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Published: April 3rd 2009
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30th March - 2nd April 2009
I lay wide awake most of the night listening to chorus of sounds outside in the forest. At 4:30am I went outside to see what was crawling around, I discovered a chestnut coloured Rhinoceros Beetle, again lay on his back waiting to be rescued, again I photographed him and sent him on his way.
Reluctantly Pili got up at 5ish and we’re in the forest for 6:00am. We stalked through the damp and gloomy forest for about four hours, again we saw very little although we did hear a subdued dawn chorus. Surprisingly it didn’t even compared to a dawn chorus in English woodlands, very, very strange!
As on the previous day most of the birdlife we encountered was based around the Park's headquarters. We saw several species but only common birds that exist happily around man.
On the way to the restaurant we again had brilliant views of the mountain peaks. After eating we went back to our room and caught a couple of hours of well needed sleep.
We woke up at 2:00pm and planned to do one last trek. While getting ready a new English couple arrived,
Mathew & Fran, they asked for our advice as to where to eat, walk etc.
We set out for what we thought would be a simple walk; this is what we had concluded by looking at the map provided by the park. We chose the Silau-Silai, Bukit Tupai and Bukit Burung trails. Wow the map provided to the trekkers was so inaccurate it’s frightening. We met several lost ad confused walkers. Our chosen trails where very chaotic taking us to the top of the peaks, this was great and exciting for us but for any walker who was inexperienced it could lead them into lots of problems. The mountain weather can close in to almost zero visibility in a matter of moments. The map provided was a very basic photocopy of a pen drawing with no high elevations or other important details and the actual rotten signs along the routes were completely confusing. There is a tragedy waiting to happen unfortunately. Our walk lasted for about 3hrs when we thought it would be no more than an hour, we managed to get out of the forest about 20 minutes before dark, thankfully.
After eating I sat writing for
a couple of hours while Pili talked with the new English guests. We arranged to walk the Liwagu Trail at dawn which is approximately 5.5km. Our plans came to nothing because it rained for a couple of hours in the night and when I knocked the door of Mat and Fran at 6:00am we concluded the trails would be too dangerous in the wet conditions.
Instead after a later start of 9:00am we sat around talking, Mat was training to be a history teacher so we had lot's to talk about, I hope they keep in touch when they get home, they were really nice people.
We had some lunch then caught a coach and a connecting bus back to Kota Kinabalu arriving at 3:00pm to a rainy city. Lucy was pleased to see us back at the home stay and was busy preparing our room for us; Lucy’s cats (Eunuch & Tom) especially pleased to see us.
For the next couple of days we sew and wash our cloths and I did a lot of writing and archiving photos. We had a small collection of photos printed for Lucy to put up on her walls. The
Malayan girl at the photo lab was very impressed with my work and when I gave her a business card she looked at me surprised and told me that she recently had people recommend my work to her, I was very flattered of course; it’s very nice to be recognised here in Borneo. I intend to contact several Borneo organisations later in the year and offer some of my work to help promote the important conservation projects based here. I will also be contacting the Sabah Conservation Council to make them aware of some of the incompetence and bad management I’ve encountered. I hate causing trouble for anyone but the time for niceties is over, the exploitation of the eco-tourism has to stop now because if these corrupt companies aren’t stopped the Borneo people and the people of the World will loose this most important environment, I can not stand by and say nothing, I’d never be able to live with myself.
Taking an overview of our personal Borneo adventure I have to conclude we’ve had an incredible time. We’ve met some great people (especially Lucy at the Home Stay and not forgetting our Czech friends Zbynek and Renata).
We’ve seen some amazing things, stuff I’ve dreamt about for a long, long time. Pili & I also learned some new skills and really stretched ourselves and we’re better people for these experiences. We generally loved the food, hated the mosquitoes and leeches, and got very frustrated with the exploitation of the tourist trade to the detriment of the important conservation issues here.
Ending this Borneo blog on an up note, I’ve met lots of researchers here who are doing really important work, recording bio-diversity and pressuring government to preserve what’s left of the habitats, reporting on land management and educating the children in the schools. I hope this isn’t too little too late. My nightmare is that if I reach an old age I will find myself telling my stories and showing my photos to kids and adults explaining what we’ve lost and how it used to be. It would be a very sad day to pick up a newspaper with the headlines ‘The Orang-Utan is now extinct in the wild’; sadly this could happen in the next ten year. This must not be allowed to happen!!!!!
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