Hi All,
On the bus and 1hr later we arrived at the river mouth ready to catch a boat to the national park. We had already booked accommodation at the park back in Kutching. There was a group just heading out so we jumped in their boat with them and it only cost us 9 ringit each. Worked out well. We had booked a 4 bed dorm just for us for 40 ringgit so effectively a private room.
Plenty of macaque monkeys around in the trees and enjoying raiding the bins as we checked in. Found that there was no filtered water avaiable even though we had asked but at least bottled water could be purchased at a high price from the canteen.
We decided to head out for a walk to the mangroves and a short rainforest trail to find proboscis monkeys and it wasn't long before we heard the crashing of the trees and grunts that sounded like 'oa ooooooh'. A few proboscis monkeys but no big alpha male in the group. Headed back and there was a large male macaque on the rail of the boardwalk and was not moving. Vanessa waved her scarf at it which made it mad and it attacked her then tried to grab my bag. Luckily we were quick enough to move and my bag swing was enough to knock it off the rail onto a tree below. We arrived back at the HQ building and were met by about 20 macaques who chased us trying to get our bag. Naught Monkeys were in the Hood! A malaysian girl went for photographs and got chased away. Quite funny in a way. Later we found out that the macaques are afraid of people carrying sticks and a threat is enough to scare them off so from then on we did not walk without a stick each and they were sometimes needed.
We went for a night walk and saw a few things but it was never going to happen as we were in a group of 20 people and making a lot of noise.
Next day.
Got up early and headed out on the large loop walk through the steamy rainforest and out to a beach with views of the limestone stack on the other side of the park. Found plenty of pitcher plants along the way and the plant diversity was amazing.It was hot and hard going and we used up most of our water supply too quickly and had to ration ourselves. Lunch at a small waterfall and later we found a couple of silver leaf monkeys before continued along and heading over a mountain with stick insects all around in places. We connected to the short loop back to camp and found some proboscis monkeys along the way. This time it was the harem and the alpha male. Got back about 2pm. Worn out.
Took some rest on the balcony and noticed that macaques were hopping in and out of an open window of a challet next to us and grabbing anything they could find. There are clear warnings about leaving windows closed when not in the rooms which had been ignored.Later a fat american came back and all we could hear was 'oh my god oh my god'. Window got shut.
We sat down for some dinner on the balcony and noticed a bearded pig on the grass below. Was having a great time chatting with the pig before Vanessa said the monkeys were coming. It all happened fast. In the time it took to grab the stick the monkey raid had come and our bread was in their hands. Vanessa saved our dinner and all I could do was run after them and curse but they were too fast and onto the dorm roof in no time. My only concilation was to chase each one of the monkeys with the stick when the came down from the roof.
Went for a night walk by ourselves but only found insects.
Next day.
There was a noise in the kitchen early morning. I got up with the stick and found that the door had been left open and the naughty macaques had raided the cupboard and the refridgerator! I was out in a flash in my jocks chasing them with a stick. Naughty monkeys. We had been trying to get fellow travellers to keep the door closed for that reason but it didn't work. We had no food in the area so it wasn't a bother to us.It was a nice monkey family outing with them sitting in the same tree eating chocolate bars and a bottle of peanut butter.
Went for a walk up onto the headland and then walked a section of the high forest track but lost interest and walked back. It was a nice area but we just lacked enthusiasm after the long walk the previous day.
Next day.
Went for an early walk in the rainforest and found the proboscis monkeys. They were very active and not hard to find. I think they are the elephants of the tree tops. Other tourists started turning up after they were well gone so none the wiser.
Arranged a joint boat with fellow travellers. The macaques were robbing incoming tourists of their pack lunches as we walked to the jetty.
A couple of british travellers joined us for our full boat ride and then offered us a lift back to Kutching. They were confident as they had a GPS navigator telling them where to go. I think it went something along the lines that it never let them down. First turn and it tried to tell us to drive onto a dirt track then when it was ignored it recalculate the optimal path and told us to do a U turn and drive in the opposite direction to Kutching. The GPS navigator was sacked and they just followed the road signs to Kutching!
Bye,
David and Vanessa
