June 21st, 2009
Jared and I arrived in Sepilok where we stayed the night at Uncle Tan's base camp. The night only consisted of a few games of pool and a beer cause we had to get to bed early since we were going to the Oran Utan Rehabilitation Center the next morning.
June 22nd, 2009
We were meant to wake up early to have a nice big brekky before heading off but the alarm never went off. We woke up with only a couple minutes to get ready otherwise we would have missed the feeding at the Oran Utan center. We were rushed off in the mini van and when we arrived they had just started to feed. The whole time of feeding, we only saw 2 Oran Utans. A baby with his mother. They were adorable though and the baby was showing off while eating his bananas. He knew we were all taking photos. The feeding only lasted like 10mins and no more Oran Utans came. Then the cheeky Maques came to finish off the food. We then went to watch a DVD on the Rehabilitation center and how they help the Oran Utans. It was a very informative movie and a great way to get out of the heat but they only showed parts of it because they want you to buy the original for like $45 NZD. I guess the money goes towards a good cause though. You are also able to adopt a baby Oran Utan for $90 NZD/year.
At 2:30 we headed off for Uncle Tan's Jungle Camp and on the way we stopped for a few necessary items. Rice wine, water and a flashlight. We were told you can buy beer at the camp but we figured it would be a tad bit pricey so we thought we'd buy something strong. We drove for an hour where we had to change vehicles to a 4x4 because the road was not suited for a minivan. It felt as thought we were driving for ages through the palm oil plantations and we were. It took us over an hour to drive like 20kms on the bumpiest road ever. I felt quite sorry for the Malays who were hitching a ride on the back of the pickup. Once we got to the river, we all piled into 2 boats and headed off for the camp. It didn't take Jared long to nickname the group in the other boat, Team Delta Force. They were a group of 6 who all wore the same jungle gears. Except for the Auntie. They had matching green shirts with white longsleeve tops underneath, green hats, khaki cargo pants and hiking boots. It's funny cause they wouldn't have been camoflaged from the animals on the river safaris because we had to wear bright orange vests anyways so waste of money. And plus, it was hot and humid so don't know why you'd want to wear those gears anyways. Most of our group was wearing sandals, and shorts. Keeping it very chilled!! As soon as we headed down the river, we saw lots of Proboscos Monkey and Maques.
We arrived at Uncle Tan's Camp and I was very surprised at how well set up the camp was. I was expecting something a bit more rough but there was a long boardwalk with roughly 7 sleeping huts along it, a large hut as the common area, another medium sized hut where you can discuss about wildlife and check out the many photos of the wildlife seen there and of course, the toilet/bathing area. The huts were very basic with just a foam matress and a mozzie nets. They didn't even have doors on them.
A few hours after arrival, we had our introduction meeting where they told us about the safaris and treks and what gear we need to bring with us.
After dinner, we went on our first proper river safari. We cruised down the river in our wee boat with 2 guides. One of the guides was sitting at the front of the boat looking out for the wildlife. The object was to find some nocturnal wildlife. We came across some more proboscos monkeys, silver leaf monkeys, long tailed maques, a small crocodile, and a few sleeping birds. As we were heading back to camp, we saw a mangrove snake. It was a black and yellow striped snake and we were told it was poisonous. I was a bit scared to hear it was poisonous since our boat was directly under it and at any moment it could've been in the boat. Not funny!!
Back at camp, we sat around with the boys who work there and polished off our rice wine and sung along with the guitar.
June 23,2009
Early morning start with not the best sleep. One of the guys who stayed in our hut, snored so loudly you can feel the vibrations. But after a nice hot coffee things weren't too bad. We're in the jungle. Our morning safari started at 6:30am and Delta force was waiting to go at like 6:15am. They didn't even have a coffee or tea, just straight on the boat. And all in matching jungle gears of course.
On the safari we didn't really see too much wildlife. Our guide Pipi, was on the search to find an Oran Utan but we didn't see one. We did see a gibbon, which is probably my favorite monkey. They move through the trees like tarzan and they don't have a tail. Pretty sweet!! We also saw maques, and a few birds such as the kingfisher and hornbill. We then headed back for breakfast.
After breakfast we went on our first jungle Trek. We took the boat to get to the trail and we finally saw wild Oran Utan. It was a baby and mommy Oran Utan and they were on the other side of the river from our camp. On the jungle trek, we were mainly on the look out for insects and interesting plants since it's too hot for the wildlife to be out. Not much to report on many cool insects since I think we only saw a few small spiders and a millipede. Our guide showed us some poisonous plants which we then realized later that they were all over our camp.
After lunch, Pipi and another guide Popeye, took a few of us out for fishing. We learned how to fish with a net but Jared and I didn't catch anything. :( It's actually quite hard to throw the net properly in the water. Would take a lot of practise I think. We spent about 3 hours in the boat and it was sooooo hot. We weren't even allowed to dip our toes in the river because it is infested with Crocs. Recently, someone saw a massive croc snatch a pig from the side of the river. So needless to say, you wouldn't want to fall overboard. Popeye was great at fishing and caught some prawns and a descent size fish. One of the prawns he caught was about 20cm in body length and had really long pinchers.
There was an afternoon river safari about an hour after we got back from fishing but Jared and I were too knackered to head back into the sun. We pretty much suffered from heat stroke and dehydration even though we had already drunk heaps of water. You can never drink enough water in the jungles of Borneo.
For dinner Popeye cooked us up the fish he caught as well as the gigantic prawn. It was delicious. Mmmmm!!!
After dinner we went on our night trek. The trek took place in behind our camp. Considering Jared's bad eyesight, he actually spotted a slow Laurus (David Attenborough. Soooo....) which is very rare and has only been spotted once this year. They are simiar to a sloth as they move very slowly. But it was quite high up in the tree so we couldn't really get a good photo. For the rest of the trek, we saw a few birds, some frogs, fireflies, and a few other insects.
June 24,2009
Our last morning safari. We didn't get to see any Oran Utans this time but we did see a family of Pig Tailed Maques, more Proboscos Monkeys, and some birds.
After this we headed back to camp to prepare for departure. Jared and I were shouted a few beers from the boys. As we were drinking, we noticed team Delta force were waiting to board the boat. And it wasn't even time to leave yet!!
All in all Uncle Tan Wildlife Camp was an amazing 3 day/2 night adventure which you would never be able to experience anywhere else in the world. We got to see and learn about so much wildlife and it was just a stones throw away from where we were sleeping. Also, we noticed the camp is run by all young males and surprisingly, it was very well kept. They all seemed to know their part at Uncle Tans without an Alpha Jungle Male being present. Or so it seemed. It is quite sad to see however, all the palm tree plantations that are being established just for palm oil, which is destroying the habitat for the wildlife.
We headed back to KK amping for a nice hot shower.
Links provided below for viewing pleasure.
Gibbon
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/Primates/Facts/FactSheets/Gibbons/default.cfm
Pig Tailed Macaque
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Pig-tailed_Macaque
Probiscus Monkey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proboscis_Monkey
Hornbill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hornbill
Slow Lorris(couldnt find a picture)
http://slowlaurus.blogspot.com/
