We woke to monkey sounds & those musical cicadas again this morning. From our balcony we watched Thomas Leaf Monkeys taking giant downwards leaps through trees. It was hot, about 27 degrees, so we walked through the shallow river to our Jungle Lodge Restaurant for breakfast. We all ate banana pancakes & drank tea and coffee while some of the staff helped us do our Indonesian Crossword Puzzle. They needed help too, so asked a table of Indonesians beside us. We all had a great laugh.
We had a reunion with Jamin who we had met 4 years ago. He would be taking us on our jungle trek in a few days time.
For the next 3 or 4 hours, Dan, Dave & I walked, waded, & swam up river as it gradually got deeper and deeper. We entered a gorge, deep sided rocks, three waterfalls & jungle right to the edge of the river. It was absolutely stunning. At some stages it was really hard going, climbing over rocks and fighting against the current. As we rounded bends, we’d say “OK one more and then we’ll turn back” but we just kept going & going. The scenery was just incredible. Here we were in a country with a population of 240 million people & we had this amazing place all to ourselves.
When we finally did reach a point where we decided to turn back, we made a stone cairn to mark our spot. It was our little way of saying “we were here” as we only had a few dragonflies as witnesses.
By the time we returned, it was lunch time & hoards of locals from Medan had travelled to Tangkahan to celebrate the end of Ramadan. People pointed at us and lots of teenagers and families asked to take our photos. We got a little taste of what it must be like to be a Hollywood celebrity.
We went to Jungle River Restoran for lunch & had a delicious vegetable curry. Some Westerners arrived & local women were putting their enormous hard shelled suitcases with wheels on their heads to carry to the rooms. They did this by squatting low to the ground and coming up to standing position. They must have very strong leg & neck muscles.
We crossed the river at a different spot at a very low bamboo bridge & posed for some more paparazzi, even taking babies onto our laps for the photos. We walked to the site of the elephants. These elephants were originally in Aceh but after the tsunami in 2004, they were destroying villages by searching for food so they were moved here & are used to search the jungle for illegal loggers. In their down time, tourists ride them & feed them & wash them in the river. Eight of them were eating palm leaves, snapping & crunching loudly. The baby was so cute and appeared to be still learning how to use his trunk.
Later we saw bats & squirrels from our balcony & monkeys chasing each other, running & flying through the trees with such ease!
