This is supposed to be a holiday but we are up at 5.50, whilst it is still dark so that we can go out on safari again. A quick cup of tea and some toast and we are off. It is already broad daylight. No real dawn or dusk here as we are so near the equator. But the temperature is glorious. Warm, balmy heat at this time of the morning. We have not needed to wear a jumper at all since our arrival in Borneo.
We took the same route as yesterday, back to the village of Abai which is near where we saw the orangutan. As Andis said, he was still there. We could see the nest he had made for himself last night and he was in the mangrove tree eating it’s fruit. We were only 20 - 30 feet away and again sat looking at this beautiful creature who was so unperturbed by our presence. Sitting there as relaxed as could be, at times looking at us as much as we were looking at him, almost David Attenborough-like😂😂😂
A hundred yards away there was another orangutan. How amazing!
Not only does Andis know all about wildlife and has that wonderful ability to spot things, he is also a dab hand at taking photos with my camera through his binoculars! He managed a video this morning which I will post when we have enough signal.
We also spotted crocodiles, more kingfishers, proboscis monkeys, a silvered langur and a white bellied sea eagle.
The boat took us to what is very nearly an oxbow lake. There is still just a small channel to get into it. The water is obviously still and this lake is gradually being filled with plants. 3 main ones, but 2 of these are introduced and invasive. One is the water hyacinth from South America which looks so pretty with its purple flowers, and the other is from Brazil. Both difficult to remove. We had our second breakfast here. Andis and our captain had bought flasks of hot water with them to make tea and coffee, plus egg sandwiches. Lovely sitting in the peace and stillness of the lake.
The jungle we are in is not primary/virgin rainforest which means at some time in the past it has been cleared for logging and is now regrowing. This means that it is unable to support as much wildlife or the diversity of wildlife as the primary rainforest. All the time we are being told of how many critically endangered species there are here because of logging in the past and now the deforestation for oil palm plantations. There are many hundred orangutans in sanctuaries unable to go back into the wild as there is not enough jungle to be able to sustain them. We all need to be better shoppers, looking for products that only use sustainable oil palm oil, to say nothing of thinking before we use any plastic. The rubbish on the beaches here, in the sea and on the river banks is awful and we all need to do our bit to reduce what we use and pressurise companies to sort out their packaging at the very least! Rant over for the day, let’s move on!
Not sure if you will be able to expand this to see it all, but it was an interesting piece of reading!
So now we are back at the lodge where we have had a third and late breakfast!! I have been sitting writing this blog on the little balcony of our lodge but have had to move inside as I am being bitten to pieces! It’s a shame as it was lovely and peaceful, sitting looking out at the jungle, in shade, although it is heating up a bit now!
We enjoyed lunch. The food here is simple and good with a reasonable choice and you can take as little or as much as you like! And both meals have had plenty of veggies!
There was a bit more free time after lunch before heading off for another river safari. One of the disadvantages of river safaris is the lack of choice about direction. It’s just not like roads, so you end up going one of two ways and back. However wildlife is not tied to that so there are always changes to what you see. The big change was that our orangutan has moved on! Nowhere to be seen. On this excursion though we saw a lot of proboscis monkeys and I learnt today that these are even more critically endangered than the orangutan. If I have remembered correctly there are only about 20,000 proboscis monkeys in the wild compared to nearer 80,000 orangutans. I suppose the monkeys don’t look anywhere near as cute as the orangutan, the males with their enormous noses which the females find very attractive!!! The problem for the monkey along with the lack of habitat is the type of food they eat and they are more selective than the orangutan.
We also saw more eagles and kingfishers, silvered leaf monkeys and another young crocodile.
We were out for 3 hours and when we turned back, having gone the furthest distance so far, the sun was setting. We knew it was going to get dark before we got back as we were going to see fireflies, and I had wondered how they would see to steer the boat as there were no lights on it! To start with it was ok as there was still some low light, but then we just stopped in the river, turned the engine off and listened to the noise of the jungle. All you could hear were cicadas and some birds. It was so quiet and still and utterly peaceful. As we left the flying foxes (fruit bats) started flying. Huge things and so many of them. I was glad they kept their distance!!!
It was now dark. No light pollution here so the night sky was just something else. There is just the start of a new moon so little light from that either to mar the view. Our boat captain did have a sort of hand held spotlight but from our seats it didn’t look like it gave a clear light. Certainly no car headlight beam. Andis’s torch lighting up the river bank looking for nocturnal creatures seemed brighter. Now the river is probably 150 yards wide, but there are bends in it, bits that stick out, and large logs floating along and he wasn’t travelling slowly, although not as fast as in broad daylight! (I quite liked speeding along the river with the wind in your face. It kept you at a comfortable temperature for one thing!!!) So the relaxed state we were in when all was peaceful and quiet was replaced with one of heightened anxiety as we contemplated the fact that this was a crocodile infested river and we couldn’t see our hands in front of our faces! You just have to trust that these guys know what they are doing and that they know the river like the back of their hands. We got back safely anyway! Just before we reached the lodge though we stopped to see fireflies. They feed on a certain type of mangrove and the first tree we saw was like a Christmas tree with the tiniest twinkling lights on it. That coupled with even more stars in the sky now, made it all very dramatic in an understated way.
Dinner was ready on our return and whilst eating this some of the staff played in their band. It included the manager and the cook, plus 3 others on guitars, percussion and vocal. We enjoyed it!
We have been given the option of another early morning cruise tomorrow before we leave so another early start. It seems like we are gluttons for punishment!!
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