Day Eight - Monday 31st October: Orangutans at last!

The day had come! We entered the Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre for Orangutans with great hopes but a warning that we may not see any!

Apparently it's impossible to predict how many will come in from the wild to be fed at the twice daily feeding times. I spoke to a woman who saw only one when she visited Sepilok!

The boardwalks were slippery and wet and the rainforest created high humidity

 We headed for the nursery along the wooden boardwalk but saw a wild orangutan swinging in a tree a few metres above our heads before we even  got there. The nursery was full of orphaned young orangutans playing and swinging and fighting in a large glass-walled enclosure. The expectation is that all of them will return to the wild when they are capable of sustaining themselves.

There was lots of swinging and eating going on!

They were entrancing (although difficult to photograph through the glass) and  we watched them for some time before moving to the open feeding area where wild orangutans are fed twice each day.  The food is deliberately boring so they don't rely on it and they still have to forage in the jungle.

The guy stood for some time looking up into the trees before leaving. He seemed to be hearing some rustling in the trees which may have been the male ape arriving.

When we arrived there was a mother and baby sitting on the tree platform waiting patiently. A guy with a huge basket of food climbed the stairs to reach the platform but the mother sat on the last step barring his entry end reached over him to take some food from the top of the basket before allowing him to proceed and spread the food out on the platform. He seemed very calm about it. 

Note the mask: we all had to wear them as the orangutans can catch COVID. Not so different to us at all!

Another mother with a tinier baby clinging to her appeared and they sat placidly feeding until there was a rustle high up in the trees and a HUGE dark coloured male came swinging through the trees landing agilely on the platform.

 Cameras clicked and videos started as he was the star attraction. Both of the babies were his apparently but the mother with the smallest baby slowly left as if she didn't want to be there. Complicated family dynamics  I'm sure. He was twice the size of the mothers and seemed content to sit and eat whilst keeping an eye on the remaining baby. Another couple of orangutans were nearby so we were very lucky to see so many!

Whilst we watched there was a hullabaloo when our guide spotted a millipede on the viewing deck. As we all moved forward to get a closer look he pointed out that they are highly venomous which dispersed the crowds rapidly!

Finally we headed across the road to see some sun bears in the Rescue Centre. They are also indigenous to northern Borneo.

They are very small black bears with a distinctive yellow mark on their chests giving them their name. These are rescued bears following accidents, injuries etc. The two we saw were dozing happily in the heat and humidity.

We had assumed we would find endless souvenirs at both of these centres but no! Not much on offer at all unfortunately. (We thought there might be a business opportunity for us to act as Gift Shop Consultants as it did seem they could use the revenue!)

Check out the large crocodile!

Then we headed off to the Sandakan jetty  so we could be spirited away up the Kinabatangan River to the Wetlands Retreat of the same name. We met our new guide Andis as we clambered aboard and for the next couple of hours we started to hone our animal spotting skills as we hurtled away from civilisation to the very remote resort.

During this trip and many others over the next couple of days we marvelled at his skill in detecting anything that moved from tiny kingfishers to enormous crocodiles sunbaking on the shore.  We did improve our skills but not to the same level as Andis.

It was a wonderful experience cruising along the huge wide river heading into the unknown and seeing few people. 

We spotted crocodiles, a proboscis monkey, long-tailed macaque monkeys and the first of many graceful white egrets, giant and small.

After a couple of hours we finally turned into a narrow tributary and docked at a small jetty. The entire Kinabatangan Wetlands Resort had been constructed using boardwalks and buildings on stilts as the ground was marshy and tidal. At no point did our feet touch the ground. It's remote location does give new meaning to the phrase 'isolation'!  

After settling in and having lunch we set off for a dusk cruise down the river and this time saw some more proboscis monkeys and a pair of hornbills, indigenous to the area.

Dinner was a range of curries and rice and tropical fruit, some of which must have been brought in by boat as there's no land access.

Our Home for the  next couple of days  was a lovely stand-alone villa separated by long boardwalks from everyone else. Intense darkness all around and quiet except for the calls of the birds, animals and insects. All mod cons but after a downpour the WiFi went down never to return! Quite a good thing really!

Doing it hard!

Not a great photo but these round bulbous
 pitcher plants
 nestled in the marsh weren't like any other
 pitcher plant I had seen.

The open air restaurant where we had
 all of our meals

To get even closer to the isolation a few of us set off to walk a boardwalk loop in the pitch black clutching our phones for a flashlight. Without them we couldn't have moved. Andis flashed his strong torch up into the trees and into the marshy ground looking for interesting plants, insects, wildlife and birds.

We saw some beautifully shaped and very unusual pitcher plants, some tiny frogs, snails and a scorpion (which glowed bright neon green when Andis shone his ultra violet torch on it). In the midst of the jungle the humidity and heat was extreme and there was a bit of a drizzle. We headed back to the villas and within a couple of minutes the heavens opened and it poured solidly all night. The rainfall is high and the marshy wet terrain seems to be a constant: thank heavens for the boardwalks!

Off to bed to listen to the silence and the occasional bird and frog calls.....and the pouring rain.