Expedition Borneo 2009 Part 2

From Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary, we went to the Kinabatangan National Park. To get to the lodge where we were staying, we had to cross a crocodile inhabited river… which didn't have a bridge. We piled all the bags onto a little back-heavy boat which took a few people across at a time to arrive at Kinabatangan Nature Lodge.

Later, we took the boat upriver with our river guides to go crocodile hunting. We saw macaques, proboscis monkeys, hornbills, storks ... but no crocodiles. That evening, we went on a night walk to look for tropical birds. This must have been the most successful of the wildlife trips, as we saw many sleeping and colourful birds. We waded through mud a foot deep, found river crabs scuttling along with us and came back with leeches attached to our bodies.

Next day we spent time going for a flat but muddy day trek to a lake. There, our guides, Larry and Jap, fished with makeshift rods and we (having no rods) fed the fish with leftover bread, and tried to catch them with our bare hands! We came across plenty of leeches, including one that had latched itself to my stomach, but we managed to remove them all before they did any serious sucking. There was also a metre-long water leech which Jap, our guide, promptly ran from.

Another trip upriver followed, and with the breeze in our faces, we set off to look for pygmy elephants. Due to the river being high, we didn't see any of those, either. But our total horn bill sightings went up to 5 of the 8 species in Borneo, and included one of the rarest! But we had to leave Kinabatangan behind as we set off on the next leg of our journey. On the way, we stopped off at Gomantong Caves, to see the harvesting of birds' nests. We didn't see many swallows, but the cave was filled with mountains of bat and swallow guano, crawling with cockroaches. Even the wooden boardwalk was covered, and I'm definitely not jealous of those who went into the slippery caves wearing flip-flops...

The Bat caves smelled awful and as we walked through them things dropped on our hats; we were warned that if we look up we should cover our mouths just in case.

We moved onto Rose Cottage in order to prepare for the climb up Mt Kinabalu. After 2 weeks of heat and sunshine it rained and rained and rained as we climbed the mountain. The temperature dropped, the wind picked up and we got soaked. At times it was hard going and we looked out for the Kilometre marks and counted them down... I'm sure some were spaced further apart. On our climb we passed several red leeches about a foot in length and some dramatic changes in scenery, from forest to bare rock. When we reached our accommodation the cloud cover was thick making the mountain look colourless. By now the wind was trying to throw us about and blew the cloud cover away to show our hut, about 200 metres above us and accessible by a guide rope fastened to the bare rock face. Climbing the mountain was cold, wet and miserable but nothing compared to taking our shoes and waterproofs off outside the hut before being allowed in. 16 students 2 guides and 2 staff trying to get out of the freezing cold do not, as we found, fit through a single doorway. Hot coffee, chocolate and tea were consumed when the electricity worked and was not cut off due to the weather. The temperature inside the hut had dropped to 10 degrees above zero and was to drop even further as the night closed in. Changed into warm dry clothes we were ready for dinner, only to find we had to descend back down the mountain to a lodge we passed earlier. Through out the night the wind got rougher and the temperature dropped below zero. At 1 am we were woken and told we could not continue the climb which was met with mixed feelings, disappointment because we were so close and had heard that Miss Chandler and some of her team had made it to the top and happy as this was to be our first lie in for 2 weeks. After our lie in we woke at 7 am and made our way down the mountain and boarded the coach that would take us to Pouring Springs. We were warm and soaked our muscles in natural volcanic springs which helped some of us while others still suffered for the next 2 days and found climbing and coming down stairs painful, while the rest of us laughed at them. The following morning we woke early and walked a short distance up the road to see and experience for many of us the best part of the expedition, Jackie. Jackie is a 20 year old wild Orang-utan who visits the area first thing in the morning before wandering back into the jungle. We stood watched and followed her for 30mins and David got so close that he was handing her foliage to make a nest. That day we returned to the city and spent time sight seeing and visiting an island for our first swim and sunbathe of the trip. It was here some miles off land that we also saw a large monitor lizard wandering about the island looking for food and posing for the odd shot.

All of a sudden that was it: we were back in the airport and ready to leave. 18 months of saving and training, 21 days of trekking and work and a life time of memories.

Good luck Ecuador!