First of all we saw some more Long tail and Pig tail macaques - our wildlife experience has already been so extensive that we now say something along the lines of "oh, just some more macaques" when we spot more in the trees despite them being super cool primates!This complacency was torn at the seams the minute our boat headed towards the trees covered in red fruits, for hidden amongst the leaves were our first wild orangutans doing what wild mum and baby orangutans do: playing and eating up high above us. We could have watch these 2 for hours, but our boatman wanted to search for more, and more we did find!!!
In the end we saw more than 5 wild orangutans just living their natural lives in the pockets of rain forest that human greed and stupidity has yet to destroy.You probably could have sent us back home that minute and we would have been satisfied - no, not satisfied: ecstatic!
But wait, there's more!! As the morning grew so did our sightings.
We struggled to keep from cheering in excitement when the graceful yet daring acrobatic performance of the Borneo gibbon unfolded before our eyes. Not even a baby clinging on for dear life seemed to stop a mum from her tree-to-tree free falling!!
It wasn't just the trees our eyes were searching, we also scanned the skies for jungle birds.
Some of these easy to spot like the white bellied eagle (really big with a 1m wingspan) and the white headed eagle that sat perched on the tallest trees as dominant as any king of the sky could be. While we struggled to focus on the fluro blurs as kingfishers dived into the water, uniquely magnificent hornbills (with their bright orange and yellow double beaks) soared above us.After spotting the baby croc last night, we really wanted to see an adult one so Alung tried his best to find one for us. We searched and searched but came up croc-less. This didn't stop Adam's eyes from keeping at full alert for the ride back to camp. For his efforts we were all rewarded with a rare sighting of a giant otter basking in the sun.
We couldn't help but compare this gorgeous creature with mumble's dog Ellie back home: she was so curious and excited to see us pull up in our boat that she kept bouncing and bounding towards us, and then having second thoughts and retreating back; then dropping suddenly to the ground in a playful "I'm ready for you" way! It was total bring-a-smile-to-the-face bubbly fun watching Ellie the Otter playing around.Back at camp scoffed down piklets and toast while we excitedly chatted about the remarkable stuff we'd seen - all before breakfast! But the day would provide a chest full of jungle treasures, and soon we were back in the boat roaring up the tributaries in search of our jungle trekking destination.
It was really cool to be lost among the leaves like the many monkeys we've seen and we felt right at home in our gummies (and very grateful to have them in the shin-deep mud!).
Although most of the wildlife was asleep at this time of the day, we learnt a lot about the flora and fauna of the forest from our knowledgeable guide. Who would've thought that vines were poisonous?! Our guide was more worried about these than the piddly snake Adam managed to find hiding under a log. 
What we did see was plenty of colourful millipedes, a crazy rainbow coloured lantern-mouse moth, red cup mushrooms, a couple of fresh wallows left vacant when the wild pigs fled from our noise, and some orangutan poo!
We spent the afternoon relaxing in the hammocks before bounding back into the boat (much more relaxing that trekking through the mud for hours) for our afternoon safari! We went in search of the Proboscis monkeys again, and though more elusive than yesterday (when we saw more than 20) we spotted at least 7 or 8, including 1 large male, hanging out in the trees. Of course we saw lots of macaques too!!As dusk arrived the skies filled with a colourful array of birds - our favourite hornbills dominated the sky, while oriental darter birds and dollar birds zipped amongst them.
At 6.30pm, with the engines killed and our boats floating dreamily down stream, the 4 of us in our boat laid down and stared skyward just in time for the flying foxes (the largest bat in the world) to head out for their night hunt!
As we cruised our way back to camp the sun set over the river, every bit as amazing as you'd imagine from a sunset in the jungle of Borneo!
After dinner we set out for even more adventure, for our night jungle trek. While we tried not to get stuck in the mud our guide's sharp eyes spotted such small wonders as frogs and spiders, and their natural enemies bats and our favourite: kingfishers sitting still on the tree for a change and allowing us to enjoy their amazing colours - close enough to pat if you wanted to!
Back at camp we celebrated Elinor's 23rd birthday with the camp manager shelling out for cake, balloons, party masks, beer and rice wine! 
We enjoyed listening to the guides and other staff members jam on their guitars and sing without an ounce of shyness, and Adam did his first beer bong in years!Adlibing jungle safaris.
No comments:
Post a Comment