Day 325- Borneo, Malaysia

KINABATANGAN RIVER (22/11/09)

Dawn on the Kinabatangan. We got up early and were straight on the boat.

Thick mist still hung in the jungle but as the sun came over the horizon it quickly burned it away.

Just as the sun started shining we spotted this Gold-Ringed Cat Snake. It was the first wild venomous snake of our entire trip which was very exciting (for Adam). It is rear-fanged, however, which means that it poses very little threat to humans.

Blue sky! It seemed like quite a while since we had seen such a thing.

Yes it's another monkey, but one we hadn't seen before- A Silver Langur.

As we navigated down a narrow channel we spotted a large family of Otters- at least 15 of them. They were extremely quick and disappeared in an instant although we managed a couple of snaps before they did.

We came out of the channel into a large Ox-Bow lake on which grew many types of lily and fresh water plants.

Amongst the water plants Macaques searched for seeds, fruit and anything else remotely edible.

As we got closer in the boat this large male, probably the leader of the troop, came out of the upper branches and gave us a warning not to get any closer.

The attractive purple flowers of Water Hyacinths.

Back on the main river we spotted another troop of Proboscis Monkeys making their way along the river bank.

The alpha male of the troop. This huge male was so certain of his dominance that he let us get quite close to him. In this picture you can clearly see his enormous nose which is used to attract females and as a resonating device to amplify his territorial calls. The nose can reach up to seven inches in length and Liz says for some reason it reminds her of her brother-in-law.

Day 324- Borneo, Malaysia

TURTLE ISLANDS, SEPILOK ORANG UTAN REHABILITATION CENTRE AND THE KINABATANGAN RIVER (21/11/09)

To our relief the night before had been a success- we had spotted four adult Turtles and countless hatchlings. The hatcheries on these islands have made a huge impact in increasing Turtle numbers in this area and we were glad that at least some of the money we had paid for the visit would go towards keeping them going. Here is one of the three hatcheries on our island. Each protective green mesh surrounds the buried eggs from one nest, including the 84 we saw the night before.

On the beach we saw this large Monitor Lizard stalking around. His large size and fat belly suggest that he does fairly well on eggs and hatchlings that the Rangers do not manage to collect.

As we waited on the beach for our boat back to the mainland we saw this hatchling on it's way to the sea. It had obviously got left behind the night before.

It made fast and enthusiastic progress once it was nearly at the sea, it's specialised flippers clumsy and awkward on the land.

Finally, probably to it's great relief, it reached the sea.

Out in the water it was far more at home and we quickly lost sight of it. Of course there is always the chance that this one might be one of the tiny proportion that make it to adulthood. Unfortunately the reality is that it is far more likely that it got eaten by a sea bird about five minutes after this picture was taken.

Back on the boat we waved goodbye to Selingaan and another exciting chapter of our journey.

So now it was off to the jungle. We had to change guides and were to meet our new one in the car park of the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre. Lucky for us (unlucky for the people who had paid and were waiting patiently inside) there were three Orang Utans clambering around on the roof of the ticket office as we waited.

We were delighted with our free show and braved the rain to watch them.

No waterproof jacket for her! Despite the fact that she must be very used to the Monsoon rain, it still can't be all that pleasant having all that fur soaked right through.

With the arrival of our guide we set off on the three hour drive to Sukau, a tiny village on the banks of the mighty Kinabatangan River. On the way we stopped to buy a selection of tropical fruit. Rambutans (front) and Mangosteens (round and purple) we had come across before. New to us was the Langsat, a beige coloured fruit slightly larger than a grape. When the thin skin is removed five small segments are revealed. The taste is like a very mild, very sweet grapefruit- delicious!

The Kinabatangan River is sometimes called the Borneo Amazon. The parallels are obvious, it is one of the longest rivers in Borneo and the banks are thick jungle teeming with wildlife. Our jungle trek started with a short boat ride to the other side of the river. This was the start of the trail- we were glad to have a guide!

The warnings about leeches turned out to be justified, almost immediately we spotted this large specimen. We had heeded the advice and were well covered with both clothing and Deet. As a result we almost (Elinor got one on her arm) completely avoided being bitten.

A Pill Millipede, it rolled into a ball for protection as soon as we got near it.

Frustratingly we had only been walking a few minutes when the torrential Monsoon rain started once again. This meant that not only did we get soaked to the skin but any wildlife that was around sought shelter and disappeared.

The rain did not ease off again until late in the afternoon. In a small motorboat we patrolled the banks of the river searching for animals. We quickly found a troop of Long-tailed Macaques.

Next we found a troop of Proboscis Monkeys. You can see on this large male how they get their name.

High in the trees we spotted this adolescent Orang Utan making it's bed for the night.

Just before dusk we sat and watched a troop of Pig-tailed Macaques (named for their short, curly tails) crossing the river. They are competent swimmers but the National Park authorities were worried that too many were being hit by river boats. As a solution to the problem they built several 'monkey bridges' like this one. Simply made of two parallel chains or ropes the Macaques seemed more than happy to use them- probably it's far preferable to getting cold, wet and dirty in the river below.

Day 323- Turtle Islands, Borneo

TURTLE ISLANDS (20/11/09)

Before setting off to the jungle we were first spending the night on the island of Selingaan, one of Borneo's three Turtle Islands. Since the islands are off the coast of Borneo, well out to sea we were surprised when our bus dropped us off at this tiny river port.

Nevertheless we were assured that we were in the right place and sure enough, after about half an hour, a boat arrived to take us to the island.

The boat set off at break-neck speed down the narrow river and we all thoroughly enjoyed both the ride and the scenery.

After 20 minutes on the river we still didn't know how we were getting to an island in the sea. However all of a sudden we shot out of a narrow estuary and into the Celebes Sea.

The excitement of the river combined with the monotony of the open sea (and an early start) was too much for Adam and he allowed the small waves to rock him to sleep like a big hairy baby.

On arrival at Selingaan Island we were amazed to find that for the first time in several days it wasn't raining- in fact there was sun!

Not wanting to waste the opportunity we headed straight for the beautiful beach which encircles the tiny island and provides the turtles with their nesting ground.

Elinor borrowed some snorkelling gear and was straight in the sea looking at the wide variety of fish that live on the reefs around the island.

More interested in exploring than swimming Adam and Liz set off around the island. Some times of year are better than others for seeing the turtles and we were here in low season. Because there was the chance that we might not see any turtles at all we were both looking out for signs that they were about. Here we found a very good sign, very recent turtle tracks, perhaps from the night before.

Another good sign, a hatched turtle egg shell.

Despite these optimistic signs we had to wait until nearly 9pm until we finally got the call from the Rangers that a female was laying on the beach. We hurried out to the beach as quick as we could and were over the moon when we saw what we had come here to see- a female Green Turtle laying eggs on the beach. Liz had been desperate to see this since we tried, and failed, in Costa Rica all the way back in March so you can imagine how happy she was that we had finally done it so near to the end of our trip.

During the egg laying process the female goes into a kind of trance, oblivious of movement and noise around her. This is the only reason that tourists such as ourselves are allowed to get so close during this sensitive moment. The Rangers must judge carefully- if she is disturbed before she starts laying she may return to the sea without laying at all.

As she finished laying her eggs the Rangers allowed us a quick look at the whole turtle.

She really was huge, for an animal so at home in the sea it takes an immense amount of effort to drag their heavy shell all the way up the beach to lay the eggs in the safest possible place.

In the Turtle we were watching laid 84 eggs. Green Turtles are an endangered species due largely to bad fishing practices and pollution. To give the eggs an even better chance the rangers remove them immediately from the beach and take them to their hatchery. Here they bury the eggs in a similar way to the mother but away from unusually high tides and protected from predators.

There is quite a rush after collecting the eggs- they must be buried again within two hours to stand a good chance of growing into a hatchling turtle.

The final part of our evening's Turtle experience. The days hatchlings, from eggs buried around 50 days before, were brought to the beach in a basket. At the edge of the sea they were tipped onto the beach where they scuttled into the sea. Probably only one or two of these baby turtles will manage to survive the harsh sea world and become adult Green Turtles but if they do there is a high chance that when their turn to lay eggs comes, it will be on this same beach.

Day 322- Sandakan, Borneo

SANDAKAN (19/11/09)

We needed a day to sort a few things out, not least our hundreds of pictures of primates. We also needed to organise the next stage of our trip, trekking in the jungle. Since there had been a fair amount of rain we had been informed, much to Liz's delight, that there would be a plague of leeches waiting for us. We each picked up a pair of these 'leech socks' which look strangely appropriate in our hotel room which had been (hardly) converted from a hospital room of some sort.

It was fairly inevitable that one of us would put one on our head. Here's Elinor doing her best Wee Willie Winkie impression.