Advertisement
Woke up to the sound of monkeys bouncing on our roof 😊 Didn't mind too much though as we had to get up early anyway to go to the orangutan feeding platform (http://www.orangutans-sos.org/visit_sumatra/bohorok_orangutan_centre/). Walked down to dug out canoe at 8 and saw an orangutan waiting nearby. After we crossed he used the rope pulley system to get over the river 😊 It's only a short walk but has lots of big steps so we were a little out of puff when we got there, one guide made us laugh when he said 'we do this everyday, it's killing us', the way he said it with a deadpan face reminded us of English humour.
It was well worth the money we paid (20,000 each for permit and 50,000 for camera; we only paid for 1 camera but took 2). Mina and her baby turned up pretty sharpish and took a big bunch of bananas. She really has no fear of humans and came pretty close to us all. We were told not to block her path and keep our distance. She was held captive before being brought to the centre in 1979.
The rangers brought loads of bananas and
a big tub of milk. A couple of the orangutans led the rangers feed them milk from metal tankards. One of the orangutans had her baby with her and after munching on a couple of bunches of bananas she started regurgitating them so it was like puree for her baby. The baby was unbelievably cute. There were lots of cheeky little monkeys about too trying to steal the food. The ranger taunted them a little and after eating the scraps of banana skins the older ones sat down and groomed each other whilst the youngsters jumped about play fighting. At one point about 5 of them were also grooming the mum orangutan! After an hour or so we got back in the canoe.
Over breakfast I had the bright idea that we should walk to the Bat Cave which was about a 3 1/2-4km walk. So we walked through the village, over the big rickety bridge, past other GH's, gardens, veg/fruit patches, beautiful flowers, past a foster home (run by a Dutch lady for children who lost their family in tsunami), up a slippy bank and eventually got to the Bat Cave. An old man was asleep at the
entrance and there was a sign hanging up stating the fee was 5000 for admission, torch and guide. When he came round we gave him two 5000 notes, this seemed to cause him much confusion and he sat analysing it for a good couple of mins and mumbling incoherently under his breath. Anyway after us advising we didn't have a clue what he was saying he handing us a pretty crappy touch. No guide appeared but we were just happy he wasn't accompanying us! We walked down some slippy mud steps to the cave. You had to walk up some small wooden ladders (that looked a little rotten) into a kind of corridor made of rocks that were covered in moss, webs (eek) and huge entwined tree roots and branches. Thank God we didn't see any spiddy spiders though we did see centipedes, big ones too and I was extra careful to steer clear of them after Rob told me they bite and might be poisonous. At the end of the corridor was the actual cave. Rob moved the torch round and we saw a couple of bats but we didn't go far in or linger as Rob was nervous
about getting bit by a rabies infested bat and I didn't want a close encounter with a monster spider! Though we felt a little uneasy it was an interesting looking place , very Indiana Jonesy.
On the walk bath along through the gardens we saw a ginormous burrowing grub. It was disgusting. It was so big one woman (from Manchester) stoped her motorbike to get a better look. The thing had legs but as it was used to being in earth it instead slid along on it's back wriggling it's legs in the air. It was not endearing. We were pretty cream crackered when we got back so we just sat in the bar playing scrabble and chatting to a couple from UK. Some of the GH guys shouted of us at one point as there were orangutans swinging in the trees just over the river opposite where we were sat! Sat on balcony and read a while before tea. Decided, as it was our last proper mean in Indonesia to have Gado Gado. There are many different versions but this one was veg with boiled egg, crackers and rice with a bowl of peanut sauce on the side.
After yet more scrabble we retreated to our room early to relax.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.175s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 66; dbt: 0.101s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb