April Frogs in Kubah

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While waiting for the accommodation at Bako to free up I went to stay for a couple of nights at Kubah National Park, a forested hill/small mountain about half an hour outside of Kuching. There used to be regular buses right past the entrance but just this year many of the important bus routes ("important" in visitor terms that is) have been canned. There used to be two bus companies that did routes from airport to city, now you have to take a taxi; there is sometimes one that runs past Semenggoh but it is regularly cancelled so you have to take a taxi; there used to be buses every hour to Kubah, now you have to take a taxi. The Kubah run isn't as hard on the pocket as some of the other routes because all the locals use the mini-van taxis so you can get there for just five Ringgits (about NZ$2.50) if the van is full. I had been planning on doing Kubah just as a day-trip but I'm glad I stayed. For the regular tourist there's not much there apart for forest trails for some walking -- the birds are hard to find and even the macaques stay back in the forest and can't be seen by casual visitors -- but if you stay you can take the pace a bit easier.

Its very hot in Kuching -- very very hot! -- and its not any cooler at Kubah. All the tracks and paths go steeply uphill (even the ones going downhill!) so a short walk anywhere leaves one so soaked in sweat it looks like you've fallen in a river. I took the long-adhered-to advice of the tropics and went out looking for birds in the early morning, slept through the hottest part of the day back at the hostel, and then went out again in the late afternoon for search for nocturnal beasties after nightfall. The forest at Kubah is amazingly noisy at night. I don't think I've ever been in a noisier forest. There were owls and frogmouths whooping and screaming and ponking, frogs weetling and hollering, tarsiers chittering, crickets whining and wheezing. There was even some insect doing the Jaws theme tune which was a bit disconcerting. As usual I didn't have much success with the nocturnal birds but I found a giant scorpion and a nice array of frogs, and lets face it frog-hunting is way more fun than owl-hunting!

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