Changing Places

After our first night in the jungle we woke before sunrise to find the river covered in a blanket of mist.

“That looks like crocodile water” my girlfriend muttered, visibly petrified.

“Don’t worry,” I said smugly, “we do have a boat you know.”

Before long, however, my cocksure attitude faded as an outline of something afloat on the river began to emerge through the mist. At first it looked as if someone was paddling aboard an old surfboard. Was it a fisherman? I wasn't sure.

What remained of my earlier confidence soon vanished as it became clear that it was a man waving at us aboard a rather precarious looking wooden craft.

"Hello!” the man bellowed in a thick Malayan accent. “Welcome to the Kinabatangan Safari! I am your captain"

Snaking across the dense jungles of Malaysian Borneo, the mighty Kinabatangan River is home to some of the most spectacular wildlife and habitat on earth.

I was here to fulfil what I had thought was a childhood dream. Growing up in the British suburbs on a diet of David Attenborough documentaries, Borneo was always a place that evoked images of exotic adventure and natural wonder.

Now, as we were about to board what looked like a home-made canoe in a river teeming with man-eating crocodiles, I was having second thoughts.

“Is there a bigger boat available?” I asked.

“No my friend, this boat is big enough for us” the man replied with a smile.

Despite my initial fears, within minutes of getting on board all my concerns about the structural integrity of the boat were superseded by a sudden sense of amazement. The view was astounding: the labyrinth of tangled vegetation which fortified both banks of the murky brown river was teeming with life in the steamy twilight.

Just fifty meters downstream we had our first close encounter: a herd of pigmy elephants drinking by the riverbank. As we meandered slowly down the river our eagle-eyed captain would stop frequently to point out more wildlife: a reticulated python curled up in the mangroves; a saltwater crocodile bathing on the riverbank; a rhinoceros hornbill soaring above against a clear blue sky.

The highlight came when the captain became excited about something up in one of the treetop canopies. There, looking down over the rest of the jungle was an Orang-utan.

For anyone passionate about seeing wildlife in its natural habitat, the Kinabatangan is a great option. If I was to give one piece of advice, however, it would be this: make sure you enquire about the boat.