Smelly Fruit and Rescued Crocs

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Monday was shopping day and every week we all try to buy something unusual and interesting. This week Ellie bought some green/brown knobbly fruits and it wasn't until we brought them home that we noticed the awful smell. It was very unpleasant - best described as cats urine, rotten eggs or a rubbish bin, and therefore we swiftly removed them from the house and placed them on the veranda. We later found out that these were Durians, a fruit loved by locals and orangutans but not by us! We could still smell them from outside, the smell wafting into our room. So we fed them to Chaim, Doris and Aman who enjoyed the snack! We also managed to gain a quick cuddle from Gus.

Apart from the strange fruits, we have also had an escapee on the loose this week. 'Chip' one of the Macaques escaped at the weekend so this gave us the opportunity to clean out his cage. However whilst we were doing this he returned and tried to steal the keys and bucket and then poked one of the other caged Macaques. Luckily after the cage had been cleaned he swiftly climbed in (just as we left) and the keeper locked the cage.

On Tuesday two crocodiles arrived which had been caught up in a fisherman's net. One has been housed with five other crocodiles already at Matang, whilst the other is kept separately as we are monitoring its' injuries before we decide where best to house the new arrival. This involved some careful operations in order to avoid any accidents whilst manoeuvring the pair.

On Wednesday one of the staff 'John' took us all on a one hour trek to a beautiful waterfall in the rainforest. As the path had not been used for some time, it involved some care and balance negotiating the broken bridges and pathways swamped with vegetation. All the volunteers were leached - oh well. Then we cooled down under the waterfall, which was a very refreshing experience - a bit like a natural Jacuzzi! Then in the afternoon we all did some more painting of the enclosure walls.

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Photos

The Jungle Vegetation
We love it!