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Published: December 9th 2008
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The Feeding Centre Luckily for me the river was a tad lower the following day so I was able to visit the feeding platform where the Orangs are fed twice a day. Getting there firstly involved navigating this cheeky river crossing followed by a 15 min walk to the feeding platform. However it took a while longer for us as Mina was on the rampage again and we had to leg it back down the path. I video'd this bit but when I watched it back it was a bit like 'The Cook Report' with lots of shots of the ground and people running....whilst we were running from an angry primate it wasn't one who had just been rumbled for selling dodgey gear or not doing a good job of tarmacking people's drives, it was just that Mina wanted a banana. Calm was restored when Eric (not the one from Bananaman) went to meet her, feed her and form a human barrier between us and her so we could pass.
Once again we were treated to a number of orangs swinging in for their food as well as some Thomas Leaf monkeys too. The feeding platform is
Feeding time
And Sassa being lazy moved around every 6 months to encourage the orangs to not be too reliant on it plus the the trees can get depleted in the area if this isn't done. The idea is for the orangs to be self sufficient so on the occasions when not many turn up to the feeding platform it's actually a good thing... says he who has seen loads and had photos taken with them...
Volunteering Whilst volunteering opportunities with the orangs stopped in 2001 I kind of got lucky and after the first ranger said 'no' the second guy (Sindra) called his friend (Romi) who I arranged that evening to meet and discuss. That evening however a monster storm came along and knocked out the electricity (which is only on from 6pm to midnight anyway) and so I watched this with Axelle (Fra) whilst having a conversation in very bad French (me, not her) and telling poor quality gags (again, me not her). Fruits de la mer, indeed.
I met Romi the next day and as he was working to get the volunteering program back on it's feet he agreed to take me on for the following week, subject
Sassa & boat
She wanted a more important role at the river boat crossing to a medical (just kidding) and the relevant documents before my flight to Singapore. Following getting a permit it was sorted.
I was now staying in Sam's bungalow (like the Jungle Inn, excellent food and rooms) which had another fantastic view of the river and also had monkeys running over my roof which was novel. This was around about the time LFC went to 'The Bridge' and stopped Chelsea's unbeaten home league run with a stunning Alonso goal (I say 'stunning' altho I've still not actually seen it yet). Whilst sharing this info with Sam he told me he was an LFC fan so in the euphoria I gave him my LFC shorts. So if you go there and he's wearing some MU or CFC shorts then you know I've been fleeced...!
My tasks involved helping with cleaning the cages, cleaning the viewing building, weeding, teaching the rangers English, helping with the tourists and feeding Sassa (the resident orang) as well as Radariah (who was kind of a resident altho was free to roam the forest overnight unlike Sassa).
Sassa was rescued from a family in the city who kept her as a pet and she was
Radaria
...not convinced... often made to wear dresses and lipstick etc so it would appear that the owner's issues were sadly passed on. Not good for Sassa as not only did this mean that she isn't a good climber but also that she was picked on by the other orangs in the wild as a result - hence her being looked after by the park. Radariah on the other hand is capable of climbing and looking after himself (the big show off) but this didn't stop him coming to Sassa's cage at feeding time, to generally hang out, share Sassa's food/medicine and go for romantic jungle walks with her along the river when she was let out.
In addition to these tasks Claire (Eng) and I came up with the idea to enrich Sassa as she had recently bitten 2 of the rangers (Sassa, not Claire). This came by the way of giving her things to do when feeding her and as well as extra toys in her cage: a tyre, a hammock, a football etc etc. As I was the one who tied the tyre inside the cage it was fitting that it was me that tried it out... It was
The new tyre...
...and the missing link.. at this time that a guide was walking past and pointed at me in the cage and added 'we have the missing link!'...I laughed but I'm not sure the tourists got the gag....
For the duration of my time in the park I was looked after by Sindra, so he probably got the most of my English lessons (not sure this was a good thing tho) whilst I got rides around on his motorbike to see his family and his goats. The other guides were also good company and were happy to share knowledge and experiences from their time whilst working with the orangs.
I also offered my artistic skills and ended up drawing a number of cartoons to be used for the National Park's signs, leaflets and education material to help teach tourists on how to behave in the park around the orangs. They would be used by the guides in the park and also at the office in Medan. If you go and think they are rubbish I will obviously blame the pens, lack of time and er bad light etc..
Tourists & Locals During my last week there, there were a
Smile Sassa..
hmmm, ok you win... number of school parties that visited the park and in true Sumatran style they would come up, introduce themselves and generally start chatting away. This was then quite often followed by a request for a group photo with 'the ginger man'. Sometimes I would look round and see them taking photos of me and giggling....so if you come across a photo of my head on an orangutan's body it will probably be them....or Rideout..
My time here will be remembered for the friendliness of the locals. Pretty much without exception everyone smiles and says hello.. The locals are also very musical too and most guest huoses have live music in the evenings. At the end of the river by the Jungle Inn and Sam's Bungalow we were treated to various songs from the excellent resident musicians Djoe and Rimto....altho they didn't know anything by The Stone Roses...
Tubing Following the tubing tragedy of the previous week we still decided to go and luckily avoided the dam. It was a great afternoon and whilst it didn't boast the 12 bars, zip lines, swings and mud volleyball of Vang vieng, it did had more rapids and a
Quiet moment
...to chill in the shade few villages to go past where families would be washing themselves and playing in the river. All waved as we floated past, some as if they hadn't seen a westerner before.
On my last evening I was treated to a top meal with masterchef Romi along with Claire, Clare, Sindra. It was then back to the Jungle Inn for some more music before before hitting the sack for the last time....before the morning journey back to Medan...
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Cathi
non-member comment
Aww dude, looks wicked. Still giggling at the Bananaman reference - its the simple ones that are the best! I hope you drew them a picture of a Snat?!?? Keep them coming. Speak soon :-) xx