During the heat of the day, while most wildlife is hiding away resting, we headed out in search of insects and other creepy crawlies. From camp we took a short boat ride to one of the government protected patches of jungle. The guide explained about the conservation areas by drawing the river and 10 patches of protected jungle along the river. At first I thought that the protected patches must be separated by non-protected jungle. But cruising down the river it soon became apparent that the protected jungle is separated by NO jungle. Instead, there are vast swatches of logged land and palm tree plantations in various stages along the river. It’s really a sad sight! You can tell the impact on the wildlife that lives there when you see a frightened orang utan who wants to swing from his tree to another tree to get away, except there isn’t another tree nearby. The smaller monkeys are also forced to run to the ground to find another tree to climb up for safety. So although we had finally reached the rain forest, there wasn’t nearly as much intact forest as we had expected and hoped for. There are many species living in Borneo that are found in a very small area of the world, so if the rain forest in Borneo is not protected soon, they will soon be forced to extinction. And now we have seen first hand what the call “save the rain forest” means. To be effective, the government should be protecting a wide swath of land along both sides of the Kinabatangan River, not only tiny discontinuous patches. Environmental groups like the WWF are working to protect species and habitat in Borneo, but much more still needs to be done!
The scariest creature we came across in the Borneo jungle- a tractor! This was an unimaginable sight that has left a permanent impression in our minds. I find it hard to believe how many of the animals even survive! It’s so sad to see the jungle wiped out to plant palm oil plantations! Don’t want to preach, but please be mindful of junk food items that you purchase as many of their ingredients contain palm oil. Just the other day we were eating a pack of Oreos (comfort junk food for us), but when we turned over the package we realized that palm oil was one of the ingredients … oops. No more Oreos for us!
Afternoon Trek:
Before the start of the trek we were warned to be prepared for the heat and mosquitoes. So we covered ourselves in mosquito repellent and put on some dirty rubber boots to begin our trek through the swampy, stenchy, hot jungle … not fun …
Even though we were struggling from the heat and humidity, the guides were very good at finding the wildlife around us under the shade of the trees, looking under leaves and in trees. This brown frog is a full grown adult and is the smallest one found in Borneo.
We didn’t find too much of interest while hiking around in the conservation area. Besides, I was ready to get out of the heat and away from the mosquitoes that really can bite through clothing. The boat ride back to camp turned out to be the exciting part of the day…
George was really hoping to see an adult crocodile (the baby we saw didn’t count, since we couldn’t get a photo), and at first he thought this was a crocodile, but it turned out just to be another Monitor Lizard, but still impressive!
When we were just across the river from camp, we sighted another wild Orang Utan! This male orang utan was calmly hanging out and eating and didn’t seem phased at all by our boat pulling up nearby. Our guide asked if we wanted to get out of the boat and try to get closer to the tree that the orang utan was in, and George and I jumped at the idea. In fact, I jumped out of the boat a bit too soon. We had pulled up to the shore, and to the port side of the boat was a muddy embankment. I thought our guide had given us the go-ahead to get out of the boat, so I hopped out onto the embankment, only to find that there was no solid ground, only mud! My left leg and hand sunk right in! Apparently, I was supposed to step onto the bank right in front of the bow of the boat, not off to the side! I tried climbing from the mud onto the bank, but I was only sinking farther in. Instead, we managed to get me back on the boat and from there I stepped onto the real shore. After my little incident, only one other couple was still interested in joining us on our orang utan seeking mission. The rest of our boat members headed back to shore for lunch. We headed off toward the tree, crashing through some dried out bamboo, and spiky vines that grabbed onto our clothing and into our skin. No matter, we were so excited about pursuing a wild orang utan that we were not phased. By the time we got to the tree where we had seen the orang utan, he was gone. At least we tried! And then again, it may have been better that he ran away, instead of trying to scare us off by throwing branches at us, as aggressive males are known to do. Reflecting back on the experience, it probably was not the smartest thing to do to go running into the jungle through a bank that was covered with thick plants in the sun since that is prime areas for crocodiles to hang out! Also, an aggressive male could have ripped us to shreds if it wanted. Good thing none of those things happened! Regardless, we were quite excited to witness a male orang utan in the wild! An unforgettable experience!
When we got back to camp we went to change out of our mud-coated clothes, and by the time we got to the dining area, there was no food left :(. One of the staff was nice and brought us some watermelon, which held us over until dinner time.