Poring Hot Springs and Kinabatangan river

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We then spent the next 2 nights at the Poring hot Springs- we knew what to expect. Built in WWII for Japanese soldiers, the hot springs are a series of outdoor tubs with taps dispensing sulphur water. I just dipped my feet it, and then me and Bill set off for the butterfly farm where we saw a few butterflies and enjoyed the air conditioned indoor exhibit, and then we set off for the canopy walkway which is the highest in Sabah. To our chagrin, more stairs!! We climbed approx 43 metres up to the canopy and walked the 4 rocky canopy walkways amongst the lush trees and just looked at the views, it was pretty great! After lunch, we had a beer and headed back to the hotel so I could get a much needed massage (which most people in the group did!). Then the group went out for dinner and discussed our long journey to the river the next day.

The next day we stopped into see the world’s largest species of flower the Rafflesia which happened to be blooming (it only blooms once or twice a year). The flower blooms from a vining plant and grows on the ground and is found throughout SE Asia but most prevalent in Borneo. After that, we were en route to the Kinabatangan River. Once there, it was a short boat ride across the river to the adventure lodge. I the afternoon we has a wildlife cruise in the same speedboat and spotted the elusive Bornean Pygmy elephant! The Pygmy elephant is on the endangered list and Felix said its been almost 5 years since he’s seen one so it’s pretty special that we saw at least 3 roaming around! We also saw various types of monkeys – long tail and pig tail Macaque, Proboscis and Silver monkey! We also saw various birds including the black Hornbill and Kingfisher. We then rode back to the lodge and into the sunset. After dinner we did a jungle walk around the lodge, but first we saw a Malay Civat cat which was pretty cool. We then donned gumboots and leech socks and did a jungle walk around the lodge. It was pretty muddy and all we saw really were insects and pretty birds! We then rose early for 6am cruise to try and see Orangutans in their natural habitat but alas we didn’t find any

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