Borneo, Kinabatangan: Wildlife

We had booked 2 days, 3 nights with a tour company to see the wildlife of the Kinabatangan. Our first problem was getting there as it was around 150kms from Semporna.

There are minibuses that can get you close to where we needed to be and the tour company would pick us up from a designated roundabout. The minibus option meant taking one to Lahad Datu and getting onto another minibus to Sandakan. These buses only left when they were full and not all the minibuses had air-conditioning. We were finding the heat and humidity quite trying after Nepal, had taken a wrong turn on the way to the mini bus terminal, and been lied to by a man in the mosque car park - so we gave in and went by taxi. For nearly the entire journey we were travelling through palm plantations with the plantations out as far as the eye could see. Our taxi took us to the junction on the main road that led down to where we were staying, the Bilit Jungle Lodge.

Our tour guide picked us up from there and navigated the road to the lodge which was unmade and a pot-holed mess but after about 5 or 6 kilometres we came to the Kinabatangan River. From there we got onto small boat that took us downriver to the lodge. We decided that we are too old to sleep in discomfort so we had booked ourselves an air-conditioned cabin.

After settling in we joined 3 others that were in our group (Danish, a lawyer studying in Singapore, his doctor brother and medical student sister-in-law) and hopped on a boat for the first of our river cruises to hunt for wildlife. I have no idea how the boatman does it but you know when he has spotted something because the boat slows rapidly and deviates toward the bank despite the speed he is travelling at! Turns out we did quite well as we saw 6 orangutans (including a male making his nest for the night), a couple of troops of proboscis monkeys, heaps of other monkeys, a mangrove cat snake, as well as rhinoceros and other hornbills.

We repeated the boat trip early the next morning and were a little less successful in the mammal department (monkeys) but did see lots of hornbills and other birds. We rounded out the morning by doing a jungle trek. This involved being dropped off up the river and making our way back on a well worn track. We had been warned that the track may be muddy so we chose to hire some gumboots (and leech socks) - lucky we did! The jungle trek could more aptly be described as a mud bash or "jungle wade". We walked for around 2 hours through the (hot, steamy) jungle on a path that was primarily mud. Our guide showed us lots of interesting stuff but boy the shower when we got back was good!

Mind you, the leech I found on my upper thigh didn't think the toilet was a good spot to be. About an hour after we flushed him down he was making a bid for freedom so his second flushing made sure he wouldn't return! [In defence of the leech socks and gum boots we think the leech got in through the mesh pocket lining of Frank's trousers - S.]

Our guide had been in contact with other guides in the area and apparently pygmy elephants had been seen way up the river. We took the option of paying the boatman a bit extra so he could take us to where they were last seen so we could catch a glimpse. In the end we travelled about 20kms up river and didn't get to see a pygmy elephant. In fact, I think we saw less wildlife than the previous night - mind you we did see another six orangutans right next to the river, and the young ones were putting on quite an acrobatic show!