!
Blow
pipe drilling platform
Street Cat Statue in Kuching
Kuching is known as the “City of Cats” … although
Cornelius seemed to indicate that it all came about as a form of publicity for
the city since it is similar for the word cat - ‘kucing’. We had seen large cat
statues as we drove through town and had stopped to admire a cat sculpture down
on the esplanade. In one of the indigenous long houses we came across a mother
cat with a definite kink in her tail and her very young kittens still finding
their feet, skittering around with little chunks for tails. Cornelius assured
us many cats in Sarawak were born like that.
It was not surprising the Cat Museum was next,
on our day’s agenda. The museum housed an extra-ordinary collection of cat-related
subjects. Works of art from pictures to ceramics, to examples of cat philately,
cat coffins, cat head rests, cat clothing and cat toys, even insights into the
mystery surrounding the origin and function of a cat’s ability to make purring
noises. There were descriptions of all the different
types of cats in the world; accounts of record breaking cats such as “Towser”,
a female tortoiseshell from Scotland who by her 23rd birthday had
killed 25 716 mice; or the record of a 4-month-old kitten in Switzerland that followed
a group of climbers to the top of the Matterhorn (altitude 14 691 ft) in the
Alps in 1950. In short, a museum containing anything and everything one could
ever wish to know about mankind’s feline friends! May not go down too well in Australia where “moggies”
are generally not looked upon with great favour?
Cat Museum
In stark contrast was Kuching’s Natural
History Museum, our last port of call for the day. It was full of moth-eaten
examples of Malaysian fauna in antiquated glass fronted cabinets, displays of
birds all mixed up with butterflies and moths (some of the butterflies cut out
of paper and the wings hand painted); near illegible annotation and everything in
dire need of a face lift and modernisation. The fact a new museum building was
under construction next door at least suggested we weren’t the only ones who
thought so.
As the day drew-to-a-close we walked down to The
Drunk Monkey on Cornelius’ recommendation for a pre-dinner drink. A spot, to be
remembered for the malaria pill George had brought to take with his dinner. As
he took out his wretched hankie to blow his snozzle, the foil wrapped pill fell
out of his pocket. When Lea suggested a coin may have dropped out of his pocket,
he knew immediately what had occurred. Took out his glasses to look for the
pill not realising one of the lenses had fallen out of the frame! As we began
looking for the pill Lea spotted the lens behind his foot and asked him not to
step back. George merely glanced at the glass and kept looking for the pill
unaware it was his for a good while longer. What a to-do! Talk about an absentminded old
idiot… We had a good laugh when we realised the pill had amazingly dropped down
a narrow pipe. Irretrievable!
Bit later, we moved on to find our anniversary
dinner,
shared Peking Duck at Kuching’s well-known Bla-bla-bla restaurant.
Friday 18th August –
The
day was spent flying from Kuching in the State of Sarawak to Sandakan, in Sabah,
via Kota Kinabalu. Once in Sandakan, with
Venus acting as our guide, we were taken to M.Y. Nature Resort run by the company
Special Interest Tours (or S. I. Tours for short) where we were to spend the
next two days.
My Nature Resort - a pleasant surprise
First,
was the appearance of the resort. Neatly built cabins on concrete stilts, set
amongst towering trees, lush vegetation dripping wet from the rain we’d just
driven through; clouds of mist rising from the canopy of the rain forest; colourful
swallowtail butterflies flitting about; masses of bougainvillea and crab-claws
in flower; a sparkling blue swimming pool in the centre of the development and,
apart from a few members of staff, almost no-one else to be seen. The only
upset, after two young porters had wheeled our luggage to our spacious, well-appointed
room, was Lea’s discovery that in George’s haste to repair a zip shortly leaving
the UK George had inadvertently stitched her black jump suit into the fabric of
the suitcase – a garment that would now have to remain stitched in place until we
reached Australia!
Flying squirrel
Second, and certainly the highlight of the day,
was to witness the flights of some Giant Red Flying Squirrels which, just
before dusk, took off from the top of the tree they live in beside the resort,
and go zooming on outstretched “wings” to trees sometimes as far as 80-100m
away! We were told that Serpent Eagles are often on the look-out for these squirrels
at dusk and that several of the resort’s population of flying squirrels had
already been caught.
In time, we discovered that S. I. Tours (with its logo, the
footprint of a Clouded Leopard) and all three of the resorts we were destined
to stay in, MY Nature Resort included, were wholly owned and run by a young Chinese
woman named Amy Chin. The success she has made of the business after 25 years, not
to mention her pluck in tackling such a truly daunting task, left us full of
admiration.
Saturday 19th August –
The next morning, with 8 other guests, we set
off in a minibus, with Venus our guide, to the Sepilok Orangutan
Rehabilitation Centre (SORC) a few kilometres away from MY Nature Resort.
Not unexpectedly, this very well-known
Sanctuary was alive with people. George was a little taken aback initially, to
be told that those carrying cameras were required to pay a “camera fee”, over and
above the entry fee. However, with all the funds collected being used for the
betterment of the Orang-utans, it was for a good cause. No charge for using
phone cameras though! On our way to the Centre’s Nursery Building across a long
board walk through the jungle, we encountered our first Orangutan, looking a
little forlorn, sitting on one of the boardwalks.
Inside the nursery building were large glass
windows with seating to observe
the outside play area with jungle gym
containing ropes to swing on, car tyres and feeding platforms.
Despite signs
for silence the place was abuzz and very busy. Here, amidst distracting human behaviour we
observed 4 or 5 young Orangutans playing around and/or hanging upside down
while on the platforms, a couple of adult females sat eating bananas and
oranges. All the seating available in the building was taken up by the gabbling
mass that the whole experience was artificial, annoying and zoo-like that
George did not even feel like taking photos! It was only when a large
pig-tailed macaque arrived to have some bananas and began pulling faces at the
crowd of humans staring at him that things got interesting, only to be ushered
along by Venus to observe a feeding platform deeper in the forest.
There, another sign saying SILENCE, had no
effect whatsoever. People continued to chatter at the top of
their voices and drop things on the deck of the platform. Twenty metres away a
basket full of bananas and oranges had been dumped on a platform built around
the base of a large tree and it did not take long before a female Orangutan,
with a baby clinging to its belly, appeared. It wasn’t exactly the most
exciting thing to watch, even when several pig-tailed and long tailed macaques
came to steal what they could. Afternoons are said to be quieter and since our
ticket was valid all day we decided we would return in the afternoon. Hopefully,
there would be less people around.
Across the road was the Bornean Sun Bear
Conservation Centre founded by Dr Wong Yi, who we met briefly outside the
Centre he’d established, to protect these widely maltreated animals from continued
exploitation. Sun Bears, also known as Sun Dogs because of their small size and
doglike bark, are persecuted by Asian countrymen who not only keep them in appalling
conditions to extract bile from their gall bladders. They sell the paws and skins (the striking white
collar on the neck of the bear being particularly sought after) at good prices
to none other than the Chinese.
Long
tailed macaque and sun bear composite
There were 43 Sun Bears at the Centre,
observable from a tall walkway overlooking the sun bear enclosures, electric
fencing employed to prevent them from climbing out. Several bears could be seen
sleeping up in the dizzy heights of branches, very like koala-like in Leas
mind. While others were found wandering on the forest floor. Also in attendance, sitting on the walkways,
were long-tailed macaques waiting to snatch anything from unwary visitor – Rangers
repeatedly warned people not to make eye contact with them.
Photos
taken through a telescope and Lea’s phone camera with the help of a ranger!
Back at our resort, Lea suddenly leapt into
the air a when long slim, striped snake, quietly sunning itself on the
driveway, whipped up and twisted away, back into the jungle, at the proximity
of her footfall - giving her a scare, as we went to lunch.
Returning to the SORC in the afternoon we
found that with fewer people around, viewing of the young Orang-utans at the
Nursery building was far more enjoyable.
Their delightful antics reminiscent of our hands-on
stay we had
in Zambia’s Chimfunshi with young rescued chimpanzees.
There was little to be seen at the feeding
platform in the forest. “People
problems” were still sufficient to be off-putting and distracting – arguing
over blocking the views of people sitting behind them, until a ranger had to
intervene – in short, just more evidence of so-called intelligent human beings
behaving badly.
That evening with Terry as our guide, we
returned to Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre for the third time. Terry had introduced us to the flying
squirrels the previous evening. After collecting a local ranger at the SORC, we
could hardly believe our luck when we came across an Orang-utan sitting in the
bus shelter! It was a great moment for George because if he’d been on his own,
he’d have followed his inclination to quietly sit down in the shelter, and
slowly make friends. Monkey-man felt a strong sense of empathy, a feeling that
was upset by the ranger advising him not to get too close, and to step back
when the animal approached, “fist walking” on its knuckles. Whilst feeling no
fear at all, George regretted having had to obey … but that is just how
monkey-men react sometimes!
Ape
in a bus stop!
Shortly after, we came across another Orangutan
who’d decided to spend the night on the verandah outside the Centre’s locker
room. Having one of its arms outstretched through the railings George took a
serious look at the unusual structure of its hand. Apparently, a few orangutans having grown up
in the nursery, like to take over the Sepilok Visitors Centre overnight, rather
than make nests up in jungle trees.
With dusk fast approaching, a sighting of two Black
Hornbills flying overhead and later a Rhinoceros Hornbill, things had got off
to a good start! It continued to improve as we watched at least five flying
squirrels doing their inspiring leaps from the top of the tall Dipterocarp trees
that surrounded the Nursery building. With unusual sounds of cicadas filling
the air, making a most unlike cicada noise – more like an orchestra warming up;
we followed the boardwalk (for the umpteenth time that day) seeing a collection
of creatures. Some large frogs; a tree-hole frog peeping out of its hiding
place; hammer-head worm (on the handrail); several different types of spiders
(some busy web building); a small whip scorpion; a light green viper coiled in
the branches of a tree above us and to crown it all, as we got to the end of
our hour long walk – the sight of a Slow Loris climbing a tree.
Not the best photo taken with a tiny digital
camera – but these must truly be one of the strangest of animals in the animal
kingdom. They possess a poison gland in the elbow (a modified sweat gland)
which it sucks upon when harassed or threatened in any way, deliberately
infecting its teeth in the process. Apparently, the poison is so toxic that the
bite from a Slow Loris can prove fatal!
Sunday 20th August –
Before leaving the MY Nature Resort we took a stroll
along their 1.5km board walk into the forest and were struck by how broken the
terrain is inside some of these rain forests. The ground on which the forest was
growing was a mass of steep ridges and deep gullies all of which must have made
construction of the boardwalk a herculean task.
By 11.00am it was time to meet Yahya, our
guide for the rest of our trip. An hour-long
bus ride took us to Sandakan’s harbour and the jetty of the Sim Sim village. With
our embarrassingly large amount of luggage, we were very glad to be offered
free storage before heading up the Kinabatangan River.
Sim Sim Jetty: our boat on the right and the
trade mark plants of a lady Boss!
Twelve of us climbed aboard a covered boat powered
by two 85HP Yamaha engines and sped off into the South China Sea, fortunately very
calm at the time. After half an hour, the colour of the water beginning to change
from blue to brown. The helmsman began weaving and dodging flood debris and we sensed
we were nearing the Kinabatangan River.
Being river lovers, we enjoyed every minute of
the hour-long journey upstream,
fascinated primarily by the fringing
vegetation.
Palm dominated in the lower reaches fringed by
tall mangroves elsewhere, the tallest George had ever seen and, perhaps in
response to the profile of the riverbank, the transition between each assemblage
was remarkably sudden. As we twisted and turned up the channel more and more
flood debris was encountered and upon reaching the Abai fishing village, we slowed
down to prevent the boat’s wake from upsetting the villager’s flimsily
constructed jetties. Not far off was a police station where Yahya dropped off a
newspaper to help keep them abreast of events back in civilisation. Shortly after,
we pulled up alongside the jetty of the Abai Jungle Lodge, the establishment
that was to serve as our home for the next two nights.
Abai Jungle Lodge
Surprising George, the whole development,
consisting of over 30 cabins, is situated in a flooded forest in which the
effects of the tide (impeding the outflow of the Kinabatangan River) was all
too obvious.
How did they manage to pile all the
foundations for the buildings, construct the walkways and safely dispose of
sewage in a permanently flooded environment?
Septic tanks were in use, Yahya told him, but
where to the leachate? The muddy river
water was used for our showers – cringe! (It was basically filtered though) Not
a problem so the thought of that, did not detract from an otherwise remarkably
comfortable and well laid out resort. After a brief “post-prandial siesta”, we gathered
for afternoon tea and fried banana (Delicious! A signature dish for all SI Tour
accommodation. MY Nature Resort served them over the sundowner hour).
Before
piling into an open boat, Yahya mentioned to Lea we were off to find elephant. She thought he was taking the mick! Sure enough, we set off upstream in search of
elephant! Bornean pygmy elephants … and, as we travelled looking at the
impenetrable nature of the fringing forest, we wondered how anyone could
possibly hope to see anything so completely and effectively screened from view.
Nonetheless, as if by magic, upon the sound of an elephant trumpet in the
forest, our boat driver nosed the prow under the branches of an overhanging
tree and there, right before our eyes, not five metres away were 5-6 elephants
walking through the forest. With Yahya excitedly shouting “Woo-woo” George began
snapping photos as fast as he could and continued doing so after Yahya, who had
leapt off the prow, came back running to say another lot were coming! By now
there was shrill trumpeting adding to the excitement, everyone feeling
overjoyed by this good fortune. African
elephants would never calmly put up with the noise! The whole experience was exhilaratingly
worthwhile.
On the way, back to the Lodge we watched some
silver leafed langur monkeys, each sporting very long tails and a peaked
hairstyle, one carrying a small ginger coloured baby. Not long after we spotted our first proboscis
monkeys; a tiny blue-eared kingfisher which allowed us to approach within a few
metres, unconcerned about being brightly illuminated by torchlight. Yahya deliberately
stayed out until after dark to show us an amazing sight. “Fireflies” (beetles)
all winking away in a mangrove tree looking more like a Christmas tree. We have
seen many species of fireflies but these – known as Congregating Fireflies - are
static, and impressed us because we are more familiar with those species that flit
around.
Near the Lodge a small (1.5m) crocodile was
spotted skulking on a mud bank beneath the mangroves, enabling us to watch it casually
slither into the river. Our first jungle viewing deemed was a success.
All meals were included in our lodge
stays. Lunch and dinner comprised of
soup, two mains – a chopped chicken and a fish dish with sides of fresh
vegetables followed by some sliced fruit. Very simple but certainly tasty using
a variety of different spices and flavours each time. Only the many bones from
hacking the chicken into bite sized pieces were a trial. We’d wash dinner down
with cans of cold Tiger beer.
The first night at Akai, delicious river
prawns purchased by S I Tours from the local fishermen whose baited basket
traps (marked by plastic bottles) were much in evidence along the river. Rain followed
cooling things down nicely, and put an end to another near perfect day. Just the
croaking of frogs, the soft patter of rain falling on the roof and the
occasional splashing was all we needed to go to sleep.
Monday 21st August –
Yahya had us up and out searching for wildlife
at dawn. Not long after leaving the Lodge we came across a bachelor group of
about 20 Proboscis monkeys performing spectacular leaps from one branch to
another. The largest of them sporting a bright orange coat, bulging stomach.
His long white tail looking as if it had been sewn onto his back, his nose
already very prominent suggested he was waiting his chance to challenge the
leadership of a troop.
Proboscis monkeys are a highly unusual species, endemic to
Borneo, that possess two
stomachs like a cow to allow more efficient digestion
of their diet of leaves and fruit.
Apparently, they are often found in the
company of long tailed macaques which made George wonder whether there was some
sort of mutual benefit derived from their association (as is the case between
impala and baboons). Yahya reckoned they had different diets and therefore were
not in conflict with each other.
Later, we entered a magnificent ox-bow lake
(Lake Pitas), cut off from the main channel, with huge expanses of wetland
vegetation (a type of sudd) fringed by forest.
Of interest to George, was the presence of
Salvinia and water hyacinth both thriving in the quiet, highly nutritious
condition of the lake. There was much swirling of catfish, poking their
whiskered faces out of the water, and fish-eating birds such as egrets and herons
in abundance. Yahya pointed out a Wallace’s Hawk Eagle sitting on the top of a
dead tree but the angle of the sun prevented us from being able to clearly see the
markings.
By 8.30 we were back at the Lodge. Instead of
going to usual dining area we were led beyond the cabins and out on to a
boardwalk that opened out into a delightful ‘Jungle Platform’ where breakfast
was served. Below, we discovered some teenage wild pigs noisily feeding in the
mud and, of course, the occasional tit-bits provided by the chef. The wild pigs
enjoyed wallowing around in the mud beneath boardwalks.
Most interesting and ingenious was the large
stuffed dog, a Husky, standing on a table. Its purpose to scare away any
monkeys that felt inclined to help themselves to breakfast. Playing the sound
of a dog barking made more of an impression on the monkeys and, according to
the Lodge staff, they have never had any trouble since. At lunch, the Husky is
simply moved to the main dining room to continue to perform its valued role as
a monkey scaring device. This approach naturally had George wondering whether
Vervet monkeys or baboons would fall for this trick in Africa. Somehow, he doubted
it!
The next “activity” Yahya had us participate in
was the WWF’s River Corridor project – a tree planting scheme designed to replenish
areas along the edges of the Kinabatangan river which, for one reason or
another, had become denuded of trees. We collected a youngster from Abai
village (lying across the river opposite the Lodge) together with a dozen or
more small seedlings in plastic containers. The idea was for each visitor to
the Lodge to plant a tree on the river bank, onto each was tied a numbered tag
that served to identify the person who planted it and acted as a record of how
much money the Lodge had to pay the villagers for providing the trees. George
and Lea duly planted their trees, mulched with some elephant dung they spotted nearby.
George, ever the cynic thought the whole thing
was little more than a ploy to make visitors feel they had done their bit for
conservation, even offsetting the effects of climate change!
To his mind, the trees were planted far too
close together and instead of being placed on the forest fringe, were placed
beneath an already well-established community. He would also have liked to know
more about the self-generating capability of tropical forests (unaided) before
getting overly enthusiastic. Lea,
preferred the idea that through the lodge, money had been generated for these
remote jungle people in many ways.
Our visit to the impoverished village of Abai (population
200) was interesting. A small primary school, long drop toilets over the river
floating on logs tethered to the bank, a reliance on fish and prawns from the
river and tropical fruits from the forest for food and, in the event of
illness, periodic visits from a floating mobile clinic. We came to realise just
how important construction of the Abai Jungle Lodge had been for the villagers
since many of them are employed there in one capacity or another; it also
serves as an outlet for the prawns and fish they catch and has greatly eased access
to supplies such as the fuel needed for their boats and generators.
Abai village scenes
The village of Abai had another very special
meaning to George. On the wall near reception we came across a photo of Martin
and Osa Johnson in their amphibious plane.
George vividly recalled the book - “I Married Adventure” which he, as a
youngster, had so often paged through gun-toting Osa’s book, with its
distinctive zebra-striped cover, while lying in the lounge of his family home.
It may even have inadvertently accounted (in part) for his own spirit of
adventure! Here we were, in the
self-same spot of the once well-known adventurers and film-makers, Martin and
Osa Johnson who, in 1936, spent some time here making a film about wildlife and
the customs and rituals of the indigenous tribes of NE Borneo. They had even
landed the famous Sikorsky amphibious plane “The Spirit of Africa”, now renamed "The Spirit of Africa and Borneo” on the Kinabatangan River.
The
photo that triggered a memory… Martin and Osa Johnson’s plane on the Kinabatangan River (1936)
The motion film the Johnson’s made called
“Borneo”, included some of the characters they befriended at the village of
Abai, back in the day. They left Borneo in Sept 1936 with 3 000 photos and 150
000 feet of film little knowing it was to be their last adventure as Martin was
killed in a commercial plane crash in 1937, the same year as the film “Borneo” was
made.
With Keith’s help, on our return to Australia
we were quick to track down the film Borneo on Youtube: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4weJAyuCrM
] – a film worth watching if only because of the striking contrast between the
wildlife documentaries of yester-year (1935) and those of today. A transition
from unbelievably poor to unbelievably good!
With the weather becoming oppressively warm as
the afternoon wore on we were not surprised when it began to rain.
Nevertheless, by 4.00pm we were back on the river again watching an entire
family of proboscis monkeys gazing down on us from above, frustratingly
difficult to photograph with a tiny camera. We saw a Grey-headed fish eagle at
one point but the highlight of the afternoon’s viewing was spent watching an
old, truly wild, female orang-utan feeding on the red coloured fruits of a
large river fig tree. She was reluctant to openly show herself, preferring to
hide from us onlookers behind her screen of leaves but every now and again we’d
catch a glimpse of one of her long arms reaching out for another fig. By
deliberately swaying the stem of the tree she was sitting in she would set up
sufficient momentum to reach the clusters of figs on the stem of the fig tree.
The presence of green pigeons feeding on the figs reminded George of the feeding
frenzy he’d seen in Niassa. The fig tree’s local name “Queen of the Forest” comes
from its value as a food supply for all sorts of Bornean forest dwellers.
The signals (flashing of a torch) from another
boat out on the search for wildlife indicated they had discovered something
worthwhile and, rather like tourists in the Serengeti do when a ‘kill’ is
sighted, we were drawn to a spot where yet another orang-utan was hiding
amongst dense foliage. All the guides on the river carry laser torches with
them as a pointing device and use them to good effect to indicate where one
should look. Needless-to-say, with such secretive beasts hidden in such poorly
lit, dark locations, photographs are near impossible to take with a simple
camera.
On our way home, with darkness rapidly
approaching, our boat driver noticed another croc beneath the mangroves so we
did a quick turn and got very close to it. A much larger croc this time,
approx. 2.5m in length, which kindly swam out of its hiding spot and remained
at the surface long enough for a few photos. The crocs clearly enjoy low tide as
there are really no suitable places to rest up at other times.
Dusk
on the Kinabatangan River
The night walk after dinner provided nothing
of real interest apart from a very brief sighting of a Bornean Striped Palm Civet
in a tree – a most un-civet like looking creature, more like the genet cats we
are familiar with in Africa.
Tuesday 22nd August –
A mother pig with seven piglets was the focus
of attention at breakfast today
before our departure for Kinabatangan Riverside
Lodge, an hour’s journey upstream.
On route, we saw yet another Orang-utan
obscured by thick foliage and later, a female and her baby, in full unobstructed
view, feeding on figs. It was our best view yet of a wild Orang-utan and
completely unexpected …
This lousy photograph illustrates just how frustrating it is not
having the right
camera gear when you need it!
We began to encounter palm oil plantations (the
Malbumi Estate), the river was beginning to narrow and sometimes abutted up
against sheer outcrops of limestone. The plantations (which have a dreadful
reputation) led us to start discussing whether the sediment laden nature of the
river was a result of erosion from plantations in the catchment and learnt that
being vast amount users of palm oil, Nestle’s have launched a massive tree
planting scheme like the WWF’s river corridor project. Pay-back time George
thought, as well as a desperate effort to save a bit of face; however when it
came to the matter of soil loss we remained unconvinced palm oil plantations
are entirely to blame. Considering, that once established the palms are in
place for 20 years and throughout this time the overlapping crowns of each tree
effectively breaks the impact of falling rain, there is also a dense ground
cover of grasses and weeds beneath the palms that further assist in protecting
the soil. George wished he could see
some aerial (or satellite) photography to understand what was going on
especially as Yahya told him that the colour of the river water, pre-plantation
days, used to be almost black (i.e. peat stained).
Kinabatangan
Riverside Lodge
After lunch at the Lodge we took time to watch
a few documentaries in their library about Orang-utans, the work of the Sepilok
Rehabilitation Centre, and proboscis monkeys. As we returned along the
boardwalk to our room a good-looking, long haired dog came rushing towards us
panting furiously. In hot pursuit, three village dogs, until they saw us and
instantly became more cautious. Lea shooed them off and they obediently left
although the lead dog stayed within sight. She was obviously just coming into
season and happy to sit at our feet away from the hounding of locals. At odd times, during our stay, dog fights
would break out. When Lea enquired why the female hadn’t been spayed we discovered that this poor bitch had sailed up the Kinabatangan
River with her Australian owners a couple of weeks before. When the yacht came
to turn back, the dog was nowhere to be found and the owners departed without
her. Having seen Akai village breeds,
much like ‘leatherback’ dogs in Aboriginal settlements covered in mange or the
wombats of Narawntapu NP in Tasmania losing hair to mange from sleeping in damp, dank burrows;
we couldn’t help wonder how this poorly equipped dog would cope with her coat
in this high humidity. Sad!
Late afternoon, came time of our usual river
cruise. What a memorable cruise it turned out to be! Yahya had heard elephants
had been sighted downstream, near the Malbumi Estate half an hour away, which we’d
passed earlier in the day. So back we went and sure enough there were about 12
elephants contentedly feeding on reeds and cane grass alongside four boatloads
of excited tourists, all taking selfies of themselves with elephants in the
background! Being familiar with African
elephants we could hardly credit that these animals were wild. They allowed us
to get so close that George could have touched the outstretched trunk of one of
them from the prow of the boat. All completely unconcerned and with the loud
trumpeting going on in the jungle behind them, presented a marvellous spectacle
all together.
Elephants galore!
Elsewhere we saw a small flock of Lesser
Adjutant Storks – an endangered species - that at first sight much resembled
our Marabou storks in Africa; and whilst nosing our way up a small tributary we
encountered Orang-utan ropeways purposely strung across the river because,
unlike proboscis monkeys, Orang-utans cannot swim.
A proboscis monkey kindly provided us with a
demonstration of how to use a ropeway. We spent time watching a female
pig-tailed macaque diligently grooming her baby, her grotesque swollen
posterior indicating, as in the case of baboons, that she was “in season”.
As a matter of interest, it has taken George a
while to get used to taking off shoes whenever entering the dining room or
bedroom at the lodges we have been staying at… Presumably to protect the
floors? [NO George, there are many countries where it is customary to remove
your shoes to enter a home or religious place – all shoes are dirty in more
than the literal sense] When it came to rolled-up sarongs on our beds to wear at
dinner … George drew the line and flatly refused! Lea tried on hers, it was far
too short and skimpy for her girth so we let them be. At our
dinner table, we began talking to a lady from Denmark, writing up her PhD on
doctor-patient relationships in Copenhagen. And, having worked for Medecins
Sans Frontieres International in Myanmar and Sierra Leone, Anna-Marie proved a
most interesting young woman, speaking on conditions in her work places that kept
us seated long after dinner was over, conversing with her.
Wednesday 23rd August-
With only the two of us now left in Yahya’s
care he had us up at 6.15 to go for another boat cruise on the river. As soon
as we were out on the water, our driver took us to see a large Keel Pit Viper,
apparently a very venomous species, coiled up, as if comatose, in the branches
of a tree. Much to our horror, George discovered his camera, having got a
little damp the previous day, was no longer working! We returned to the lodge
to collect Lea’s phone and George took the following photo as Lea anxiously
waited for the prow of the boat to accidentally dislodge the snake, as it knocked
against the tree.
No sooner done, the rain came down and we
decided it was foolish to subject ourselves to the wet especially as damp
clothes took so long to dry. We returned to the Lodge chilled and promptly climbed
back into bed for an extra hour.
Our cruise resumed once the rain had cleared and
we motored up the Menanggul River, a nearby, beautifully peaceful, forest-lined
tributary carrying a distinctly different type of water – almost black in
colour and sediment free. A stretch of
water that was once the route the Chinese used to transport swift nests from
the Goomatong Cave – the site of which, we were to visit later in the day. The improved clarity of the water also seemed
to mean it was a good spot for kingfishers because we were quick to see three
species - the large Stock-billed kingfisher, resembling a kookaburra except for
its red beak and orange chest; a Blue-eared kingfisher like a malachite; and a Ruddy
kingfisher. Other species of birds seen included Dollar birds (which we often
see in the Top End of Australia); Racquet tailed drongo; Storm’s stork; Blue
throated bee-eater and most interesting of all – the Bornean falconet, the
smallest bird of prey in the world! [How
good did we feel on our return to Australia when, totally out of the blue, our
son-in-law Paul, happened to ask if we knew what the smallest bird of prey was.
We did!) It is about the size of an Indian mynah and it preys on butterflies.
Elsewhere we watched a crocodile, with just its head showing, drifting
alongside a raft of water hyacinth and were told that they use it for cover
knowing that monkeys sometimes come down to the water’s edge to feed on the
hyacinth flowers.
Ever since watching a documentary on the
harvesting of edible swift nests for bird nest soup George had, for years, been
keen to see the Goomatong Cave. This limestone
cave system lay amid a 3 000ha forest reserve administered by the Wildlife
Department. Although the harvesting of nests is an industry that has been going
on for hundreds of years it is strictly controlled to safeguard both the
population of swifts and other cave inhabitants such as bats. Every entrance to
the caves had a guard in attendance. Harvesting is only allowed 3-4 months
after the swifts have laid eggs to ensure that their young have flown by then.
With harvesting only being conducted three
times a year we were very lucky, and more than delighted, to find harvesting
underway on arrival. We were absolutely
spell-bound at the sight and sound of the teams of people at work, many
invisible, swaying 80m above our heads, at the end of long ladders being pulled
this way and that by ropes, then lowering baskets of nests to their colleagues
below. George could have watched and listened for hours and he had a strong
desire to go up one of the ladders as the whole thing reminded him of old Ibu
harvesting honeycombs from the branches of his sacred baobab tree in Niassa!
There are three types of nests:
White nests (selling at $3 000 / kg) produced
by the Edible Nest Swiftlet. Black nests (selling at $1 500 / kg) produced by
the Black Nest Swiftlet and, the moss lined nests of the Mossy Nest Swiftlet.
All three are echo-locating swifts quite unlike the normal swifts one sees elsewhere. Yahya explained the nests were an acquired
taste – with little flavour and glutinous.
Far from a stick or grass nest of our imagination!
Photo of a photo of Swiftlet nests. Lighting
no good for our camera even with Yahya shining a torch.
Days later, whilst awaiting our flight to
Perth we wandered around the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and came across
small, carefully packaged boxes of “cave
bird nests”, locked behind glass cabinets, selling for MR 2 399 (about
£430) for 6/8 nests.
And, as for the rest of the cave inhabitants …
things were just as fascinating. The slippery. guano covered boardwalk that led
through the lower part of the cave was crawling with cockroaches and covered in
tiny white droppings. The floor of the cave was similarly covered together with
the remains of swift feathers, with only the central quill remaining, as the
rest of the feather had been devoured by cockroaches. Yahya demonstrated that
if one spat onto the floor of the cave the cockroaches buried beneath the guano
would immediately come boiling to the surface forming a mass of saliva-feeding insects,
not unlike a feeding frenzy of sharks. Flying
high above, having been disturbed by the nest gatherers, were masses of tiny
horseshoe bats circling, and on the cave walls, all sorts of other creepy
crawlies in the form of long legged arthropods (known as symphilids) and
crickets.
An absolute entomologist’s paradise!
To further crown our last afternoon – on our
walk back from the cave, we saw four more Orang-utans (both females with
babies) and a bright ginger coloured Red-leaf monkey peeping at us from the top
of a tree. It was a perfect end to
another very interesting day – and the Goomatong Cave experience was something we
would not have missed for anything.
Yet, before sunset, Yahya was determined to
take us on one last river cruise up the Menanggul River and show us a Flying
Colugo – a rufous coloured lemur, endemic to Borneo, clinging to a tree trunk. What
more could we have asked for. “Mission more than accomplished” bar our visit to the Sandakan Memorial.
Thursday 24th August –
With our bags packed and ready to be loaded
onto the boat taking us back to Sandakan.
Breakfast was held on the front terrace of the Riverside Lodge and
we were
given pride of place in a private gazebo over the water.
Our last meal made all the memorable by the
sound of Bornean gibbons calling on the opposite side of the river. It was the
one animal we regret not having seen, if only because of the way they swing effortlessly
through the trees. The ones we saw in Taman Negara years ago will just have to
suffice.
And so, we left this watery world we had been
living in … our early departure brought to a rapid halt moment later when a
croc was spotted beneath the mangroves – a large one this time, some 4m long. It
seemed reluctant to move, despite two 85 HP motors running 5m away and people
taking photos, but eventually it slipped into the water and sinking, disappeared. Being low tide, we saw a couple more
crocodiles on our way down the river as well as a couple of elephants.
By 10.00am we were in Sandakan and taken directly
to the Sandakan Memorial Park. Why the
Sandakan Memorial Park? The answer: In January 2007 whilst passing through the
little town of Boyup Brook in Western Australia we came across a war memorial
in Sandakan Park. Erected by an ex -POW of the Japanese Ted McLaughlin, a
farmer in Boyup Brook to the memory of three of his friends who died in
Sandakan and 130 of his comrades from Western Australia who perished in Borneo.
He did not make the boat journey from Changi, Singapore to Sandakan due to
illness. Instead he was sent to Burma.
It was the first place in Australia to create a memorial. There, we read
about 2 400 Australian and British prisoners of war that had died at the hands
of the Japanese in 1945 in North Borneo; only six, all Australian escapees,
survived. It made such an impression on us that a visit to Sandakan was quickly
added to our bucket list and today, ten and a half years later, we’d finally
made it!
Scenes
from within the POW camp at Sandakan
The Park commemorates the tragedy, between
January and August 1945 within sight of Allied victory in the Pacific War, that
befell 2 428 prisoners of war that had been forced under the most atrocious
conditions to build a military airport – on the site of the airport from which
we were to shortly depart! The Visitors Centre portrayed the atrocities of
death inflicted upon them – starvation, overwork, beatings and punishments; the
three forced marches - “death marches” under brutal physical conditions of over
1000 POWs to Ranau, which lay 260 km away in the mountains. Apparently, Yahya’s
grandmother had a vivid memory of it all as her husband had been beheaded by
the Japs after he was accused of acting as an informer. As a result, she has an
intense hatred of the Japanese, understandably so, as do many of the local
people who recall having to hide their womenfolk in the jungle or in rolled up
carpets to avoid them to being raped by Japanese soldiers.
We considered ourselves lucky to have had
Yahya as guide. He took us to the airport, checked in our luggage for us and the
company S. I. Tours even stood us to lunch.
Our trip was all over, we were on our way home,
Mission Accomplished. We had not only found
Pongo pygmaeus, the jungle dweller … but many other strange and wonderful
creatures in the jungles of Borneo. We felt greatly refreshed by the whole
experience that had been chosen as a forward thinking and distracting adventure
for our journey home. Saddened at the same time by the fact that we would never
be able to share our stories with Justy. She so enjoyed monkey stories and the
one at the Drunk Monkey would have appealed to her too!
We still had a night in Kuala Lumpur to look
forward and three days in Penang before landing in Perth at the unearthly hour
of 2.00 am in the morning where poor Sacky would wait to meet and take care of us.
Notes:
1. It
goes without saying that we made a bad mistake going to Borneo without a decent
camera nor a decent pair of binoculars! Consequently, several of the pictures
used above are photographs taken of other people’s photos. Not knowing the origins
of them we have been unable to acknowledge the source.
2. For
the expense outlaid on medication and the dire warnings of malaria, there was actually
no reason to have worried about it. We never saw a single mosquito and even
came across one family from Birmingham (UK) that, acting on the advice of their
doctor, had been told to take no precautions at all.
3. Before
our departure the threat of leeches and need for “leech socks” was also
overstated – Other than the tree planting on the bank - all the walking we did
was on boardwalks and only one leech was seen by Lea when the man in front of
her, put his hand on the railing, straight onto a leech as we walked along the
boardwalk!
4. Should
any of our readers wish to visit Sandakan in N E Borneo we would advise them to
go directly to S. I. Tours (http://sitoursborneo.com/web/)
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