Tuesday 26th June – Mount Kinabalu Trek
– Recovery
Oh
the pain. I woke this morning, and just
like after Rinjani, attempted to get out of bed and it was a serious
struggle. I hobbled my way to the
toilet. We made our way to Old Town
White Coffee for breakfast, walking as if we had lost our horses.
Our
next adventure in Borneo is to the Kinabatangan River to stay in a Nature Lodge
with a stop in Sepilok for a few days first.
On the recommendation of Simone’s friend we made our way to Nasalis
Larvatus Tours on the second floor of Wisma Sabah (their name comes from the
Latin name for the proboscis monkey which we are hoping to see). We managed to get an excellent deal. We booked two nights at their hostel in
Sepilok, Wasri Sepilok Resthouse and transport to their Nature Lodge on the Kinabatangan
River where we will also stay for two nights.
At the Nature Lodge we will do four river cruises and day and night
walks through the rainforest. All food
is also included. It came to a total of
500 RM each (after a little haggling).
We leave on Thursday morning.
Later
in the afternoon after a visit to the tourist office we walked passed one of
the shopping malls, Wisma Merdeka, and spotted a huge sign saying ‘Lumix
Station’. How we did not spot this
before I will never know as we have been to this mall many times. Excited and hopeful we went in and found the
shop. Things are promising. I left my camera with them and knowing I need
it back tomorrow they are going to do their best to get it to the official Panasonic
Service Centre tomorrow morning and have it repaired by the afternoon. My gut tells me they won’t be able to fix it.
As
it was now 7.00 p.m. we went straight for dinner and drinks. We headed to Texas Grill again. It was time to celebrate our huge achievement
of conquering Mount Kinabalu and we did it in style. We rolled out of there at midnight. A great night and the drinks helped us forget
or aching legs, until it was time to walk home of course.
Wednesday 27th June – Finally - Fixed!
Today
at 1.00 p.m. I got a phone call from Lumix Station to tell me my camera had
been fixed. Excellent news. I can now go to the Kinabatangan River without
the fear of missing a good photo opportunity of the wildlife. While there Simone decided to buy a new
camera to replace the one she lost (or in opinion was stolen) in Jepara in
Indonesia. It’s the newer model than
mine. I’m very jealous.
For
the rest of the day we rested our still weary legs, went to Bella Italia for
dinner and packed for our trip to Sepilok in the morning.
After
our trip to the Kinabatangan River we will be returning to Kota Kinabalu to
flying to Mulu in Sarawak, the other Malaysian province on Borneo. Tonight we booked our flights for the 3rd
July.
Thursday 28th June – A Fortunate Blunder
After
our breakfast we got a taxi to the Inanam bus station to get our bus to
Sepilok. It’s a journey of 300 km but
takes six hours as the bus has to navigate its way around steep and winding
roads to get passed and over Mount Kinabalu.
At 9.00 a.m. we jumped on the bus and we were on our way.
Last
night about two minutes after booking our flights to Mulu we realised we had
made a bit of a blunder. According to
the Lonely Planet there are only two places to stay in Mulu – the Mulu Park
Headquarters (dorm 40 RM, rooms from 110 RM) or Royal Mulu Resort (rooms from
380 RM). We had not checked
availability. I sent an email to Mulu
Park Headquarters and before leaving this morning got a reply to say that all
rooms and dorms were booked for the dates we needed. I called to make sure. I had no joy.
Having no choice I then called Royal Mulu Resort. I was thinking, ‘This could end up being an
expensive few days!’ But they were also
booked up. When I discovered that they had
availability from the 4th July I pleaded with them to let us sleep
in their common area – anywhere. At this
point she suggested I ring a homestay nearby.
Homestay? We had no idea that was
even an option. I called Melinau Lodge
Homestay. They had a private room
available for us at 15 RM per person per night.
Needless to say I booked it for three nights. Our mistake of booking the flights first has
turned to our advantage. We are going to
save 100s of RM. Not only that but the
owner of the homestay works at the airport so will collect us. It sounds like a very basic place but I’m
sure it will be perfect and is apparently only a two minute walk from the park.
After
six-and-a-half hours on the bus we reached our drop off point for Sepilok, a
junction on the main road to Sandakan.
Once we were off the bus a man approached us and offered to take us the
remaining 2 km to our hostel in his minibus.
The conversation:
· ‘You want to go to Sepilok? 5 RM each’
·
‘Yes, that’s perfect.’
·
‘That’ll be 15 RM’
·
‘But you just said, ‘5 RM each’. That’s only 10 RM in total.
·
‘Ah, yes, it’s 15 RM now’
·
‘What?
That doesn’t make sense. YOU said
5 RM each’
·
’15 RM’
·
‘Look, forget it, we’ll just walk’
·
’10 RM! 10 RM!’
We
walked to his minibus. The woman sitting
inside was told to get out. From what I
could work out he said he would come and collect her after. Not the first time this has happened to
us. I always feel bad, but she seemed
happy enough with the arrangement.
We
first drove along the main road before turning off onto a dirt track and then
off onto another smaller dirt track before reaching Wasri Sepilok Resthouse. We unloaded and checked in. It’s a nice place and very quiet. There are only two other people staying here
and tomorrow night we will be the only guests.
The
reason that Sepilok exists as a place to visit is the Sepilok Orang-utan
Rehabilitation Center (SORC) which we will be visiting tomorrow. There is also a Rainforest Discovery Center
(RDC). Apart from that there are a
handful of hostels, homestays and hotels, and one shop. To get our bearings for tomorrow we took a
walk to the RDC and found out how to get to the SORC before returning to the
hostel for dinner.
As
we ate dinner night fell and soon it was pitch black apart from the hostel
lights. We needed a few things from the
shop so asked if it would still be open.
They replied, ‘Yes, but do you really want to go? On your own?’ I was confused by this and said I did and
that I had a head torch so I’d be fine.
It was only 10 minutes away. I
readied myself to go and before I knew it three of the guys working at the
hostel were standing waiting to accompany me to the shop. I was a bit baffled and explained I would be
perfectly ok by myself, but they insisted.
‘Is it dangerous?’ I asked. ‘No. We just don’t want anything to happen to you
in the dark’. So it was that they
escorted me to the shop. An incident free
20 minute expedition.
Safely
back, Simone and I sat outside having a few drinks while watching a
thunderstorm in the distance. At one
point the electricity in the town went out.
Not a common occurrence we were told.
Once finished our drinks we watched a few episodes of On The Trail Of
Genghis Khan.
Friday 29th June – Orang-utans
We
ate our breakfast, which I would guess was made about three hours earlier, left
the hostel at 8.15 a.m. and headed to the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation
Center (SORC) to be on time for the 9.00 a.m. feeding.
We
just made it. After paying our 40 RM
entrance fee we walked for five minutes to reach the viewing area. When we arrived the ranger was already on the
platform about 20 metres away from us.
Not being sure if any orang-utans would appear we all got very excited
when someone spotted a lone orang-utan making its way through the trees to the
platform. It was amazing to watch. It sat there completely unfazed by the crowd
of onlookers as it munched on a load of bananas. After a little while other monkeys came to
join in the feeding. When the orang-utan
spotted these it loaded up all its hands and feet and jumped onto the
ropes. It then quickly made its escape
with its swag by swinging along the rope and passed directly over our
heads. And as quick as that he was gone.
After a few minutes we made our back to the main office where we watched a 20 minute video explaining the workings of the SORC. They take in injured or orphaned orang-utans and fed them until they can be released into the wild and then are helped to adapt slowly but surely until they can fend for themselves and live in the rainforest. It was so strange watching it – I have seen these type of movies before but never when I was actually sitting in the place where all the rehabilitation was taking place.
What
we wanted to do next was take a walk along the trails in the SORC but they were
all closed to visitors for reasons unknown.
So instead we made our way a little earlier than planned to the
Rainforest Discovery Centre (RDC).
At
the RDC we spent a few hours walking around the trails and along the canopy
walkway which at times was up to 20 m above the ground. The trails were much shorter than the map
made them look. The canopy walkway did
not reflect the ‘artist’s impression’ which was supposed to help guide us. I’m not sure what impression the artist got
but it wasn’t from the RDC. But the RDC
was a lot of fun. We bounced across a
rope bridge and made our way to see a big tree, which actually has a name but
what it is I forget. Something like The
Big Tree or The Sepilok Big One.
After
three hours of acting like children we went back to the SORC for the 4.00 p.m.
feeding of the orang-utans. This time we
were lucky enough to see a mother orang-utan with its baby. They both stayed around much longer than the
one in the morning giving us plenty of opportunity to watch them. After an hour we left to go back to the
hostel.
On
the way back we stopped off for dinner in a hotel close to the SORC. It was a beautiful setting beside a lake with
good food.
The
thing about Borneo is that everything is bigger. Little insects in other parts of the world
are the size of trucks here. As we
walked along the road we spotted a huge centipede (or millipede – not sure of
the difference) crossing the road. We
stopped to get a photograph of the monster and as we did a car came hurtling towards. If they had collided I’m sure the car would
have come off worse. Luckily an accident
was avoided but after the car had driven away the centipede (or millipede –
still not sure of the difference) had curled up into an impenetrable ball. To spare any cars from getting damaged we
gently moved if off the road and went on our way.
We
ended the evening back at the hostel, which we had completely to ourselves, with
a couple of drinks before ewtching the rest of the On The Trail Of Genghis Khan
– a documentary series I would highly recommend.
Saturday 30th June – Kinabatangan River
– Day 1
Today
we were leaving for the Kinabatangan Nature Lodge. With the bus coming to collect us at 8.30
a.m. we got up early for breakfast and not at all to our surprise it was
cold. But better was to come. Simone lifted one of her hash browns. Yesterday morning she also lifted a hash
brown, took a small bite and decided not to eat it. This morning on her plate was the very same
hash brown with that little bite taken out of it. Maybe they thought she wanted to finish what
she had started yesterday. Very
thoughtful of them I have to say.
The
bus journey was three hours with a stop for food on the way. We got off the bus at Kampung Bilit, a small
town by the river, jumped in a boat and were taken to the Kinabatangan Nature
Lodge located on the opposite bank.
After a brief introduction to the lodge we were shown to our room –
compact but nice and thankfully fully mosquito proofed. We were now in the rainforest. The humidity could be felt immediately.
We
only had 45 minutes to prepare ourselves for our first activity – a boat cruise
along the river to spot the wildlife.
The sky looked ominous with large black clouds in the distance. I decided that rainproof clothing wasn’t
necessary. That would be because I am
an idiot. We got in the boat and it
wasn’t long before we could see monkeys in the trees at the edge of the
river. Then our guide spotted elephant
footprints at the very edge of the river.
As we went further upstream we were getting closer to the black
clouds. The rain started about 15
minutes into the trip. Within another 10
minutes it was torrential. Everyone
grabbed their ponchos, rain jackets, hoodies.
I sat there getting drenched. I
attempted to cower behind the people sitting in front of me but it was pointless. The rain bashed my face no matter what I
did. With the heavy rain the animals
took shelter so we didn’t see much more but that didn’t stop the guide from
dragging the cruise out to one-and-a-half drowning hours. Of course this was all my own fault and I
can’t complain about rain, I am in a rainforest after all.
When
we were back at the nature lodge I dried myself off, took a much needed shower
and Simone and I went for dinner. It
never fails to amaze me the quality and choice of food at places like
this. We had a feast while watching
albatross-sized moths circling the food cabin.
In
the evening there was a night walk through the rainforest but with the weather
still as bad we decided against this (we can do it tomorrow night instead) and
had an early night. Our first activity
tomorrow is another boat cruise at 6.00 a.m.
Hope the rain has stopped.
Sunday 1st July – Kinabatangan River –
Day 2
Today
I woke up at 5.30 a.m. and decided I was not going to make the same mistake as
yesterday. I packed every piece of
waterproof clothing I had. Then I
grabbed my clothes from yesterday and realised it was all in vane anyway as
they were still soaking. Nothing dries
in this humidity and dry things get damp.
This
morning’s cruise was much better. The
rain stayed away. Within a short period
of time we saw something very special – an orang-utan in the wild. Seeing them in Sepilok was good, but this was
a completely different experience and not something everyone sees on the
cruises. They are an endangered species
so catching a glimpse of one is not guaranteed.
We were lucky enough to see one literally hanging out in a tree. Yet another moment I will not forget. As we cruised further up the river and back
again we saw hornbills flying overhead and perched in the trees and a monitor
lizard walking along the river’s edge.
The
cruise was over at about 7.15 a.m. at which point we were back in the lodge and
had breakfast. Next up was a walk
through the rainforest to an oxbow lake to hopefully catch sight of more
animals.
The
brochure for the nature lodge mentions that while here you may get the chance
to see the ‘recently discovered’ Borneo pygmy elephant. Just before we set off on the trek into the
rainforest we were given a briefing. ‘If
we see elephants we have to come back immediately. If we see elephant footprints we have to come
back immediately. If we hear branches
breaking (it might be elephants!) we have to come back immediately. If someone thinks of an elephant we have to
come back immediately. If someone’s favourite film is The Elephant Man, we are
not even leaving’. Obviously they didn’t
actually say the last two things. The Borneo
pygmy elephant was discovered in the 19th century. The brochure is slightly misleading in my
opinion. However, they do have a
point. Last year an Australian girl was taking
a photograph of a baby elephant but got too close. She was charged by the bull,
lifted up in its trunk and impaled on its tusk.
Sadly she died. They are
dangerous animals.
Other
creatures we had to be careful off were snakes, toxic caterpillars and, of
course, leeches. We were informed that
if we find a leech on our body and it has already starting sucking blood, do
not pull it off. Doing so can cause some
of the leech to stay inside and cause terrible itching. This happened a guide five years ago. He is still scratching that itch today. The best method is to spray DET on it and it
shrivels up just like when salt is poured on a slug. At that moment all I could think of was me being
in a similar situation to Gordie, Chris, Teddy and Vern crossing the
river. I prayed I wouldn’t be playing
the part of Gordie.
Briefing
done we set off into the rainforest. Within
a few minutes the guide had a leech on his hand. I was surprised how small it was and that it
was not a waterborne leech. The leeches here live in the trees and on the
plants. As we soldiered on through the
forest and the deep mud we saw lots of different types of creepy-crawlies, some
toxic, some not and after about one hour reached the oxbow lake where we
relaxed for a few minutes before making our way back. Some of the others in the group had had
leeches and had them safely removed.
Once
back I have to say I felt a bit disappointed at not having got myself attached
to a leech. As I sat on the balcony of
our room and Simone wandered off somewhere else I felt a sudden urge to touch
my lower back – LEECH! Or at least I
thought it was, I couldn’t see. I ran
towards Simone but when halfway there I remembered I had to run and get (no, not
the DET) the camera. Sure enough it was
a leech. It must have been there for at
least 10 minutes and it looked it – big and fat and full of my blood. I felt like I really had been to the
rainforest. After taking the obligatory photographs
we sprayed it with the DET and it soon feel to the ground. We then continued to photo-document its demise. I’m not putting the photos up – they are a
bit horrible. Ok, just this one.
After
lunch and chilling out for a few hours we went on the afternoon boat
cruise. Like this morning the rain
stayed away and we saw so many animals – families of proboscis monkeys with
their funny noses, hoards of macaque monkeys, hornbills, crocodiles and
lizards. It was such a stark contrast to
yesterday’s cruise.
Back
at the lodge for dinner we met Harriet and Jack. We had actually seen them in Sepilok and
noticed they were here as well. They had
done the night walk last night and said it was good so tonight it was time for
us to see what creatures appear at night.
We got the same warnings as the earlier trek and set off with our head
torches to guide us along. We saw a bird
sleeping and then nothing else at all until the very end. Then we saw a bush baby. These are cutest little animals you could
ever see. It was crawling up a tree and
stopped as we walked passed. They have
the biggest eyes I have ever seen on an animal.
It gripped the tree studying us as much as we studied it. Once it got bored it did a stunning backwards
leap onto another tree to escape from our, what must have been by that stage,
unwanted attention.
Once
back at the lodge and shattered after an action packed day we had an early
night to prepare for our 6.00 a.m. cruise again tomorrow and the trip back to
Kota Kinabalu.
Monday 2nd July – Kinabatangan River –
Day 3
The
early morning 6.00 a.m. river cruise did not disappoint. Lots more monkeys, birds and a
crocodile. Back at the lodge we had
breakfast and prepared to leave at 8.30 a.m.
We
got the boat across the river to Kampung Bilit where we hopped on an arranged
transfer bus. This left us to the main
road so that we could get a bus back to Kota Kinabalu. The driver made a quick phone call to sort
out our onwards bus. I had thought that
this would involve a very long wait and that we would arrive back in Kota
Kinabalu very late. However we only had
to wait 15 minutes before the bus arrived and we were on our way by 10.00 a.m. Harriet and Jack were making the same
journey. While waiting on the bus we
told them about the hotel we were staying in and they booked a room there too.
At
5.00 p.m. we were all back in Kinabalu Backpackers Lodge. This was Simone and
I’s last night in Kota Kinabalu and Sabah.
At 7.00 p.m., along with Harriet and Jack we went to Texas Grill for
food and a few drinks and had a great night.
Harriet and Jack and also going to Mulu but a few days after us. If we end up there longer than expected we’ll
hopefully see them again.
We
were back at hostel by midnight.
Tomorrow we fly to Mulu.
