Borneo 2019

This was to be a busy day, culminating in my return flight to London, via KL. I started off by going down to the Orangutan Centre for the morning feeding. The first stop was the nursery area where the younger (though not that young) orangutans are brought for food and exercise. I watched behind glass as they trouped in, reminiscent of a group of actors. It was quite mesmerising watching them feeding and using the ropes between feeding stations. After about fifteen minutes it was time to go to the main feeding station ready for the 10.00 a.m. feed. Whether there was some signal or the orangutans had an amazing sense of time, I'm not sure but they all started to pitch up almost on the dot of 10.00. Again, it was a fascinating experience watching them feed and negotiate with each other - one or two bringing babies along with them. After this I went and finished packing and checked out before returning to the orangutan centre at about 11.30. I tho...

We set off at 08.30 for Sepilok, with the plan to stop after about half an hour at Gomantong. I must confess I had little enthusiasm for visiting these caves, described as wading through guano heaving in cockroaches. In fact the reality was fascinating, although the description was not totally off the mark. The cave is absolutely massive and I was imagining the staging of an opera there. The only problem would, of course, have been the guano which was indeed heaving with cockroaches and also watched over by some giant centipedes. What was missing from the description was that visitors walk on a boardwalk that goes round the cave and means one's feet are clean at the end of the visit. The cave system is used by swifts for nesting and the site is home to a carefully regulated birds nest soup industry. All in all, it was very educational and awesome. Once that visit was complete, we headed on to Sepilok Nature reort, about two hours down the r...

I was up early for the dawn boat trip. With the Australian family I was with the previous evening, we set off down river, seeing lots of monkeys, crocodiles and birds. We turned off the main river into a quiet tributary and on up to a lake - all formed when a meander in the main river had been cut off.  On the way back, we came across a guge crocodile as well as plenty of monkeys. Back in time for a late breakfast, I went off with a ranger and the Myne travel guide for a hike up to the watchtower they had built. This afforded great views down to the river but also of the dreaded plantations. The walk also included a huge tree with a hollowed trunk where a large number of local girls were hidden from the Japanese in the war. After lunch, I had a bit of a siesta, rudely interrupted by the local hooligan monkeys who parkourd over the chalet roofs. In the late afternoon, it was time for another river cruise, downriver again and i...