River safaris and 4 types of primates
Trip Start
Nov 30, 2009
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62
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Trip End
Jun 01, 2011
Sukau, Sabah, Malaysia
Sunday, June 20, 2010
After settling into our room and a very large downpour we were approached by a little local boy who asked "Excuse me, would you like to see an Orang-utan? Of course the answer to this question could only be yes. We made our way through the trees and sure enough high up in the branches was an adult and a baby, munching away on Durian fruits. We all stood and watched them for a good half an hour. An incredible bit of luck that they should venture so close to where we were staying, and also very reassuring that they were in the wild and clearly thriving.
Soon after it was time for the evening river cruise, with the owner of our guest house taking the four of us out on a small wooden motor boat. The area is one of the most bio-diverse places on the planet and one of the few locations on earth where there is the potential to see ten different types of primates. Our guide had the keenest eyesight and was able to spot things from way down the river, manoeuvring the boat closer to the bank so we were often just below the animals as they sat in the trees above our heads. It was clearly our day for wildlife spotting. Our list included Macaques, Hornbills, Proboscis Monkeys, Eagles, and even a snake.
The next morning saw us taking to the water again. Always Kev’s favourite getting up early as the sun rising, NOT, so he sat in silence for 3 hours while the rest of us got excited about the animals. We had two boats for an enlarged group, but it proved to be another great cruise. We saw a lot of the same animals as last evening with a couple of great additions, including another Orang-utan, sat in a tree close to the river bank. As we were heading home our boat was lagging behind our guide spotted something in the trees and move to the bank to get a closer look. The other boat continued on its merry way despite our mad waving. As we pulled up close to the bank we could make out 3 pygmy elephants, which despite the name are still pretty big, but amazingly camouflaged and almost impossible to see. They soon realised we were there and as if by magic, despite their size, just disappeared into the forest without a trace. Our guide decided to try and track them on foot and ushered us out of the boat and told us to follow him quietly. He quickly picked up their tracks in the wet mud and so we followed the trail of enormous muddy footprints through the trees until there hidden in the trees were a group of Pygmy Elephants, about 50 feet or so from us. A real heart stopping moment, realising such huge and potentially dangerous animals are so close, with nothing but a few spindly trees between us. Quite how our guide was able to spot them in the first place from the boat I have no idea, and judging by how excited he was it wasn’t an everyday occurrence so we were really were very lucky with the timing of our trip. The group in the other boat were gutted when we got back and told them what they’d missed out on!
Next stop, Mount Kinabalu, about 200km away, where we hope to undertake some more trekking. This time we opted to go with the Australians, sharing a taxi to take us up to the main road about 70km away, and then a bus to the national park. Proved to be a good move as made it in good time to catch the bus and got the last 4 seats on board.
