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Published: March 16th 2010
Upon stepping down from our coach from Danu Toba-Medan we were pounced upon by a chirpy fellow who shepherded us from opelet to opelet, dazzling us with his English football knowledge as we went: "I think Walcott on left...yes...and Ben Foster very good...but attack is problem...what if Rooney injured?"
We normally prefer to find our own way but this chap was very insistent, passing us to meet his 'friend' Yetno, who just happened to be a trekking guide in Bukit Lawang. We were slightly frustrated at the situation and prospect of discussing a trek with some guy we had just met, but on the whole after 10 hrs travelling we were just pleased to be at our destination.
It was dark when we arrived and we were just attempting to squeeze our wide loads over the ricketiest "dancing bridge" when the electricity cut out making it pitch black save the convenient fireworks. Relieved to reach the other side we checked into a balconied, clean, if rather characterless room at Wisma Sibiyak.
After much chatting with Yetno we agreed to leave for a two day trek into the Gunung Leuser National Park first thing in the morning. The speed at
which this was decided concerned us slightly, we hadn't even got a comparison offer, and as a result we had a restless night.
At 7am packing our bags wondering if this was all ok, a knock at the door paused proceedings. It was Yetno palming us off on some other guide, he suddenly had an urgent meeting in Medan to attend. This was all very odd and obviously untrue, what kind of meeting would be called on a Sunday evening after 10pm? Well, all this business made our unsettled minds up, we didn't want to go with either of these two hustlers. So our deposit was eventually returned and we began the search for a more reputable guide.
After breakfast and a little exploring we found ourselves at the park rangers office buying entrance tickets for the Orangutan feeding centre. We were about to leave when a heated debate kicked off between a ranger and an English man, David.
This poor man had been involved in a terrible ordeal two days ago when a member of his trekking group was attacked by an Orang. This particular orang, Mina, is known to the rangers and knowledgeable guides, she is
a semi wild orang and can be very aggressive especially when she has young, as she does now.
In the next two hours we discussed: Removal of Mina or tourists from the jungle? One option disrupting the already fragile orangutan population, the other potentially increasing the unemployment and associated problems in the area. Neither one would be beneficial...or right.
The non cooperation between the guiding agency and the official park rangers, which allows for inexperienced guides to lead solo excursions without adequate information or knowledge to deal with situations that may arise. Enforced training is clearly needed...
No formal system for dealing with crisis like this, with no interest being taken in his complaint one can see why David was distressed.
Lewi and I could agree on three things, it must've been incredibly scary to be attacked...this whole operation needed a serious management overview... And we wanted a ranger to take us for our trek!
This was how we met Darma and arranged our trek starting tomorrow. Feeling more confident in our guide but having gained an enhanced respect for the environment and it's occupants we excitedly prepared for another early start.
The journey began at the
feeding centre. With only one permanent inhabitant still caged, Sasa, the centre is not at all zoo like, it's open to the jungle and the semi-wild orangs and other animals come and go as they please. When the centre opened in 1972 to rehabilitate rescued orangs from the pet trade it had 260 occupants, 229 have now been successfully reintroduced to the wild. The majority of the rest either died or had to be put to sleep as they were contaminated with human diseases which could have spread to all orangs and would have meant certain extinction.
Sasa has a sad story (like so many rescued animals) she was adopted into a family as if she was their child, they clothed her, put makeup and shoes on her. She became so conditioned in human ways that to release her to the wild would be impossible. She truly believes she is a human, and is scared of her own species. The interference of people did this to her. The rangers are still hopeful that with continued treatment she may, one day, be able to be released.
Our first sight upon entering the centre was of a mother and young baby
orang taking bananas while a handler tried to cleanse the small wound on the mothers back. To see these beautiful creatures so close was amazing, and quite emotional. Further into the centre a feeding platform is located, here twice a day the rangers give bland milk and bananas to any semi-wild orangs that may come. By giving this bland fare it is hoped, and widely proven, that the orangs will prefer to find their own sources of more exciting food in the forest and not venture back to the centre.
When we arrived at the platform 2 mother- baby pairs and a couple of adolescent males were already present in the surrounding foliage. We stared awestruck as the young male Rada casually lowered himself to the floor only a couple of metres away, held his arm outstretched and grasped the cup of milk the ranger offered in his long elegant fingers, slurping it down in one gulp getting a milky moustache in the process!
He swung back to the trees above and sat in a perfect split munching his fruit as Darma pointed out a new arrival... The infamous Mina!
She truly was an impressive beast, her orange
coat gleamed and her wrinkled face looked wise and hardened, her baby clung to her wide eyed it's hair sticking up ever so cutely. She swung down a nearby vine her strong arms steady, and leaned down nonchalantly from a tree to take her breakfast. She was extremely close to us, within 2 metres and I can't deny being slightly scared after all we had heard yesterday! But with Darma and the other rangers nearby satisfied that she was no threat today, we enjoyed her magnificent presence.
Darma explained that she is an excellent mother, having raised 3 young successfully to adulthood where many other females fail. It is a common problem for babies to be abducted by other orangs who have lost their young. This and a high infant mortality rate in the species make Mina's feat impressive and obviously very beneficial to the continuation of the species.
When all the food was gone we watched the orangutans drift gracefully away, Mina demonstrating her excellent parenting skills as she encouraged her baby to climb for itself aiding it on large gaps by making her body a bridge, and then we too left the feeding platform and began
the trek proper.
It was tough physical work climbing up and down the steep slippery hillsides but we had tree roots and vines to support ourselves on. The vines were so strong and they hung all around you, we knew we were in the rainforest now! The giant resin trees with their enormous stabiliser roots grew everywhere, along with mangos, limes and the occasional quinine tree. It was amazing to stare up into their canopies looking for signs of movement and spotting the nests that orangutans make, about 4 different ones everyday which they use only once.
Quinine is such an interesting plant it has so many medicinal purposes; anti mosquito, it reduces fever, acts as a natural Viagra, and even has supernatural powers...Apparently!
We saw termite armies snake their way across fallen branches and up trees. Millions of them working to decompose wood and enrich the soil, it was brilliant to see in practice the vital role that each creature and plant plays in maintaining an ecosystem. Hidden beneath the root complex of another tree we saw a honey bee nest and the evidence showing where a Malayan Sun Bear had attempted to dig it out.
All
of this was pointed out and excellently explained by Darma.
Our ears were straining all the time for the noises that Darma picked out, "Hear the woodpecker? And that whooping is a Rhinoceros Hornbill and the whooshing you hear is the beating of it's massive wings." We caught a glimpse of one of those giant birds, it's yellow horned head and black and white dappled wings so impressive against the verdant green of the forest.
It was extremely hot and humid in the dense jungle and we were soon dripping with exertion. As we rested by a gently flowing stream eating our packed lunch of Nasi Goreng I spotted a pair of beady eyes watching us from the water. It was a baby river turtle, and very cute too. Not so cute was the huge millipede that caused Lewi to jump in the air. Darma had just told us how lethal a bite from these many legged creatures can be, and all of a sudden one was happily crawling over Lewi's legs! Fortunately this was not the lethal kind, but we weren't to know that.
We continued our trekking into the afternoon loving the experience of being
in a tropical rainforest, with Darma enlightening us at every turn. In the depths of this jungle wild elephants, rhinos and tigers still roam although their numbers are dwindling. As we neared the camp, 6 hours of walking under our belts, we heard the calls of a group of Thomas Leaf Monkeys. The definition of difference between monkeys and apes is that monkeys have tails and apes do not.
The camp was simple but all we needed, some tarpaulin tents positioned by a lively river with walls of forest on either side...beautiful. Hernan and Atul, our camp creators and cooks, greeted our arrival with a cup of coffee and a fruit platter of pineapple, passion fruit, rambutan (like lychees), orange and banana, it was fantastic. We then took a much needed cool off in the river, refreshing our bodies of all the accumulated grime.
Darma told us he had been surprised at how quiet the jungle had been today, but by no means were we disappointed, we had seen and learnt such a lot. Besides we now understand that the majority of trekking guides lead their groups on circulating paths near to the feeding centre, increasing the chance
of seeing orang. Of course these will be semi-wild, but the guides will claim they are wild, this is all fair and well until the semi-wild orangs get fed up with it and instances like the Mina situation are increasingly likely to occur.
After an intense hours rain the sky cleared again and it became a beautiful evening. While Hernan cooked we discussed Darmas own ambitions in publications, his forest land that he preserves and the terrible devastation of this beautiful landscape by illegal logging and corrupt officials selling land to mafia dons to build casinos on. Unbelievable but true. Darma tries to show his friends and neighbours that profit can still be made from the environment without causing total destruction. He told us of an initiative soon to be introduced, we hope, where land owners will be paid a monthly sum to keep their land forested and also shown techniques for making sustainable income from it: such as the farming of the Rattan plant which can grow on the forest floor without impeding the growth of the forest itself and be harvested and sold for a good price. These are the types of initiatives that give you hope,
but whether its too little too late remains to be seen.
A tasty dinner was followed by an amazing firefly display. Their flashing tails encircled us, near and far, the females fast and the males more sedate. They really seemed like fairies flying through the night sky, so magical. As we watched this fantastical sight Darma told us another of his amazing tales, since working at the rehabilitation centre he has been asked to aid many film crews on their shoots in the jungle. He claims David Attenborough is a true gentleman and honest reporter whereas Steve Irwin was a cocky piece of work ignoring their requests to stay back at the required distance from the animals. An excellent sleep was had, once the lizards had been persuaded to leave the tent that is!
We woke very early the next morning the cooler night air already gone replaced by the sticky daytime heat. We were certainly fed well on this trip, a hearty scrambled egg sandwich saw us on our way up the near vertical muddy climb of approx 750m that began today's challenge. Halfway up Lewi suddenly became aware that he had unwanted company on his shoulder,
a leech which Darma nimbly picked off. Hmmm not so pleasant, but we stumbled and scrambled on. At the top (puffing and panting) we had to de-leech again but no harm done, they don't carry diseases.
From this point, one of the highest in the Gunung Leuser National Park we could hear for miles. Darma was able to pick out for us the calls of a group of Gibbons and then the Siamang. The White-handed Gibbon and Siamang live in small family groups unlike the solitary Orangutans or 40+ troops of Thomas leaf's. Like in a human family an adolescent pair during courtship will live in the area between the two family groups and when the first child is born they will claim their own territory and move away. Furthermore if any other member of either family strays into the wrong territory they may be beaten and killed, I hope this last point is different to us humans although in some communities maybe not! I find the social activity of different primates so interesting.
The beautiful siron-like sound of Gibbon calls was getting closer and so we began our stealth tracking. It is much harder than imagined to
walk at any speed on these tracks let alone silently. But we can't have done too badly as we had some great sightings of about 5 gibbons swinging high in the branches above. The noises they make are so wonderful, a haunting, rising and falling high pitched whoop. It was amazing to hear these wild creatures calling to each other, we craned our necks to catch sight of their ever so fast graceful dance through the treetops. We followed this group for about an hour until they finally got too far away, they cover such huge distances in one swing and have one of the largest territory sizes of all primates in the jungle.
Still buzzing from this beautiful experience we practically slid down the path back to the river, just managing to stop from falling by grabbing a tree root or branch yanking our joints with the effort of resisting gravity.
We made it down with a few bruises and scrapes but nothing serious, then as we relaxed in the cool river water Lewi slipped from a slimey rock twisting his torso as he fell into the water. We had nearly made it with no injuries but not
quite. I was quite worried in case Lewi had re-broken his old rib damage but after a little R&R we concluded it was probably muscular.
This pain made the return journey to Bukit Lawang by tube rafting slightly uncomfortable for poor Lewi, but he soldiered on. There were a few rapids which would have been great fun but in this state we couldn't enjoy them to the same degree.
Cruising along the river was a great way to travel though and to view the forest from a different perspective. As we floated along we saw monitor lizards sunning themselves on the bank and a family of Siamang including a tiny baby which we watched for ages. They have such powerful shoulders and their beautiful all black fur shimmered in the sun as they dangled from the overhanging trees. Interestingly male Siamang have tales but females don't, making their classification complex and more importantly demonstrating the progress of evolution in a species. I love all this stuff.
When it came to saying goodbye to Darma and the gang we happily paid our remaining money and swapped email addresses. I walked and Lewi limped back to our hotel but
before we could relax into our evening we had one last task to do. At lake Toba, during the epic bike ride, our camera had stopping working again, so in order that we had some photographic evidence Darma had kindly lent us his camera to use on the trek. But now we had to walk through a mighty thunderstorm to download our pictures, fortunately neither of us were struck by lightening but we did get stuck at the Internet cafe. The owners were very friendly and invited us in for tea, peanut crackers and Pirates of the Caribbean. While we waited out the deluge we had a browse of his Indonesian issue National Geographic, where the feature article just happened to be on The Isle of Lewis...isn't life funny.
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Pauline
non-member comment
wow! the trek through the rainforest sounds amazing, I envy you the sights of orangs and gibbons. David Attenborough, true gent, of course!!