The boat ride deep into the jungle was a safari in itself, with birds flying above, monkeys playing on the shores and the eerie feeling that crocs were lurking just beneath the murky river's surface...
We arrived to settle into our accommodation- a raised wooden box with cage wire for windows- somewhat of a reverse zoo- and to have a drink and a chat with our new roomies- Becs and Scott from Southampton, before dinner. We met the guides and one of the locals- the massive bearded pig!
After dinner was our first official adventure - a night boat safari - cruising up and down the Kinabatangan looking for wildlife. We saw owls, frogs and heaps of birds. My favourite was the Kingfisher we found asleep on a low branch - he was so colourful and just looked plastic! He didn't even move an inch even with the massive spotlight shining straight on him. The guide knew the latin and common name for every animal as well as what they ate, their predators, usual behaviours, etc.
When we got back to camp, we discovered a few cans of beer still cold in the esky, so despite being exhausted we decided to stay up looking for civet cats (the only ones out of about 30!). Apparently they come up into the common area after the generators are turned off around midnight. By about 1.30am we had seen Mr Pig a few times but no cats, mainly due to the noise coming from the other side of the camp - a local school group on "eco-camp". It was around then we decided we better get some sleep - we had to be up again at 6!
So up again at 6 and once again we cruised the river for wildlife. A fairly unsuccessful venture (by camp standards) we only saw a few Hornbills, a Sea Eagle, a few Macaques, some Egrets and lots of trees. Over breakfast we discovered the other group had seen a big croc and the previous morning some others had seen a mother Orang Utan with its baby. It was nice to see the sun rise over the river as well.
Anyways, after breakfast a guide took us for a walk around the jungle immediately next to the camp. We saw tonnes of bugs and looked for bats asleep in curled banana leaves and the guide showed us the different plants you can use for food, water and medicine and we ate leaves and fruit! I had some kind of millipede thing crawling on me that excreted oil that smelt like almond essence and we saw a frog that was camouflaged as bark!
Back to camp for another feed and we were well an truly ready for "siesta time" - seeing out most of the afternoon.
After the heat of the day had cooled a little, we went for another quick cruise along the river before dinner. The highlight was a group of Proboscis monkeys swinging and playing in the trees and a big male Orang Utan setting up his nest ready for bed. He must have been nearly done when we arrived as he quickly disappeared into it, leaving us staring at a black blob in the trees for nearly half an hour! The guide and Camp Boss, Lan, soon advised us that if we wanted, we could wake up at 5am and he would take us back, ready for when he wakes up - to which everyone quickly put their hand up for, so we cruised back to camp. When we got back to camp at around 7.30pm a civet cat was wondering round the eating area! We were excited to see one, but cut that we had waited until 1.30 in the morning to see one!
After dinner it was on with some gum boots and off for our night trek. By now, we were all good friends (and had had a beer or two with dinner - cold from the next lot of new arrivals) and squelching knee deep in swamp mud - so it was doubtful we would be catching any creatures unaware, but our guide Leo still found us some creatures including an angry little scorpion, a tarantula with its babies and a really cute tree frog perched on a branch. The best thing ever though- no leeches!! We were flopped under our bug net soon after.
At 5am the excitement of seeing the endangered Orang Utans in the wild had us up and ready at the jetty well and truly before Lan. Running a little 'late' we cruised down to the spot and were thankfully rewarded with a sighting. We were waiting about 20 minutes before the lazy bugger decided to get up- apparently well and truly slept in by OU standards! After moving about a bit in his nest, he eventually climbed out and about half way down the tree, completed his morning ritual of pooping and peeing what seemed like half his body weight and then climbed the rest of the way down and into the jungle. We also saw some more Proboscis monkeys playing in the trees and a small croc on the way back.
After breakfast the "white boys" decided to take up the guides' invitation to a friendly barefoot soccer match whilst we waited to depart late morning. When the guides came back a few minutes later dressed in various soccer tops and shorts (whilst the whites boys had gotten so hot waiting five minutes in the mid morning heat they had taken their shirts off), it was very apparent who would be winning this match. Even with a few white boy subs dragged from the breakfast table or the grandstand they couldn't manage to be competitive and retired at one injury and 3-15 down, just in time for our last river cruise back to the road.
I was disappointed we didn't see any elephants but it was heaps of fun all the same! Apparently the elephants had been seen in a patch of jungle about 75km up river, if we'd been there a few weeks later they would have made their way down to Uncle Tan's patch and we could have seen them.
The Uncle Tan's crew
Roomies Becs and Scott and AnnaLisa
As an aside, if you click on the "Uncle Tan's Jungle Camp" heading at the top of the post the page will reload with a zoomed in map of Uncle Tan's (like it will if you click on any headings, or just use the zoom bar). You'll notice that Uncle Tan's resides in a patch of dark green, that's primary rainforest. You'll also notice that most of the Kinabatangan River is surrounded by light green, that's palm oil plantation. That's why it's so easy to see wildlife at Uncle Tan's, it's hemmed in by plantation forest though which animals migrate but don't live.
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