A wildlife extravaganza on the Kinabatangan River

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Day 285: Friday 10th April - Arriving on the Kinabatangan River

It is good to be able to have a lazy morning ahead of my trip to the Kinabatangan River. I am not getting picked up until noon so I can laze around in my bed watching a daft, slushy rom-com on TV and get a late breakfast. It takes 3 hours to reach the Kinabatangan River, at 560km long, the longest river in Sabah. It is also estimated to have the largest collection of wildlife in all of Malaysia. 8 species of hornbills have been spotted here along with numerous other birds such as the kingfisher and the snakebird. The Kinabatangan is also one of only two places on earth where 10 primate species can be found. These include, the Orang-Utan, the Bornean Gibbon, the Proboscis Monkey, Macaques and Langurs. This is without forgetting the Pygmy Elephants, crocodiles, clouded leopards, otters and snakes which the region is also renowned for.

I arrive at the jungle lodge (Nature Lodge Kinabatangan) at 3pm with Daniel and Nicole, a German couple; Martha & Jo, two girls from London and a Japanese couple. The other new arrivals today are a family from Sweden. We have about an hour to settle in before the first of the four river cruises we enjoy during our stay. It is really relaxing cruising down the Kinabatangan River in the boat looking out for the wildlife. During our first cruise we spot Long-Tailed Macaques, Proboscis Monkey’s high in the canopy and a Mangrove Snake. The highlight though has to be spotting a crocodile slither from the cover of the riverbank and into the river before any of us can reach for our cameras. I may not capture it on film but it will remain in my memory. The sunset on the river is equally as spectacular, and as we float past the village of Kota Kinabatangan, voices can be heard amidst the birds singing and animal calls. The picture is completed with lightning in the distance.

Back at the lodge we have a couple of hours before our night walk into the jungle starts. I sit with Nicole and Daniel, who are great fun and have a wicked sense of humour (yes great fun even though they are German!!!), and the Swedish family for dinner. After dinner we start getting ready for the night walk. I enquire why the group that are already here aren’t going out tonight and they tell us that the track was covered in thick mud and lots of leeches last night and they aren’t enthusiastic about doing it all over again. They advise putting wellies on and to cover up to guard against leeches.

The hour walk through the jungle is largely a waste of time. I now understand the others lack of enthusiasm!! We see a cicada, a frog, a lizard and a scorpion, but these are more than matched by the amount of leeches we come across as a group. I have to pull one away from my skin, it has managed to get under my clothes and is about to tuck into the flesh around my ribs. Also, just a day after climbing Mount Kinabalu I’m still aching and it is tough going clomping through the mud in the jungle. I’m glad when we return to the camp, and can get out of our sweaty clothes and climb into bed.

Day 286: Saturday 11th April - A pointless jungle trek through thick mud

I wake up at 5:30am to go on the morning river cruise. Mist shrouds the river and it is a surreal atmosphere as we head upstream this morning. We see Long-Tailed Macaques which seem to be everywhere, and Proboscis monkeys high in the tree-tops again. This time we see a hornbill for the first time but otherwise it is more of the same as yesterday.

After breakfast we trek for an hour and a half through the jungle to an oxbow lake. We arrive at a crescent-shaped lake lying beside the river which is supposed to contain many species of birds. We see the snake bird on the lake but otherwise the trek through mud up to a foot thick is a complete waste of time. After a hard walk up Kinabalu two days ago, and feeling closer to 81 than 31 a hard walk through thick mud is not what the doctor ordered!!

We have a few hours to chill out after lunch, and with the camp waiting for the new arrivals it is nice and peaceful beside the river. I borrow a Borneo guidebook off one of the girls and start to read about a lot of great places to visit in Borneo that I hadn’t even heard of before. Talking to one of the builders last night, who is on camp renovating some of the huts you stay in, first aroused the feeling that maybe I was skipping some very worthwhile places that aren’t really covered in my more general Southeast Asia guidebook. An hour reading the guidebook confirms this and now I am thinking of maybe visiting the islands off Kota Kinabalu when I return there to pick by big rucksack up, trekking from longhouse to longhouse in the Kelabit Highlands and trekking to the Pinnacles when I go to Mulu national park. Decisions, decisions, but I have an open agenda and I have the time so why not?

During our afternoon river cruise we spot 3 Orang-Utans high in the jungle canopy. We land the boat to get a closer look and spend a large portion of our cruise watching them. The rest of the group are ecstatic about seeing the Orang-Utans but I’ve seen them at much closer quarters so for me it is nothing special. Still, I am not about to take away from the wonderful experience for the rest. Our river cruise this afternoon is cut short by the thunderstorm that preceded it and the rains that threaten to come quickly as we are out on the river. In the evening, all of us skip the night walk with the exception of the Japanese guy. We forewarn the new arrivals what to expect and instead of braving the mud and the leeches enjoy a relaxing chat in the restaurant area over a beer before an early night. A Swedish beach volleyball player is amongst the new arrivals.....suddenly I wish I was staying longer on the Kinabatangan!!!

Day 287: Sunday 12th April - An Easter Egg in the jungle

Before we leave we have one last cruise along the River Kinabatangan. It is a clear morning and only a few gentle, early morning mists cling to the tree line. We see a Silver Langur in the distant trees, a few hornbills, some long-tailed macaques grooming beside the river and a troop of Proboscis monkeys. This is our best sighting of these huge-bellied, long-nosed primates with an orange tinge. One of the members of the tour group that arrived yesterday passes around some mini eggs to mark Easter after breakfast. It feels strange to be celebrating Easter in the middle of a jungle! After breakfast, all that is left to do is to say a goodbye to our relaxing surroundings and friendly hosts beside the Kinabatangan River. The three days have been good rather than great, a reflection on the distance you are often from the wildlife and also what I have seen. Spotting Clouded Leopards, Pygmy Elephants and Gibbons would have made it great but these animals are a lot rarer and harder to spot, or are out of season. One of the beauties of seeing animals in the wild though is that there are no guarantees of what you will see.

From the camp, it is an hour to Medan Setera Coffee shop where I have to wait with the Japanese couple for a further hour for a bus to Kota Kinabalu. The others have gone their separate ways, to other locations in Borneo. It has been a good, friendly and fun group, Nicole and Daniel in particular have been fun and interesting to share company with for the past few days. The journey to Kota Kinabalu takes 5 hours. This time I’m at the very back of the bus so I can’t enjoy the view and instead find myself sleeping to pass time. The aisle is packed with an overflow of kids and the conductor comes to take some of my legroom by sitting on the step at the back of the bus where I am sitting. I share a taxi to the centre of Kota Kinabalu with the Japanese couple, which they very kindly refuse to take any money for. I’ve arrived back in the city much earlier than I anticipated but still weary after a long day on the road.

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