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Published: April 1st 2015
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Jungle Adventure
Our real adventure begins. It is organised by a tour company which specialises in adventures off the beaten track. Carole is good at researching interesting places off the tourist trail. We read the Lonely Planet for advice. Sun cream, mozzie repellent, leech socks, a set of wet clothes which never dry properly, a set of dry clothes stored in poly bags and waterproof bags to keep our cameras, iPods and iPads dry. A 10am pick up at a local cafe in Poring. We meet our guide Michael (from Edinburgh!) and Alson, his Malaysian brother in law, our driver. We head for the supermarket for our choice of food for 3 days. Mainly veggie meals as it is difficult to keep meat although we did eat chicken on the first evening and oats, coconut milk, mangoes, pawpaw, nuts and honey for breakfast.
Two hours along the main Sandekan road from Ranau and then 3 hours on very bumpy tracks through kilometres of palm oil plantations and forest tracks. Timber is being extracted here and we pass a timber yard with massive tree trunks being loaded onto a transporter. We arrive at the base camp of a forest reserve
with accommodation for foresters and contract workers. Surprisingly there is a football pitch and tennis court. The reserve is in the process of being developed for wildlife tourism. The new centre and lodges are built but not furnished so we are the only visitors here. Our accommodation, an old tourist lodge due for demolition, is rather delapidated and not very clean. A room each and shower room with fan, air con and hot water.
Michael cooks a delicious meal and then we head out in the back of the pick up with big spotlights spying the shiny eyes of forest creatures lurking in the trees. We see flying squirrels bright ginger in the spot light, plain Pygmy squirrels, a colugo or flying lemur, (it can't walk on the ground but hangs under branches and then flies from tree to tree.)
An interesting evening.
A 4.15am start to the day and we drive to reach the highest point locally to see sunrise. Just beautiful - the silhouette of rainforest trees against the pinky sky and the mellow mist weaving between the trees - all to the sound of the dawn chorus. Michael has a good ear and we
Bottom saver.
Michael blows up my cushion to sit on in the boat see a large fruiting tree with a Bornean gibbon calling, rhinoceros hornbills and many small birds.
Breakfast and then a sleep for a couple of hours before an hours drive along more bumpy tracks to the upper reaches of the Kinabatangan River. The river is very low and brown. We have to take a small boat with a hard metal bench to negotiate the shallows and we motor slowly upstream. We soon see several families of long tailed macaque monkeys, a crab eating macaque monkey, a big monitor lizard on the muddy riverbank, more rhinoceros hornbills and Asian black hornbills. We drift down river as the sun sets listening to the birdsong and enjoying a couple of cans of local Tiger beer. Dinner at another forest base camp cooked by our guide - we are getting quite spoilt. We drive home in the dark and see a buffy eared fish owl, a leopard cat, several masked palm civets, a sambal deer, and Michael is excited as he sees his first tarsier. Now midnight - it has been a long day since 4.15 this morning - but a most exciting one.
A lie in until 6.15. We take a
forest drive and a walk. Lovely birdsong and we can hear the gibbons but they have hidden themselves well away. We see two Asian paradise fly catchers with long white tails. They look as though they are swimming through the trees! A chance to look more closely at the wonderful leaf shapes and texture of the vegetation and ferns. Later I follow a forest trail with a few signs identifying trees which have been left to grow as part of a forest regeneration programme. I also see a lesser tree shrew scurrying down the trunk of a tree.
Staying at the forest reserve base camp has its advantages. I was able to speak to forestry staff and to try to understand current forestry practises. A bit of translation was needed but Michael managed to extract and interpret answers to some of my questions.
The last night run. Michael decides to try a different fairly overgrown track. We see several civets swaying in the high branches of trees and a huge bees nest. We walk for an hour or so surrounded by moths attracted to our head torches and we see spiders and ants of all sizes.
Michael
spies a young sambar deer in the undergrowth. Shortly afterwards another rustle and there just in front of us is a pangolin or spiny anteater crossing the track. It is over 4 feet long with an arched back and long tail and it is covered in shiny scales. To me it looks like a small dinosaur! It is Michael's first sighting and he is very emotional at seeing this rare creature which is on the verge of extinction. (It is sadly hunted as the Chinese pay large amounts of money for live pangolins.) Sadly no photographs - it all happened so quickly.
Standing in awe we are soon brought down to earth by a large sambar deer rushing towards us on the track. Fortunately it veers off into the undergrowth but Michael is visibly shaken. I'm not sure what I think. Later we see twinkling eyes in a low bush and sitting there is a slow loris looking like a bush baby. Several civets and a small mouse deer later we arrive back at base camp about 11pm.
What an adventure. I feel really honoured to have seen so many rare creatures. But no rain. Virtually a drought
in the forest. No soggy clothes, very few mozzies and only one leech found Carole!
Another adventure over and we head back on the bumpy track again, the first part of the 8 hour journey to Kota Kinabalu. We are brought back to earth by passing at least 8 large timber transporters all coming to collect trunks of magnificent rainforest trees. Already vast area of this original rainforest land has been cleared for palm oil plantations. We ask about the future - Just how many and for how long will all our wonderful rainforest creatures be able to survive in the 8% of this forest which is reserved for conservation?
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Nuala
non-member comment
What a place!
A wonderful jungle adventure, Vida, and what a privilege to see so many rare animals and birds. But what also comes through is your sense of foreboding about the fate of this biodiverse island in the midst of so much despoliation by the loggers and palm oil growers.