Back from Borneo

Back from the exotic land of Borneo. Flew into Sandakan Thursday afternoon, visited the Sepilok Orangutan Center, Turtle Island (Selingan) on Friday, and spent a couple of nights/days near Bilit at the Kinabatangan Nature Lodge. Not much WiFi. Ran into a few backpackers and other travelers along the way. We traveled all the way to Borneo, and the only other Americans we met were from Corvallis!

Sandakan was mostly destroyed in WWII, so the town was rebuilt just after the war. It is badly in need of improvement - infrastructure is crumbling already. I can't recommend Sandakan itself as a destination, but if you want to go to Turtle Island, Sepilok or on the Kinabatangan River cruises, it's the place you have to start. The broken sidewalks and the "Free Smells" were notable. We generally find Malaysian cuisine "passable" so far - eggs at almost every meal, and once we had french fry salad - unique Bornean cuisine.

A visit to the Sepilok Orangutan Center was great. Very well set up to move large numbers of tourists out into the jungle where one can see the rangers feeding the orangs. Saw two juveniles and one older/larger one. They arrived at the feeding platform by climbing headfirst down the zipline, and swinging like apes on a vine. The youngsters had to be coaxed up onto the platform by the rangers, and didn't really eat their suppers, just played around. The larger one refused to let go of the smaller one, the smaller one seemed a little annoyed by the incessant attention. It brought back some childhood memories of siblings!

Turtle Island (6.17374,118.06012) was fantastic. We didn't think we were going to get to go, as we had no reservation and were told it was sold out. But it was our lucky day. Our very personable guide, Jonathan, picked us up and took us by boat, about 45 minutes to Selingan Island. The Green Sea Turtles and the Hawksbill Turtles usually come at night, crawling up the beach to lay their eggs in the sand. We were hanging out at the swim/snorkel beach on the West side of the island when Jennifer spotted a Green Sea Turtle going up the beach in the bright light of day. The turtle took her time getting up the steep hill to the tree line, stopping several times to rest along the way. Once she made it to the top, she spent about half an hour digging one hole, before deciding she didn't like it. She tried to move to a new spot, but seemed a little confused, and headed into the brush, where she became stuck. She eventually got turned around and spent a long time digging a new hole, but the rangers came and sent her back to the sea before she laid any eggs. The hot sun is bad for the turtles, as they can easily become overheated in their dark shells and die from heat stroke. That's why they usually wait until dark before coming out of the water.

The official tour was in the evening. We hung out in the restaurant until Jonathan came running in and announced "Turtle Time!". We ran out to the beach, where a ranger allowed us to watch a Green Sea Turtle laying eggs. She was in a trance-like state and was oblivious to our presence. Because they don't want the tourists to interfere with the process, they strictly limit the interaction. She layed 62 eggs, which the ranger gathered into a bucket. We then followed him over to a hatchery area, where they were carefully buried. Suprisingly, the temperature of the sand has a large effect on the gender of the hatchlings. Our eggs were buried without shadecloth above, so they will likely be female turtles. Final activity, about 9:30 pm, was watching a release of wee baby turtles to the sea. They had a whole basket of maybe 30-40 babies. They release them, and they scurried down the beach to the water. Having this human intervention in the process increases the survival rate of eggs and babies significantly, from about 1% to about 3% - still low, but substantially increased. So we got to bed by 10:00 pm, didn't stay up drinking as we needed to get up at 6:00 am to catch the boat back. We were up at 6 almost every day of the trip.

Kinabatangan Nature Lodge (5.49563,118.20531) was a couple of hours by bus, along the two-lane roads of maybe Alaskan level of quality - a bit bumpy, and the side road into the village of Bilit was under construction and a bit dicey after a rainstorm on the way out. The Malaysian driving style is "agressive" to say the least. Not too many motosikals in Borneo, but lots of palm oil and other trucks, which were all passed by the "bas", sometimes with very little margin of safety. We actually passed by a bad accident in which a large "lorry" had veered off the road into someone's house. The houses are built very close to the road, on stilts so as to be level with the road. Not really much in the way of setbacks. Endless miles of palm oil plantations, with a few presses/mills along the road. Much of the natural jungle has been cleared and planted with the palm oil trees. The palm oil is used for many things, and lately, for biofuel. The preserved habitat is along some rivers and at higher elevation.

We arrived about 3:30 pm, had our little orientation, and then went immediately out for the afternoon river cruise. The river cruises are a great way to see wildlife - they often come to the river at certain times of the day, and it's an easy way to get into the wild areas. We saw an Orangutan and her baby up in a tree within the first ten minutes. It's rare to see them in the wild, so it was a very lucky sighting. Also saw Long-tailed Macaques, Proboscis Monkeys, a Crocodile, Oriental Darter, Hornbill, Crested Serpent Eagle, and some very nice Sunset pictures. Before dinner, we went to our cabin and changed clothes. A bright spotlight on the cabin attracted a swarm of these unpleasant, big, green beetles and there were about 5 or 6 inside already. They flew around and buzzed about our heads. When we opened the door with the light still on, about 20-30 more of them flew into the room. The staff was quite helpful and removed all but a couple while we were at dinner. So it goes in the tropics - the cabin was quite pervious - it's suprising there weren't more interlopers.

After dinner, we went on a night walk through the jungle where the guide shines a powerful light at animals in the brush. At first, there were just small critters - spiders, millipedes, a frog, a woodpecker, butterfly, daddy long-legs, and then, at the end, we saw the extremely rare Western Tarsier, a small, nocturnal primate, with big eyes. The guide said he'd only seen one twice in 6 years working there - so it was our Lucky Day again.

The next morning, at 6:00 am, we did another river cruise down the river the other direction and saw more Macaques, Proboscis, Birds, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Oriental Darter, Blue Throated Bee Eater, Intermediate Egret, Brahminy Kite, Monitor Lizard, Black Baza Eagle

After breakfast, took a 3 hour hike out to an oxbow lake, working up quite a sweat. Saw more in the way of plant life, although there was less information about the flora. The very impressive Strangling Fig and the "Delinea"(sp?) with it's pretty paper bark. The Liana Vine, a Ficus with red flowers, a thorny vine, an arrow-shaped leaf plant, and many pretty fern-like plants. At the Oxbow Lake, we saw swarms of Butterflies, Intermediate Egrets, a Purple Heron, other birds, and Centipedes, which are poisonous, as opposed to Millipedes.

Afternoons are nap time, too hot to hike, and the animals are not as visible. Took a shower and a nap.

Late afternoon, another evening river cruise up river to the confluence of a tributary (5.46000,118.25218). - saw a group of Small-clawed Otters first thing, and, of course, more Monkeys, including Pig-tailed Macaques - a new species, Monitor Lizard, and many Birds - including Storm Stork. And another Cool Tropical Sunset.

Another night hike through the Jungle. Hard to take pictures in the dark, but we saw Tree frogs, a small sleeping song bird, a Rufus-backed Kingfisher,and not much else.

Early morning on the river - Monkeys,monkeys,monkeys, an Otter in a hurry, running down the river bank, Water Hen, Krocodil, Purple Heron (Procul Harum?), Black & White Hornbill, Storm Stork, and the big sighting - a Bornean Gibbon, swinging about in a large tree (our Lucky Day continued).

Now we're back in Johor Bahru, to rest, relax, launder, shower, and get ready our next stop - Krakatoa and Bali.