Crocker Departure And On to KK

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Unfortunately it was raining at sunrise which is odd because I hardly ever rains at this time. But since I was up anyway, I went out to bird along the trails before breakfast. A Rufous-fronted Babbler was a nice bird to see which I had only seen once before and the common birds here are really cool. Interestingly, Black-and-yellow Broadbill is really common and easy to see while I spent ages and saw one at Sepilok and heard loads (the call is really cool and distinctive) at Danum but also never saw any. I think that's primarily because the canopy is much lower here than at Sepilok or Danum and it's easy to see the canopy birds. A particularly good bird from the morning was a Verditer Flycatcher which is a hill species that I thought I saw yesterday but wasn't sure about. I also saw what I'm sure was a Striped Treeshrew although this is right at the top of the altitudinal range, at least according to the Payne field guide.



There was no sign of the Malay Weasel back at the same spot but apparently they live at very low density so there is likely to just be the one roaming around the large area. What I did see in the predator from though was a huge Serpent Eagle sitting just below the canopy along the trail, though I only saw it as it flew off. It think it must have been a Kinabalu Serpent Eagle because the field guide says that's what occurs above 900m and the field guide says it's common in the Crocker Range, but it didn't call so I can't be sure it wasn't the lowland species.



I decided that I would stay until lunchtime and then head back to KK. I would have stayed longer if I knew what time buses would show up but as I'm flagging them down from the road I wanted to make sure I could get back to KK before dark. Also being right at the start of the route, I thought it was likely that many of the buses would be full already too.



I mentioned in my first post that the restaurant here is a particularly good spot for Bornean Falconet and the other interesting species that it is particularly good for are Hanging Parrots which can be seen zooming above the forest with their characteristic red rumps and little green bodies.



I birded until lunchtime just after 1PM, but there wasn't much about. Although it is at some altitude so is cooler than the lowlands, it still gets hot in the day and bird activity decreases considerably. I did get a flyover of a changeable hawk eagle though and heard what seemed like primates crashing though I haven't seen any primates around. I think it may have been a Giant Squirrel which I did see one of yesterday.



After lunch, I then asked to be driven down to the road back to where they picked me up at the Sabah Parks place. I could walk it, but it would be tiring with all my stuff several Kms up and down. It looks like there was at one point a gate directly down to the road but this is locked so the only route is the long way around. However the guy there didn't want to dump me by the side of the road and wanted to drive me the 15km to the bus stop at Keningau. This was great so I could actually get the bus at a bus stop rather than flagging it down. It also seemed that today there weren't minibuses but instead there were big buses and I got a ticket for a big coach type bus leaving in less than half an hour. So although I therefore went away and back to KK, this was much nicer and more convenient. Also, every seat on the coach was full anyway and I think this may be the case most of the time (I got the third to last seat - they're numbered) so I would probably have had considerable difficulty getting a bus to stop at the roadside. The staff were generally very friendly and accommodating, the room was good value, and they gave me as much free bottled water as I asked for! I definitely recommend the Manis Manis Rooftop of Borneo Resort.



Big coaches are much more comfortable than minibuses too, although slower, and I got back to KK at about 5 after a two and a half hour journey. The big coach rather struggled with the steep uphills and downhills involved with crossing the Crocker Range too (Keningau is in the other side of the range from KK). Naturally, the coach had to stop for a usual lunch/toilet stop on the way. Though in not entirely sure why given there's a toilet on the coach and what meal is it at 3:30? All of the buses in Sabah seem to do this though, but none that I was on in West Malaysia ever did.



I'm staying here at KK for three nights, as I've mentioned before, and I'm staying at the Borneo Backpackers. I decided to spend a little bit more to have a private room rather than a dorm (RM60 per night) because dorms in cities seem to involve people keep dramatically different times to me which both disturbs me and makes me feel guilty about disturbing them and I will be able to have (relatively) late starts as well as early nights in KK and although I've had an absolutely amazing time in Malaysia, it's been tiring. I'm exhausted. So I'm looking forward to resting a bit to recover before starting the Australian leg of the trip. I've even got an armchair in my room so I can sit an chill in my room without having to sit on my bed! This is the high life!



I've nonetheless got some cool things planned for KK as I discussed in my last post, and once I'd dropped my bag off I went over to the jetty (Jesselton Point) to see what time the first boat to Manukan Island was for tomorrow morning and to check out the situation. By the time I got there, all the boat counters were closed so there was no one to ask, but the timetable says the first boats are 8:30AM. There are food stalls here too so I had dinner to have a ridiculously early night.



The seafront here is interesting because of all the forested islands right off the coast. There are no seabirds though. None. No gulls or terns or egrets or anything like that at all. There are, however White-bellied Sea-eagles that soar overhead which are cool. I can't help but think that they pose a hazard to landing aircraft because the approach to Kota Kinabalu airport goes right over the coast in the same airspace as the eagles and they could definitely trash a jet engine.



All New species from Crocker:

Birds:

Bornean Ibon

Sociable Bulbul (not counted yet but probably a future split and armchair tick)

Bornean Barbet

Cinnamon-rumped Trogon

Ruddy Cuckoo-dove

Bornean Bulbul

Grey-headed Babbler

Eyebrowed Wren-babbler

Yellow-crowned Barbet

Lesser Cuckooshrike



Mammals:

Rajah Spiny Rat (Maxomys)

Long-footed Treeshrew (longipes)

Four-striped Ground-squirrel

Malay Weasel

Striped Treeshrew

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