Going Ape

Morning Everybody.

Before we start just a quick description of our new year celebrations. We went to our hotel bar (i still couldn't walk much further!) at about 9.30pm where a four piece band were playing various Whitney, Mariah and Lady GaGa numbers. Then a troop of Ladyboys came on and had a boogie and mimed a couple more numbers, as they got more and more into it they were demanding more and more audience participation and Tonys arm appeared around my shoulder and his grip got tighter and tighter!

We arrived in Sandakan with the promise that it is the gateway to Borneos most abundant wildlife and we have not been let down. On Sunday we left Sandakan for a two day trip to the Kinabatangan River, on the way we visited Gomantong Cave which was home to a few million bats and swifts, and absolutely stank. There were massive mounds of bat and bird poo everywhere, even on the walkways which was unfortunate for the girl that fell over - cue tears of humiliation! We took a boat trip down the Kinabatangan River during the afternoon and into the evening to try and spot the wildlife that usually head to the water before turning in for the night. We saw big snakes and monitor lizards both of which are next to impossible to spot to the untrained eye. Hornbills and eagles were flying overhead while the long tailed and pig tailed macaques and proboscis monkeys fooled around in the trees on the riverbank. All of this was pretty amazing to see in the wild at such close proximity but did not compare to what happened next. Just as the light was starting to fade and we were heading back downriver to our lodge a few of us spotted the familiar silhouette of an ape moving from tree to tree but this fella was moving slowly and not jumping like the others do. It took just a nano second before someone called out Orang-Utan Cue oohs and aahs a'la bonfire night, especially when we saw a couple more and one of them had a baby! We sat and watched them for a good 20 minutes or so until they moved on and it really was absolutely amazing to see such rarely seen animals in the wild.

Our planned night time trek was cancelled which was a real shame. Apparently the elephants had decided to use our path turning it into a right old quagmire.

The next morning we took another boat trip but headed in the opposite direction down the Kinabatangan river in search of more wildlife, specifically the Asian pigmy elephants that had been seen in the area a couple of days previously. Sadly we were not that lucky and they had obviously moved on but we did see a pile of elephant poo! We were treated to more tree top gymnastic displays by the Proboscis monkeys though. They have become our favourites for their devil may care attitude of travel. There's no stopping them when moving through the tree tops and coming to the end of a branch. Without pausing they just launch themselves into the air, all four limbs spread eagled in the sure fire knowledge that at least one of their hands or feet will find a grip. This did sometimes result in a lot of branch bending on landing, but the monkeys never lost their grip and always came springing back up on the rebound. A short trek around an oxbow lake and then back down the river in the company of more hornbills, eagles and monkeys, but no Orang-Utans, completed the trip back to the lodge.

After lunch we departed the lodge for Sepilok Orang-Utan Rehabilitation Centre (SOURC) where we checked in to their jungle resort. The SOURC covers more than 40 square km and has numerous hiking trails for strolling through the rain forest. This centre is similar to the one we saw in Sarawak where they rehabilitate injured and orphaned baby orang-utans and then release them into the semi-wild but continue to provide food in case any of them need it. We arrived too late for that afternoons feeding time but were up bright and early the following day. As we strolled along one of the trails to a feeding platform we noticed one Orang-Utan sitting in a tree above us. As we stood there watching, she slid down a rope above our head and we noticed a little orange baby clinging to her for all it was worth. These two were then joined by a third Orang-Utan on the feeding platform. It was quite amusing watching the scores of macaques inching towards them but not being quite brave enough to join them on the feeding platform, probably because if they got too close the orang-utan swung his fists! After 20-30 minutes one of the Orang-Utans got up and moved to a nearby tree. This was the signal for the twenty or thirty macaques to move in and start grabbing what they could, and it was just as entertaining watching them as it was the Orang-Utans. The mother and baby stayed in sight in the distance for ages while she fed herself and her baby then in the blink of an eye they were gone. After the last couple of days we have now seen for ourselves that they really are the kings of the swingers.

Today we have been to the other tourist spots of the Sandakan area including the memorial park of the WWII prisoner of war camp and finding an English tea room complete with croquet lawn where we had cucumber sandwiches, scones and English breakfast tea.

Tomorrow we are heading to Kapalai dive resort near Sipidan Island which is said to be one of the top ten places to dive in the world. We have six days there with unlimited dives and we cannot wait to get back in the water.

More on that another time.

Love to all, Mr & Mrs McK xxx