Mind the crocodiles

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Borneo is dotted with national parks and when you see the levels of deforestation this can only be a good thing. Similajou is a small coastal park but with crocodiles and violent seas it's not really the place to go for a quick dip. Apparently the park is home to over 43 mammals - But other than the monkeys which followed us from the the safety of the tree tops we glimpsed nothing more than a squirrel on our first day.

As many animals are nocturnal Tom and I decided that going on a night walk would be the solution. We set out, jumping at every sound - knowing that there was a lot of life out there but completely unable to work out where it was. Was that noise animal, vegetable, mineral or just Tom's stomach rumbling?

By placing your torch at eye level you have a better chance of seeing animal eyes reflecting the light - although apparently not all eyes shine - a snake for example could be right next to you and you wouldn't see it. this thought did nothing to comfort me. Spiders on the other hand have glowing orange eyes - after loosing count of the amount of glowing orange eyes I could not decide whether it is better to know which creatures surround you or to remain oblivious.

After half an hour of seeing very little the rain started which is a queue for both animals and humans to take cover. While day one lacked for sightings day two paid off big time with a sighting of Borneo's most famous resident the Hornbill.

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Photos

Beware
While we were here a man was killed by a Crocodile in Kuching so they are a real threat