Phase 1 Loop

The first stop for the loop team (Laura, Wendy & Simon) was Imbak to see Alpha 5. After what seemed like a phenomenally long drive and a very interesting stop for lunch in the stunning town of Telupid, and the crossing of an extremely small Imbak River we arrived at Ranger Camp. After a brief chat with the head ranger - who assured us “dry season, no rain for weeks, river is good” we hiked in. Alpha 5 seemed fine, although there were a few signs of encroaching jungle madness. Plan was to all hike out at first light, however one ten hour downpour later and the trickle that was the river had metamorphosed into a raging torrent. We were well and truly trapped.

After a rough night’s sleep on their kitchen table (the rain stopped about four - it wasn't a quiet night!) we then basically chilled out at camp waiting for the river to drop and make bracelets. While we were there one of the rangers found a scorpion the size of his hand in his boot which amused everyone for a while and was a good lesson in why you should always check your boots before putting them on.


The river was dropping as the day went on and we reckoned we'd try to cross at four - unfortunately the rain started again at two and the rangers there were basically, "if you don't go now you're not getting out again" so we had a mad rush to pack our kit and get back across the river. The main Imbak River was still far too high to take the Landrover through so we had to overnight at the ranger camp and reassess in the morning.

Come morning (and more rain) the river was still uncrossable, so 24 hours behind schedule we had to change routes and take the back roads out to a place called Tawau. No-one from Raleigh had done this road since 2004, it wasn't supposed to be the best and chances of getting lost in the middle of miles of jungle and palm plantation were looking pretty high so thankfully the rangers (helpful guys) said they'd guide us out to a point we could then use our GPS to navigate out from.

Driving out of Imbak at seven in the morning was simply an amazing experience. The driving was intense but fun, the rain meant some of the road was a mudbath, and the scenery was spectacular. We were driving through some of the world's oldest rainforest and had wild boar & monkeys running out in front of us.

After dropping a parcel for one of our groups at a Forestry Commission jetty in Tawau we then headed on trying to get to a town called Lahad Datu to pick up a pass to get into Danum Valley to see Alpha 6. Unfortunately more intense rain and getting lost and managing to drive in a circle for an hour around Tawau meant we had to reassess again and made an executive decision to stay at a nice hotel in Lahad Datu - after almost eleven straight hours in the Landrover we didn't fancy another two hours dirt track in the dark.


We left a six the next morning and again had an amazing drive going into the Danum Valley conservation area. We came around one corner and came across a small herd of elephants crossing the track about 50m ahead of us. We slid to stop - it was a pretty amazing experience - the bull elephant actually stopped on the side of the track and stared us down, even in a two-ton Landrover you don't really want to be charged by a fully grown elephant. Thankfully he lost interest after a couple of minutes and disappeared off into the jungle, we still went past pretty dam quick as weren't really sure if they'd gone or not.


After a few hours there we drove to Batu Puteh to catch up with the guys from Alpha 4. The guys have created an awesome camp right on the side of the river and in the morning they all get on a boat for a ten minute commute up to the worksite. We did the tour at six the next morning and the river banks were teaming with wildlife - we saw Macaque and Proboscis monkeys, Boars and all kinds of birdlife.

Later in the day we drove out to Sosondoton to see Alpha 3 and to taste some of their baking that we had been hearing so much about during radio comms. As we left the team presented us with some lovely home made bread to bring back to fieldbase.

From there we drove back to fieldbase. It was an amazing experience, a proper adventure involving some full-on driving, incredible scenery and weird and wonderful local people we met along the way. The route plan changed about three times due to the conditions but that's kind of cool things about this expedition stuff - the plan seems to change on a daily basis!

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