Borneo: Kinabantang River (March 1 -3)

       A quick flight from Mulu and we were in Kota Kinabulu (KK), this is the capital of Sabah.  Borneo is comprised of two states: Sarawalk and Sabah.  It is pretty interesting that when you travel from one state to another, you have to go through immigration.  We were told that it is quite strict because they are interested in protecting their borders, the undertone being the Philippine citizens will try to enter and each state wants to deal with this on their own.  We have also seen a lot of t-shirts, hats, bumper stickers that are quite 'nationalistic' or rather state-proud.  Interesting...

       We only spent one night in KK and then headed for Uncle Tan's Adventure Camp.  This is a package where you spent some time on the Kinabantang RIver.  The first night was spent in Sepilok, a small town almost 6 hours from KK.  This gave us a chance to visit the Rain Forest Discovery Centre.  It is a large park with easy trails, bird watch towers and an raised walkway (they call it a canopy walk, but it is not like other canopy walks, it is very stable and sound in structure).  While in the park, we met a group of guides that were being mentored by two more senior guides.  What a great happening.  We met them by hushing them to stop and watch three little birds taking a bath in a tree.  They call this a 'watering hole'- it was an opening in a tree that fills with water.  The birds then stop by to bath.  It was pretty amazing, we saw three different species here.  The group stopped and joined us.  Then, then asked us to join them.  They were going to watch a flying squirrel leave its nest.  The squirrel leaves at dusk, just after the Emerald Cicadas start their song.  We decided to join them.  The two more senior guides, Roger and David, were very knowledgable and taught us a lot about the birds of Borneo.  Pretty informative - they are guides after all, it all makes sense. 

      We waited for quite some time and did eventually see the squirrel glide from its nest. It was so majestic to see this reddish-brown webbed mammal leave it's nest and glide through the setting sun-lit sky. This was worth the wait, the one minute or so that we saw it left everyone speechless; first there was a good 'awh' followed by silence.  Pretty neat. We also saw a Willis Hawk (I think that is the name) eating a prey item, call for her young, watch her young try to land and then we watched them as they ate.  What a great show.  We then had to walk home in the dark (about 20 minutes), but this is when I (think, well I am pretty sure) saw a civet.  It was a bulky cat and seeing it was a very quick sighting.  I am sure it was a civet - that's my story and I'm sticking to it (they are in this area). 

     The next day we took a 1.5 hour drive followed by a 1 hour boat ride to our camp.  The grounds are very rustic, no running water, electricity only from 6:30 to mid-night.  The sleeping huts are open air stilted huts built up above marshy/swampy land that is absolutely teeming with nocturnal animals.  At night you could hear creatures running along the 'boardwalk' pathway - I could only imagine that they were monkeys, but they are not nocturnal and we were told that there were lots of river rats around ... Yikes, I don't know what it was! 

     During the three days, two nights that we were at the camp we saw such great wildlife.  We saw groups of proboscis monkeys, two species of Macaque monkeys, monitor lizards, crocodiles, and many species of birds including lots of Hornbills; we had been hoping to spot these elusive birds since we had arrived in Borneo but they fly very high so spotting them while in a jungle is next to impossible.  The greatest thrill was spotting wild Orangutan.  We saw them two or three times.  The last sighting was on our boat ride back to town.  I had learned how to spot them and had seen a red body high in a tree and caught him moving from branch to branch.  STOP! The boat came to a halt and we sat there watching him.  He was a big male feeding high in a tree on some red and orange fruit.  We were there long enough to get some great photos (I posted one on fb but have several).  It was so nice to see these primates in the wild.  After visiting them at rehabilitation centres, you really start to feel for them.  Their habitat is disappearing at alarming rates due to palm tree plantations creeping into their forests.  In this area along the river some of the land is protected, but they really need help.  When you travel through Malayasia by bus, you have the opportunity to see a lot of land. It seems that most of it is covered with palm trees.  Initially that seems kind of nice to someone who comes from boreal forest zone, but of course we know that this is really awful.  Sometimes you could see the plantations as far as your eyes could focus.  Imagine that that used to be forest for the animals and now it is mostly gone.  So when you have that knowledge and vision in your brain, then you spot some wild Orangutans, you can help but have a broken heart at the same time as feel a sense of joy that some have survived to date.  I am glad that I was able to see them, but am fully aware of the trouble they face. Happy and saddened by it all. 

     We are now back in KK.  Tomorrow (March 7) we fly to Philippines.  This will be a different experience again.  I am sad to leave the jungle trekking behind, but hoping that using AfterBite as body lotion is a thing of the past.  I am now looking forward to the surprises that await us under the sea.  Jon plans to dive and I will snorkel.  Hopefully we will see some Whale Sharks ... Our 'Orangutan' of the sea!