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Published: March 24th 2009
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17th March 2009
We start the next couple of day with breakfast and a two hour 4x4 journey to the ‘Gomantong Caves’ which were made famous by the harvesting of Swiflet nests used for bird nest soup, Chinese medicines and all made from the birds saliva used for attaching the nests to the cave walls………….NICE! Zbynek and Renata join us on this leg of the journey, Harvey and the Slovakian girls go straight to the jungle camp.
There is a large Iban Longhouse at the entrance to the massive cavern; this is where the brave or maybe crazy workers live. There is a slimy, wooden walkway through the cave and below a mountain of guano (birds and bats crap). This pile of shit is seething with cockroaches and beetles and the smell of ammonia is intense. Pili reminds everyone that I take her to the best of places. We find it quite an experience and somewhere I’ve wanted to visit since seeing David Attenborough visit a few decades ago, gagging while he stood on top of the mountain of guano trying to speak to camera. I can now say, “been there n’ done it”. Strangely I’m the only one
of us who seems pleased to be there.
After another hour in the 4x4 we arrive at ‘Bilit Safari Camp’ on the Shore of the Sungai Kinabatangan River. Pili and I soon realise that all is not quite right as some people have a private room while the others, us among them, cramp into a toilet less dorm and yet we’ve all paid the same price, oh well, but it would have been nice to have been given a choice especially as Pili and I have given a dozen booking to this company through our recommendations to our friends.
We pick our beds apply more mosquito repellent and then it’s time for our first jungle river cruise, I am really quite excited. We all crowd into the river boat and head up stream. We soon come across Long Tailed Macack Monkies and a Stork Billed Kingfisher. We leave and find a crocodile on the river bank and we manage to pull the boat right up along side positioning me for some great photos. The next animals are the very distinctive Proboscis Monkey. We find a troupe of a dozen animal feeding in the river side tree. One large
Alfa male and the rest females and young. The males have the distinctive large bulbous noses and look very comical. These rare Monkies only exist in Borneo and are nearly as endangered as their neighbours the Orang-Utans, it great to see them in the wild.
Next on the opposite bank our guide spots a solitary male Orang-Utan feeding on large berry like fruit in the trees. He totally ignores us as we pull alongside the river bank to observe him. What a treat, these are very shy and reclusive animals in the wild and to be honest of course I wanted to see them but I never really expected to especially so quickly. The guides remind us how lucky we are, this is indeed a rare sighting.
We see many more Macack and Proboscis Monkies, several Pied Hornbill coming into roost, a couple of beautiful Stork Billed Kingfishers, a Purple Heron and of course the Egrets lining the river banks. Soon it’s time to head back to the camp as the light starts to fade. It’s been a magical couple of hours. Pili and I remind ourselves that we are actually on a boat in the middle of
the Borneo rain forest; it feels like we’re in some natural history documentary. We’ll never forget this evening. As we pull into shore we can hear the distant calls of Gibbons somewhere out into the forest.
Another adventure soon awaits us but first we all sit down to a hearty meal.
At 9:00pm we all again gather for a nigh time jungle trek, I’m hoping to see some of the nocturnal animal in the local area. Unfortunately I’m very disappointed. We are taken by our guide, (I used the word lightly), for an hour into the swampy undergrowth. The guide points out a couple of birds roosting, shining his powerful torch on them. A couple of my camp mates ask why the birds don’t wake up and fly away as we are right on top of them. I tell them that the birds are reacting naturally to a predator threat at night. Most predators react to movement, by keeping perfectly still the birds are hoping nothing will see or hear them in the dark. Of course they don’t realise that our guide has a bloody big torch, he even encourages some of the guys with cameras to take
photographs using a flash gun. I ask them firmly not to which they comply to after a couple of times and a hard stare or two. The guide finds a Ruddy Kingfisher, White Rumped Shuma and a Trogon. All these birds roost in the same spot more or less every night so it’s no great shakes that we’ve been led directly to them. I even have to tell the rest of the group what they are; the guide seems to have no real idea about the flora and fauna!
Back at the camp we all shower taking turns to use the bucket of water and a ladle then Zbynek and I crack a couple of cold beers that we’d brought along with us. Apart from the recent night trek we’ve had a wonderful day and retire to our bunks drifting asleep to the weird sounds of the jungle outside.
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