We had a day in Bukit Lawang looking around before we signed up for a 2day jungle trek. We paid $4 each to go to the feeding platform where rehabilitated orangutans can go for supplementary feeding if they need it. We travelled by canoe across the river into Gunung Leuser National Park & saw a mother & her baby come down for milk & bananas. They were about 5 metres away from us. A wild male was hanging around & came down when the keepers had left the platform (he was not a rehab-ranga).
Later we walked (without a guide) across the dodgy plank made-for-midget sway-bridges (Indiana Jones eat your heart out) to the bat cave. Nice & cool inside & bat smelling. On the walk back thru the bush (did we come that way? or that way?) we passed a man & child carrying a shot gun. hmmm...
So, the jungle trek...
We hiked from 8:30am to 5:30pm up very steep, slippery, root systems thru the jungle. During this time we saw 6 orangutans. It was so very special. They move so gracefully & easily thru the trees. The closest one was about a metre from Dave and chased after him thinking there was perhaps fruit in his backpack. There had been an hour b4! I'm kinda lost for words. It was so amazing. One mother came down with her tiny baby and was playing on the jungle floor in front of us. She found a low branch she could reach from the ground and had several 'rides' on it, while holding her baby. Then she did roly poly forward rolls and hid behind some leaves in a peekaboo fashion. When she started moving around again, the branch she chose, snapped and both mum & baby thudded to the forest floor. She sat dazed for a few moments & then loped along & grabbed a stronger branch to swing away in.
We slept the night in a bamboo lean-to with plastic on 3 sides. I brought ear plugs with me to prevent creepy crawlies exploring my eustacian tubes. An hour b4 going to sleep, Dave spotted a snake in the tree. A skinny one, kinda cute but he was only 10 metres away from our beds. We were told later: "if bite, you dead two hour no medicine".
We were lucky enuf to spot several water moniters and one who was bobbing down the rapids, calm as u like. Dave also spotted a golden otter. One guide in the national park has worked there 3 years & never seen one. Trek ended on day 2 by white water rafting back to camp down the Bohorok River in 5 inner tubes roped together with 10 people on it & NO lifejackets. Scary but fun! We went right underwater with one rapid. Great way to end our jungle trek.
Sometimes it seems us westerners are a little too cautious perhaps. No lifejackets? No worries. Filling up the public bus with petrol with the motor still running and everyone on the bus but Dave & Berni smoking. No problem.
