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Published: August 15th 2007
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On our arrival in Kota Kinabalu (KK - capital of Sabah) we were very excited as there was so much to do and we had many things to get booked. This excitement soon turned to disapointed though as the first thing we went to book, a climb up Mt Kinabalu, turned out to be fully booked until September!! This is the highest mountain in South East Asia (over 12,000 feet) and was something we were really looking forward to doing. There is a limited number of people allowed to climb each day and all that "Visit Malaysia 50th Anniversary" advertising is paying off!!
The next thing on our list was a visit to the turtle islands to see turtles laying eggs at night and hatchlings being released into the sea.......this is also fully booked for months in advance!!
So what to do next??? We decided to book a white water rafting trip as it was something neither of us had done before, we only had to wait 2 days to go!!! On the day we set off for a very scenic 1 hour drive upstream on the river Kiulu. This is only listed as a grade 2 river so
quite tame for us first timers. We set off from a beautiful area surrounded by hills, water buffalo and a very ropey looking suspension bridge which we did dare to try and cross!!
The hour and a half trip down river was fantastic fun even though it involved me being thrown from the raft (to Vicky's great amusement) and then having to 'body raft' to try and catch up with the boat. Rocks do hurt when you get thrown into them by raging torrents!!
About half way down the river we pulled into the river bank and were allowed 30mins of swimming around in the river and jumping into the water off the high rocks above the river. This was great fun although trying to swim in a fast paced river with a lifejacket on is quite difficult! At the end of the raft we were fed some local food and then headed back to KK.
This day out renewed our ambition for some adventure so we booked ourselves onto a 3day/2night trip into the jungle with a company called Uncle Tan's. It is located on the Kinabatangan river, the longest river in Sabah at 560km long.
To get to Uncle Tans we flew to Sandakan (20min flight!!) and then stayed at Uncle Tans B&B just outside the town of Sepilok (home of the Orang-utan. Our night at the B&B was a little boring as it is in the middle of nowhere and the only other guest was an English guy named Tim. So the three of us just sat and chatted whilst watching the worlds smallest portable TV along with the guy running the place, we did manage to play a little basketball outside the front of the B&B with him as well.
The next morning we went to see the Sepilok Orang-utan Sancturay made famous by the BBC's Orung-utan diaries. The centre aims to rescue orpaned Orung-utans from the wild or from local villagers and rehabilitate them so they can fend for themselves and hopefully be released to the wild some day. We were lucky to see about 6 Orung-utans appear at feeding time. They all live semi-wild, they are free to roam around and find their own food but can top it up with supplies from the feeding station twice a day. They really are the most remarkable creatures and seem
very playfull, at times it is obvious they are aware of all the visitors and put on a bit of a show. One such incident occured as 1 of them was leaving the platform and stopped in front of the viewing area to demonstrate how an Orung-utan goes to the toilet!!
It was then off to the isolation of the jungle!! After an hour in a bus we boarded our small boats to head down the river to our new home for 2 nights. On the way to the camp we were treated to sightings of Long Tailed Macaques, a variety of birdlife and the fantastic looking Proboscis monkeys. The camp itself is really the most basic form of jungle living you could get without actually living there full time!! It has no running water and only has electricity from 7-12pm from a generator which repeatedly fails plunging you into darkness. However it was well worth it as we saw over the two days an amazing amount of wildlife. The time was broken down for us into a well planned programme of a Night safari on the river, a dawn safari on the river, a morning jungle trek, an
afternoon safari on the river and a nightime trek. On our night safari we didn't see a great amount of wildlife but did see a multi coloured Kingfisher, a huge Owl and a frog!! The next morning made up for it somewhat though with several sightings of Long Tailed Macaques and Proboscis Monkeys. I should mention at this point that the Proboscis Monkeys are a quite amazing looking animal, the males have huge pot bellies and the the most enormous bulbus nose. Our best sighting was kept for last though as on the way back to the camp we spotted a huge crocodile!! He was right at the side of the river sunning himself in the mud. He was about 4metres long and very scary looking, even more so when the guide turned our engine off and coasted up to about 6 feet away from the beast!! At this point the croc opened his eyes and according to Vicky stared right at her!! We continued to observe him for 5mins or so before he got fed up and lurched into the water below us. At this point our engine failed to restart and we got a little nervous to say
the least!!
The rest of the stay involved sightings of wild bearded boar and their little piglets (which came into camp), huge monitor lizards, millipeads, Black Scorpions, the worlds smallest frog, a frilled tree frog(which I spotted before the guide!!), eagles, hornbills and an invasion of our camp by the extemely mischievous Long Tailed Macaques. During said invasion they raided our bins and stole several sprite and coke cans and then drank the contents!! They also went through the pockets of peoples clothes drying on the line and made several attempts to steal our afternoon biscuits!! Despite this slightly un-wild behaviour it was fantastic to be so close to the animals and see them fight and play on the roofs of our huts.
This brings me onto our final bit of info on Uncle Tans which is the huts..... they are basically the human equivalent of a chicken shed as Vicky's photos below will show. In each hut there is space for 3 couples (some 6 single huts too) each couple gets 3 thin mattresses on top of each other and a mosquito net. Thats it. It is not the Hilton!! However they do make this clear before
you go and this is in no way a criticism as the place is exactly what it says on the tin. The staff at the camp were absolutely fantastic with a never ending amount of enthusiasm for the jungle, many of them never leave the place, it really is their home. We also met some lovely people on the trip, Tim our sole sharer of the B&B and a lovely Australian couple called Matt and Nicole who it was very nice to share with.
We finally returned to KK feeling very tired and dirty but a nice hot shower soon had us sorted, although Vicky claims she can still smell the jungle now!! On our return we also had some very good news, there was 1 space available to climb the mountain on the 31st July!! It is however staying in accomadation half way up the mountain with no heating for the night of the climb but after the jungle this should be easy!!
So we are now waiting for our climb by spending some much deserved time on the beach topping up our tans which have starting to fade from Koh Samui.
We are a little
concerned about the climb due to our lack of fitness and no real exercise for quite some time but I'm sure we will manage!!
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Paul
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Brilliant Pics!
Good monkey action! Boars look cool too.