Part II
June 12 -14, 2010
Kinabatangan River, Sabah, Borneo
Uncle Tans 3D/2N Jungle Safari RM 380
The Kinabatangan river is famous as it has 10 species of primates that live there as well as numerous wild cats (civets), birdlife, spectacular frogs and insects and apparently a herd of pygmy elephants. Sadly we didn’t see the pygmy elephants and not because as I had imagined they are small and easily hidden amongst the shrubbery (pygmy is infact a complete misnomer as they are only small compared to regular elephants and in no way able to fit in your carrier luggage). We (our group of 16 including couples from Oz, Spain, France, Sweden and some dutch skinheads) began our adventure with a 90min bus ride and one hour speed boat trip (where showing early favouritism only one boat was given life jackets to wear, needless to say it wasn’t ours).
Uncle Tans makes no apologies for the fact that there river base camp is not luxurious, I wasn’t quite sure what I was expecting but our accommodation appeared to a ramshackle collection of chicken sheds with foam mattresses on the ground protected by mosquito nets as our beds. Being in the heat and humidity of Borneo I had been studiously drinking water to avoid dehydration however after a visit the toilet and shower block I resolved to remain parched over the next 3 days. The toilets flushed by emptying a bucket of brown water pumped from the river into them, this bucket of water was also how one was expected to shower and although I had already had bucket showers in Semporna I do believe bathing in water that looks more dirty than you do defeats the purpose entirely. As such I trialed a combination of the ‘italian shower’ (frequent reapplication of deodorant) and the lesser known ‘Borneo Shower’ consisting of frequent reapplication of insect repellent which worked for the 3d/2n itinery but wouldn’t be recommended for longer or in fact for among the general populace. The toilets were of course home to a variety of insect life, huntsman spiders and one rather pleased looking frog surveying the world from on top of the water tank.
Our activities included one night cruise, one evening cruise and two morning cruises along the river in search for the many primates, birds and the falsely named pygmy elephants as well as two treks one in the daytime and one at night. On the first cruise our river guide Loy managed to point out crocodiles, long tail macaques, oriental hornbills and a group of Probiscus Monkeys which are only found in Borneo. Unfortunately due to the limitations of my camera and photography skills my photos seem to imply that Kinabatangan is home to a large variety of bloblike creatures that reside in trees. I hadn’t bought binoculars but luckily the other couples on the boat had and the French couple kindly let me look through their set so I could actually make out the animals in good detail. The Proboscus Monkey is the big nose monkey with a large rounded belly, it cannot burp or fart so if it eats to ripe fruit that gives off gas it can die as It’s belly will burst which seems a rather inelegant way to go.
The next morning we rose early to jump in the boat to attempt to spot more animals and the highlight was finding an Orangutan feasting on figs close enough to the side of the river that we were able to jump out of the boat and observe up close, the orangutan seemed remarkably at ease with the jungle paparazzi surrounding him. We also found gibbons, more macaques and more birdlife. The two jungle treks allowed us to see some of the smaller inhabitants of the jungle, i.e. the insects, birds and frogs. The night trek proved the most interesting with some great frogs and a bizarre headless bird as well as a very cute fruit bat.
The evening cruise ended unceremoniously in a torrential downpour that allowed our cheapo ponchos a chance to get wet on the outside but stopped us from finding any flying foxes.
Tomorrow we head to mount Kinabalu to attempt to make the summit, given my appalling fitness level and utter lack of preparation, I’m just hoping to not be overtaken by more than 10 spritely geriatrics. Wish me luck!
