The Mahakam River is long, obviously not nearly as long as the great rivers of the world, but long enough to do some cruising. It reaches right up into the heart of Kalimantan, and though it sounds like a ‘Heart of Darkness’ experience, it isn’t. Being rather big means all kind of river traffic can make its way up, and that in turn makes it easy to exploit the natural resources along it. And exploited they have been and are still being. Coal is the main resource, followed by timber, and, so it seems, gold. With rapids only really restricting access to the last third, the rest has been up for grabs. As you take a passenger ferry up or down it you will pass a lot of coal barges, and a lot ports serving the
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