Sakau Rainforest Lodge Day 1

So after breakfast, the folks from Borneo Eco Tours came to pick me up at my hotel.  Now there was a little bit of confusion at the outset.  When the van pulled up, the guide, Hayman, got out and greeted two couples who were also sitting in the waiting area with me, but did not call out my name.  As they were loading the luggage, I walked over and told them I was waiting to be picked up as well.  They checked the list and found my name, but thought I was being picked up at another location.  (No idea why as I had received confirmation the night before of my pickup and location.)

Anyway, they immediately apologized, grabbed my luggage and we were off a few short blocks to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center where we were going to see the orangutan feeding.  Now the rehabilitation center sits in the middle of a massive rainforest (and includes the lodge where I stayed).  The rehabilitation area is a restricted zone and wild organgutans do not enter this area.  The orangutans in the center are a combination of younger monkeys and mamas and babies.  Once the orangutans are in better health, they are released to the outside rainforest.

Now I am not sure what I expected, but what we got wasn’t it.  We had to sit in a seating area behind glass and watch the feeding from there.  It seemed very artificial and a huge letdown.  And my pictures all have a green tint.  Anyway, after about 15 minutes the feeding was over.  And I am not sure how it happened, but a pig tailed macaque monkey managed to make into the enclosure and went to town on the bananas on the platform.  Surprisingly, the orangutans (and the handlers) tolerated the interloper.

After the feeding behind the glass, we ended up walking outside and through a walkway into the rainforest to a second feeding area.  This area is apparently set up to provide supplemental food to orangutans in the area who have been released from rehabilitation.  And this viewing was out in the open with no glass separation.

Once the food was placed on a platform, a HUGE and I mean HUGE male orangutan showed up.  Our guide told us this was a wild orangutan, and the way you could tell the difference is that it had much darker fur.  As the wild orangutan feasted, that same pig tailed macaque monkey showed up and “pigged” out on more bananas.

And while the other orangutans that gathered did not appear to be intimidated by the pig tailed macaque they were terrified of the huge male orangutan.  We watched a momma and baby to try to scramble along a rope to the platform only to retreat multiple times.  Momma eventually made it to the platform before snagging a long piece of sugar cane and making a hasty retreat.

There were surprisingly few orangutans that showed up for chow time.  Part of the reason might have been the presence of the wild male and the other part is that these orangutans are used to fending for themselves in the rainforest and don’t generally need the food.

After about a half hour of watching the orangutans, we made our way out of the rainforest and as we walked we encountered two more wild orangutans who were just hanging out swinging through the trees.  VERY cool.

Anyway, next up was the sun bear exhibit.  Now the tiny, sun bears are highly, highly endangered animals.  There are fewer than 1,000 left in the wild.  In fact, Hayman has only seen one sun bear in the wild in all the times he has been a guide.  Amazing.

So we walked to two different areas where the sun bears were feeding.  And while I found it interesting to see them, there were a lot of people trying to get a look at the sun bears and the environment, with all the fencing and platforms, was incredibly artificial.  I am not a zoo fan, so this was not my cup of tea (much like the orangutan sanctuary).

After the sun bear visit, we were loaded onto a bus and taken into Sandakan for lunch before hitting the jetty were we would spend two and half hours on the Kinabatangan River before reaching the Sukau Rainforest Lodge.  Now as we were driving to lunch, Hayman said that I would be moving to a different group of folks for the boat tours. HUH?  I had just spent the morning with a German couple, a British couple and two British ladies who were going to be touring as a group, and I was now being shifted to another group?  What the heck?  And when I found out who I would be with, I immediately vetoed that:  a lady with three teenage children and four teenage friends.  Nope. Not gonna happen.  My guess is they wanted another chaperone for the kids and thought the single gal could help out.  Not bloody likely.

I told Hayman that I am 64 years old and have no desire to spend the next three days on boating safaris with 7 teenagers, who I have zero relationship with.  Hayman got the message and immediately corrected the situation and left me with my original group.  Gesh.

Anyway, once on the boat, we zipped out of Kinabatangan Bay and were soon zooming up the Kinabatangan River.  It was really hot out so it was lovely to have the occasional splash of water and breeze to cool us down.

Along the way, I spotted a proboscis monkey hanging out on the branch of a tree as well as a long tailed macaw monkey.  We also saw a small crocodile sunning itself on the river bed and some interesting rock formations along the way.  Unfortunately, we were going so fast it made it virtually impossible to spot animals.

By 4:00 we had reached the lodge and were given cold cloths and a cold drink, assigned rooms and were quickly off and running for our first cruise on the river.  We ended up going downstream in search of monkeys and almost immediately we spotted proboscis monkeys high up in the trees.  Unfortunately, the monkeys did not want to come down so we were left to tilt our heads back and watch the show as they jumped from tree to tree.

We eventually moved onto a tributary and almost immediately spotting long tailed macaque monkeys (much small and cuter than the pig tailed macaque monkeys.  This was followed by more proboscis monkeys and silver leaf monkeys.  But no orangutans.

By 6:15, we were heading back to the lodge for dinner.  I had opted to take the optional (i.e. extra cost) night tour, which turned out to be fantastic.  By 8:00 the handful of us who had opted for the night tour we were loaded into two boats and we set off in the dark with only a powerful spotlight to help us see.

Almost before we had set off, the guide (not Hayman and whose name I couldn’t spell even if I tried) spotted a baby crocodile swimming in the water.  And once the light was on it, the baby ducked down into the water.

After that we started spotted a series of sleeping (or trying to sleep) birds on the branches of trees.  We spotted a pair of black and red broadbill (with gorgeous scarlet red plumage), a stork billed kingfisher, a common kingfisher, a little pied flycatcher and more stork billed kingfishers.

Now the topper of the night was spotting not one, but two common palm civets.  As the guide was shining the light on the trees, we immediately spotted a pair of eyes.  The civet scampered off up the tree before anyone could take a picture, but later in the hour, a second civet was spotted and this time I was able to take a picture albeit only of its backside.

As we started back, we spotted, a small brown spotted snake wrapped around a tree branch as well as a number of small frogs and another pair of black and red broadbill.

By 9:00 p.m., we were back at the lodge.  I was exhausted.  Unfortunately, wake up time is 5:30 a.m. for our 6:00 a.m. morning river cruise.  Ugh.  I am going to need a vacation from my vacation!