The Wild Man of Borneo...

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From Semporna we took a bus north east to the ery large town of Sandakan, the jumping off point for the world famous Sepilok orangutan sanctuary. We checked into a hostel with a sea view and hit the town for a spot of exploration and to pick up vital supplies for the impending mountain climb...

The town is quite newly built following a series of bombs that all but levelled it and is very modern, much to my surprise. I don't know quite what i was expecting from Borneo (untamed jungle perhaps?!) but i do know that i have been surprised on every leg of the journey so far, at how developed and built up it is.

The folowing day we got up early and took a local bus out to the orangutan sanctuary. We were not a hundred percent sure what would greet us there and we all had our fingers crossed that we would see an elusive orangutan...
The Sepilok sanctuary is one of only four sanctuaries in the world that rehabilitates injured and institutionalised orangutans and releases them into the wild. On our arrival we visited the sanctuaries museum that details the work they do and the various other animals the have rescued and released, including gibbons, rhinos and crocodiles. We watched a short video that talked us through the successful rehabilitational process endured by a particular orangutan and witnessed her release on film. It was all very moving and greatly encouraged us to make a couple of purchases in the gift shop, where the proceeds go back into the running of the centre.

At 3pm we were allowed access to the jungle board walk that leads to the feeding platform and it was explained to us that people do not always see orangutans and we were wished good luck. At the feeding platform we only had to wait a short while before a mother and her young baby orangutan appeared from the trees and slowly swung down to the platform!!! She was a dominant female and was followed by a young male who kept his distance throughout. The platform is only about 10m from the viewing area and afforded us an amazing vantage point. A huge troop of macaques joined the orangutans and began fighting for their food. The baby orangutan was really confused and seemed really intruigued by the monkeys and kept trying to play with them (to their disgust!) and it was amazing to watch the interaction between mother and baby and to see how human they really are. It's no surprise that ancient Borneon tribes people once thought the orangutans to genuinely be "wild men" that lived in the trees!

The following day we left Sandakan by boat to spend a night on turtle island, about 45 minutes offshore. The island is reputed to be one of the world's prime sea turtle breeding grounds and on our trip we hoped to witness a sea turtle come ashore to lay her eggs. The island itself is beautiful and tiny, you could walk it's circumference in 20 minutes! We arrived and had a few hours to relax on the beach before dinner. During dinner the zoologist explained that when the turtle comes ashore she will be left alone to lay about two thirds of her eggs in private before we are invited to join them. The eggs are harvested and re-buried in a safer location where staff can monitor their progress and ensure they come to no harm. After about an hour we got the call- 'turtle time'- and everybody hurried out towards the beach. A large female sea turtle greeted us from a deep hole she had dug for her eggs and she was in the process of laying. In total she laid 88 eggs that night before returning to the ocean. We watched as the eggs were collected and moved to the hatchery and then returned to the restaraunt in hope of getting to see some baby hatchlings be released into the sea. Again we were not disappointed and before long we were back on the beach watching, as about twenty adorable baby turtles were released and made their way down the sand to the surf. It was a really incredible sight and a once in a lifetime opportunity. Unfortunately it is predicted that only one of the twenty will survive until adulthood but the work that is being done on turtle island demonstrates the huge efforts the Malay government are going to in an attempt to increase their chances of survival. All in all it was a great experience and that night 30 sea turtles came ashore and a total of nearly 2,500 eggs were gathered!!

Having returned to Sandakan we decided that we had seen what we had come to see and had run out of time... Mt. Kinabalu was calling...

We packed up our things once again and booked a bus out of town that would leave us at the gates of the Kota Kinabalu National Park and at the foot of South East Asia's highest mountain. I had stocked up on the essentials (or so i thought) and tried to think happy thoughts as the bus pulled out of the station and out of civilisation...

Next Stop: Mount Kinabalu...

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