Unfortunately, our fabulous guide, Hayman, was headed back to Sandakan today to pick up a new group of tourists so “Ash” took over of what remained of our group: the two ladies from Britain and me. The German couple had moved on to the Danum Valley (where I would be rejoining them on Wednesday) and the British couple was headed on to Kota Kinabalu.
Anyway, we were on the water by 6:00 a.m. (and without any mist this morning) heading up river. Now poor old Ash had some big shoes to fill as we had seen 3 of the Borneo Big 5 (proboscis monkey, crocodile and orangutan). We were missing the pigmy elephant and the rhinoceros, so I told Ash we needed to find the rhinoceros hornbill. Tall order as the bird is known to be rather elusive. (And I had no illusions about seeing the pygmy elephant as the last sighting of the area herd was far, far downstream and inland.)
So the pickings started off a little slim. We did see a troop of proboscis monkeys scaling some trees about 20 minutes into the trip, but the monkeys were quickly lost in the thicket of leaves. We also saw a group of oriental darter high up in a tree, an oriental pied hornbill and a small monitor lizard stalking something in the reeds on the bank of a river. Other than that, poor old Ash was having a rough go spotting anything for us.
We eventually turned down a tributary and this is when things picked up. First up was a massive crocodile. This thing scared the bejesus out of me it was so big. It lay in the muddy bank, but as we approached a bit closer this gigantic creature popped up and began to move into the river. Yikes! Keep that thing away from me. And to make matters worse, Ash told me that every year there are at least a couple people fishing on the banks of the river who lose their lives on this tributary to … the croc. In addition, the river crocs are known to invade the nearby palm oil farm and have “taken” more than one worker from the farm. Ugh. Just the thought makes me shiver.
Anyway, after the croc spotting and stories, we passed under one of those monkey rope crossings across the river and spotted a couple long tail macaque monkeys making the crossing. And nearby there was a very obliging stork billed kingfisher hanging out in a tree who allowed us to get pretty close to take a look.
A few minutes later, Ash spotted a blue eared kingfisher. Now this one was new for me and damn was it ever pretty. Light blue beak and blue and orange feathers. Gorgeous.
And nearby we spotted a number of monitor lizards out hunting for breakfast. One, in particular, was creeping along and since monitor lizards can move lightening quick, this monitor lizard was clearly hunting something although we could not figure out what. We did not see anything on the side of the riverbank, but maybe there was a nearby nest. (Monitor lizards love eggs.)
Anyway, we never found out because as we were looking at the monitor lizard, Ash heard the distinct call of the … rhinoceros hornbill. I was thrilled and hopeful all at the same time. (You never know if you will actually see it.). But … luck was on our side as the large male (they travel in pairs) flew overhead and landed in a tree. Now, I am pretty good at spotting birds in trees, but for the life of me I could not locate this enormous bird. I followed Ash’s pointer, I pulled out my binoculars. Nothing.
Sadly, I was the only one who could not lay my eyes on the damn bird. Finally, Ash had made turn on my camera and follow his instructions to locate the bird as he watched the view on my camera. Then …. bingo. I spotted the bird. Now once I saw it, I have no idea why I could not see the gigantic hornbill. When I say this bird is huge I mean HUGE.
I was so excited to see the bird, the first couple pictures I took were blurry I was shaking so much. Eventually, I got a grip and was able to take some magnificent pictures of the bird with the incredible red horn. As we watched, it was as if the bird was posing for us. He moved around the branch showing all sides before flying off into an adjacent tree with more preening.
At one point, he began calling out and we soon heard a response (his mate). And before we knew it, the lovely lady flew in. Now sadly she wasn’t as much of a show off and mostly hid herself behind some leaves and branches, but it was brilliant to see her fly in.
By now it was closing in on 7:55 a.m. and we were supposed to be back at the lodge by 8:00 for breakfast. Well that wasn’t going to happen because as we set off, we were sidelined by a troop of pig tailed macaque monkeys walking, crawling, running and swinging across a rope bridge over the river. Now, when I say troop, I mean TROOP. The number of monkeys crossing had to have been in excess of 100. There were dozens and dozens of monkeys in all shapes and sizes including mommas carrying babies, little ones, and one big dominant male of the troop. And even the big guy had some trouble crossing. I cannot begin to describe how entertaining it was watching the monkeys make their way across the river on the rope bridge. And every now and then, one of the tiny, tiny monkeys came perilously close to falling off, but the dexterity of these little fellas was pretty amazing to not only hang on, but right themselves and continue on.
And talk about loud. The monkeys were screeching and hooting and calling back and forth to one another as they made their way across the river on the rope bridge. I think the word cacophony was created to describe the noisy, spectacular scene.
We ended up sitting there for almost fifteen minutes and there were still monkeys crossing when we left. I would have liked to stay to the end, but we had at least a 20 minute boat ride ahead of us and it was already 8:15. All in all, an incredible morning, with a parade of pig tailed macaques and the fabulous rhinoceros horn bill!
So after breakfast, I took the opportunity to do … nothing. We had no activities planned until our afternoon boat trip at 4:00 so I relaxed by the pool for a bit and then took a nap.
Just before 4:00, Ieft my room only to run into .. long tailed macaque monkeys. They had invaded the lodge and were everywhere. I even caught one on the roof near my room. I, fortunately, made my way to the dock without any confrontations, while others were apparently not so lucky. One lady was hissed at and another was followed. YIKES!
Anyway, we shoved off right about 4:00 and headed downstream towards Sandakan, as we did yesterday. And just like the morning, the pickings started off really slim. We spotted a troop of long tail macaques about 25 minutes in and ended up sitting and watching their antics for a while, including two that decided the beach was the perfect place for some afternoon delight. Other than those two, most of the macaques were feeding on berries and leaves from the trees, but every now and then a handful would jump off the branches and venture to the water for a drink.
Now this was terribly dangerous given the croc infested waters, but apparently there are lookout monkeys high up in the trees who give a warning cry if they spot any danger. Nevertheless, these little guys were terribly skittish and would snag a quick drink from the river before scurrying back to safety.
We eventually moved further down river and this is when Ash spotted a maroon langur aka red leaf monkey high up in the trees. Now this monkey is on the larger side and we had not seen one to this point so we were all pretty excited. Unfortunately, the langur was not only high up in the trees, but it was surrounded by leafy branches making it very difficult to spot. Eventually I was able to see it and even take a couple pictures, but damn it gave me a neck strain trying to get a good look at the elusive monkey.
From here, we moved on and suddenly our boat driver picked up speed and we were literally flying down the river. Something was up. And as we cleared a bend in the river we could see a four boats down river in front of us bobbing up and down well off the shoreline. I immediately thought Pygmy elephants. There was no other reason the boats would be this far offshore. And yep, I was right. Only it wasn’t elephants plural. It was a lone bull elephant (and the same one whose tracks we saw at the lodge yesterday).
As we pulled up, Ash told us to stand up (highly unusual) and just as I stood up, I spotted the pigmy elephant walk through a clearing! Yay! I had now seen all of the Borneo 5. Unfortunately, I did not have time to take a picture as it lumbered through the clearing and out of site. Damn. But Ash seemed to think that it may be moving up river so we reverse the boat and moved (along with the other boats) towards another clearing and sure enough, the elephant soon made his appearance albeit briefly and slightly camouflaged through the trees. The best I could do was capture its backside, an ear and part of his head and trunk. I’ll take it!
So at this point, Ash was Superman. We had now seen the remaining two of the Big 5 in one day! I really hadn’t expected to see the pigmy elephant (which by the way is a misnomer at least for the bull elephants who are pretty darn big).
After the elephant sighting, we ended up turning the boat around and heading back down river towards Sandakan. We quickly spotted an oriental pied hornbill high, high, high in the trees followed by a troop of proboscis monkeys. We ended up spending some time watching the monkeys jump through the trees before moving on down river and taking a right into a tributary.
As we motored along, we spotted a very young proboscis monkey on a nearby branch. Now what was unusual was we did not see any other monkeys nearby. However, before we had a chance to investigate, Ash suddenly became very excited and pointed at the trees. He had spotted a storm stork. There are less than 500 in Malaysia and it is not only a rare bird, it is VERY rare to even see one. It was, as usual, high up in the trees, but I was able to get a pretty good look through binocular and even a couple pictures. The bird was quite large and had huge eyes and a long orange beak.
Now as we were watching the storm stork, one of the boats from our lodge came flying up on us and yelled something at Ash. Apparently an orangutan and baby were spotted just down river. Ash immediately had our boat turned around and we were soon speeding out of the tributary and down river. Less than 5 minutes later, we pulled up to a cadre of boats… and yep … there was momma and baby WAYYYYY up in the trees. And while I could easily see them through my binoculars, it was next to impossible to zero in on them for a good picture, partly because it was dusk and partly because they were so high up in the trees.
We ended up spending close to half an hour watching the momma teach the baby how to move around the trees and grab the branches. It was fascinating. Eventually momma and baby disappeared into a thicket of branches and leaves where they were presumably going to nest for the night.
By now it was well after 6:00 and getting dark so we set off for the lodge and our final dinner before I head off to the Danum Valley tomorrow. There is no river in the Danum Valley so it will mostly be hiking and nature walks. Good thing, with all the food at breakfast, lunch and dinner, I need some good hiking to work off all the calories i have consumed at this place!
