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Published: September 8th 2011
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The hair at the back of my head stood up, in the trees above me was this large orange haired gentleman of the forest, swinging carelessly from tree to tree, rustling the branches wildly as he made his way in an airborne manner down the hill. The adrenalin coursed through me for here in total visual was what I had hoped to see - a wild orangutan in his natural habitat. My son managed a photo - not sure how he did that, because I was just transfixed, even though a camera was clutched firmly in my hand.
We were on Kubang Hill in Gunung Palung National Park, in Indonesia's Kalimantan Barat province. This location is one of the very few places where its possible to see orangutan in the wild. There is another location in Gunung Palung as well and a tour taking you to both of them doubles your chances of finding wild orangutan. Sighting these magnificent animals in their own habitat is so much more a delight to seeing them in a captive reserve at feeding time. They are elusive but when you enter their habitat; you can smell them, see their nests and know for sure
they are about.
Currently I am offering small group tours for 4 or 6 days to Gunung Palung. We fly from Kuching in Sarawak to Ketapang via Pontianak. At Ketapang, we transfer to an SUV for a short drive along coast to Sukadana. This small coastal village becomes our base for trips into the park.
The first location to look for orangutan is Lubok Baji. This entails an energetic climb for 3 hours up a jungle mountain. The scenery though is superb as we follow a cascading creek bubbling along over waterfalls, through pristine forest to shelter huts on the mountain top. The trail is not that steep but infrastructure is still lacking a bit in terms of cut out steps and rope supports. Still, anyone with a reasonable level of fitness will not have any trouble. We camp in the shelter huts overnight, our porters carrying all the necessary food and refreshments with us. From our mountain idyll, we do a late afternoon walk looking for orangutan and an early morning saunter as well. They are there, its their territory. On return around midday the next day, we go back to the waterfront hotel in Sukadana to
recover and enjoy a sunset barbecue on a beautiful beach nearby.
The next location we visit is Kubang Hill. This entails a 1 hr drive to Teluk Melano where we transfer to speedboats for a 45 minute run up the Matan River to Batu Barat. Here we hop into canoes and paddle up a small jungle creek to a Ranger outpost.
The creek is a delight in itself with vegetation and sunken roots all mixed together in a maze of colours and shapes. From the small Ranger hut, we walk 800 metres through the mangroves to foot of Kubang Hill. This hill is the only firm and high ground in the immediate vicinity and attracts not only orangutan, but deer and wild boar as well. Its only a small hill and easy to wander up, looking up into the trees for our elusive quarry. We lunch on Kubang Hill before returning by canoe to the Matan River. Before we travel back in speedboats to the car though, we are treated to the amazing monkey parade on the riverbank at sunset. The gibbons of the forest all come down to the river and play in the trees at sundown -
they put on a wild free show as they jump around from one tree to the next in their multitude. The speedboat trip back to Teluk Melano has its own interest as well. With the sunset on the horizon the crocodiles that inhabit the river, start showing their eyes in the water.
The penultimate day is to travel through the vast Kapuas River delta - this is the largest river in Borneo - a virtual mini-Amazon.
The delta area stretches from Sukadana to Pontianak as we course through the mangroves and Kubu sea Lake in a regular passenger express boat, witnessing the charm of the timber stilted delta villages and the array of river craft that ply these waterways. Its a 4 and half hour run to Pontianak with lunch at Kubu. Free time that afternoon to recover before early morning flight next day back to Kuching
If this tour is of interest, please email or phone and I will be happy to advise of costs and dates
gwellsmore@gmail.com or +6013 576 6397
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