River Camp

7-3 From uncle tan's base operations area we boarded vans and drove through the mess of oil palp plantations until we arrived at a dirt road. We boarded, 4wd vehicles and then headed towards the Kinabatangan River. We arrived at the river just as it began to poor. Luckily I had some plastic bags to put my pack in so it didn't get too soaked. Most people got all geared out in rain coats for the ride to camp and the river safari, but in the jungle, to me that is worthless. It rains too hard and you sweat too much inside that you get wet anyways. The rain is so warm that I'm a much bigger fan of the swimsuit and skin approach. Nothing is as waterproof and breathable as the good ole epidermis. The river we were on was a large muddy river with more narrow tributary that we would also look for wildlife on. The first afternoon safari was quite good even in the rain seeing several monkey species, including the famous and endemic to borneo, proboscis monkey with the huge nose.
The jungle camp itself was quite cool. Very basic open aired wooden structures built on stilts over a peet swamp. There were already about 8 people at camp, and we had 14 in our arriving group, so they divided us into two groups...the spiders and the gibbons. The spiders, my group, were quite fun, and we had a good time for sure. It was nice the first two days with less than 25 in the camp, b/c the two days after would fill to capacity with 50 people. So the first couple days we really enjoyed how quiet and kind of personal is was. While eating dinner on the first night we heard a yell that there was a snake on the boardwalk linking the sleeping structures. We all ran to check it out, and sure enough, it was a huge and fat blood python just hanging out below one of the open air bungalows. The people sleeping there that night had quite the nervous look on their face.
That night we went on a night boat safari and saw some sleeping monkeys and some really close looks of several kingfisher species snoozing away on branches over the river. We also saw a whole bunch of palm civets (an animal that looks a bit like a cross between a cat, raccoon, and possum), and some baby crocodiles.
The next morning we woke up bright and early at sunrise to the sounds to the jungle and of course completely wet in the morning dampness of the rainforest. On the morning boat safari we saw some gibbons, other monkeys, giant hornbills, and then 2 orang utans! It was quite awesome to see the great red swinging ape in the wild. After breakfast we had a morning jungle walk looking for unique insects and frogs and butterflies and such. It was through the thick muck, which was quite fun, even if I had to cram my feet into tiny asian size boots.
After lunch team spider went out for a fishing trip. We were using a throw net, and it was really quite fun. We laughed and laughed and caught more mud than fish. Some people had quite the difficulty throwing the net and ended up missing water completely and hitting only land, or catching themselves in the net, or throwing themselves into the mud. The big goal was always to catch the prawn. So after each good throw we'd applaud and then yell Prawn, Prawn, big Prawn! But I was the only one to catch a prawn (and a small one at that) and between the rest of the spiders, we caught only 1 other fish. Luckily the guide caught about 16 fish, so that night we did get to eat a lot of very fresh and very tasty fish.
In the afternoon the spiders (Michael and Tina from San Fran on a two week holiday, David from USA but living in Thailand, Greg and Jena from Ireland, and Paco from spain) just kind of hung out and joked around a bit. The camp was really chill and the locals guys were lots of times just strumming guitars from hammocks. Then I broke from the group to go play ping pong with some of the gibbons. There was a family from New Zealand (but living on Christmas island), so I actually spent a lot of time hanging out with their kids ben (9) and stephan (14) b/c for some reason I still like to do the kid things and hang out with the kids more than sit with the adults and talk about where you've been, where you're going, politics, etc.. So we explored the jungle on our own a lot trying to catch frogs and then played ping pong and more ping pong until our palms blistered. That afternoon as I was beginning to get that familiar jungly moldy smell I took the jungle camp shower. You just take buckets filled up with muddy river water and douse it over you. You sit on the boardwalk in plain site of everyone, so you wear a swimsuit, unless of course your a ballsy, no pun intended, older european. It's hard to know whether adding a fine coat of mud from the water makes you cleaner or not, but it certainly feels good.
Just as we got on the boat for the evening safari the rain came down with an unbelievable fury and last the whole time while on the boat. We still saw lots of good things and it was funny to watch the poor monkeys shivering and hugging themselves in the rain. At one point we tied up to a dead tree in the middle of the river and it was just one of those sweet jungle experiences. On the one side of the river we could watch a huge troupe of proboscis monkeys swinging in the trees, on the other side we could see long-tailed macaques fighting with each other and above us thousands of flying foxes (giant fruit eating bats) were coming out from under the trees. And of course all of this on a muddy jungle river with rain pounding down.
When the rain ended and we made it back to camp, we found the camp to be taken over by the huge group of the new arrivals. The gibbons (the other group that arrived with us) and the spiders all gathered into the only table left for dinner and we jokingly/semi-jokingly bemoaned all the new arrivals.
That night we had the night jungle walk where we some some cool frogs and lizards. Something I've never seen before is that the birds sleep out on little limbs of the trees (too thin to support snakes or cats) and are oblivious to us coming up to them. You can get as close as you want to them and take as many flash pictures and they just won't fly away.
The next morning we did a morning boat ride to check out more primates and such. Then it was time to go. But I decided to extend one more night, so after a few last ping pong games with the family kids I had to say a sad goodbye to the spiders.
For the jungle walk that morning I was put with the stick insects (sticks as we eventually called ourselves). I was lucky there, b/c they were a great group too, even better than the spiders I think (but don't tell them). Di from Holland and Leigh from Oz were travelling together as they are both scuba instructors in asia, Sylva from France, and Walid from the Dutch Antilles. They were a much younger, more wild, and more backpacking type than the last group I was with, so we had quite a lot of fun. And each had quite a funny and unique personality.
That afternoon I didn't go fishing, but instead played ping pong with some of the local guys. But Walid went out fishing for us as they were doing large net fishing where they just put out fish and would bring it in later. He made quite a good catch and we had some more tasty fish that night. The evening boat safari was great. I finally had a clear evening ride without any rain and nice sun. So we got to watch the proboscis and macaques and silver leave monkeys in the sun. And we also got to watch the flying foxes flying directly underneath the moon, which was quite cool. And on the way back there was a sunset over the river one one side and then a huge, tall thunderhead cloud jutting straight up. I loved watching it, b/c the top glowed this irradescent blue/purple color I had never seen and the inside lit up with lightning. We did another night walking safari which we saw lots of cool stuff, including the very poisonous mangrove snake right near the dining hall. By the end of the safari we are all laughing though more than looking for things due to a combination of several funny things including falling in the mud, losing boots in the mud, scaring people with spiders, etc. But the funniest came when we were at really close range looking at this gorgeous sleeping bird with bright blue, orange, and purple feathers. We were all quiet and really admiring it, when sylva, known as the clumsy one b/c he was always tripping and falling, let out an amazing sneeze and the bird freaked out and flew away. After that it was giggles the whole way back to camp.
That night we played some ping pong, listened to some music, and drank some beers. Then we decided we all smelled and needed showers. So we all went to the shower plank and ended up having more of a water fight than a shower.
The next morning, I had one more boat safari where I got to see another orang-utan which was of course awesome as well as a bigger crocodile on the bank of the river before it jumped in.
Sungai Kinabangan was great for wildlife viewing and we saw lots and lots of primates swinging and jumping through the trees, as well as lots of other small stuff and of course lots of birds like fish eagles, snake birds, and king fishers. Sadly, the reason why wildlife viewing is so good there is b/c there are palm oil forest backed up on either side of the river, so the animals are all required to be along the river. And in fact the trees along the river would have been cut and planted in palm oils if it wasn't for the flooding of the river which kills oil palms. But, yes, what a great wildlife viewing place, especially for a jungle where wildlife is typically impossible to spot.
We said goodbye to Sylva as he was going to a different place...of course in his clumsiness he dropped his camera (still worked), couldn't find his backpack, and at first hopped into the wrong 4wd. When we got back to uncle tan's operations base, it started pouring. There was a big drain coming down from the roof, gushing with water. It looked like quite the ideal shower and perhaps the best one I had seen in asia as it was fresh water and had amazing pressure, a commodity in asia. I mentioned something about this and somehow the sticks convinced me to take a shower (in my swimsuit of course), so there I was taking a shower in front of everyone that had come back and that was going in while they were eating lunch. But it was definitely quiet a refreshing shower, and I think I got all that hard to get dirt off. And another sad goodbye as all the sticks left to go on to KK or Ranau.
I stayed one more night at the base camp and am in Lahad Datu now getting ready to go to the Field Centre at Danum Valley where I will be until monday. So happy 4th to everyone and go Lance!