So that knock on the door at 5:30 a.m. is always a jolt. But it also comes with a level of excitement knowing that we are heading out to see wildlife. I was dressed and in the restaurant for a quick cup of tea and toast before joining Heyman on the dock at 6:00 a.m. Our little group quickly piled into the boat and we were off into the river mist just as it was beginning to turn light.
We had no sooner set off when we spotted an oriental pied hornbill in the trees. I had seen a couple of these up close in Sandakan, and while it was fabulous to see it, we were still looking for the elusive rhinoceros hornbill.
Close by we spotted a night heron just hanging out on a branch above the river. We then saw a number of elite sea eagles in the sky followed by two funny looking birds with very long knecks sitting in a tree high, and I mean top of the tree high. Heyman said they were oriental darter.
As we motored along the river in the mist of the early morning, we spotted a monitor lizard on the banks of the river. This one looked fairly small (in comparison to the one I saw in Kota Kinabalu near the mosque) and scampered off into the reeds pretty quickly as our boat zeroed in on him.
By now the sun was up and the mist was clearing off, which meant it was monkey time. We quickly spotted long tail macaque monkeys scampering up and down some nearby trees. We watched the monkeys playing for a bit before moving on and encountering proboscis monkeys.
Now these proboscis monkeys were going wild swinging and jumping from branch to branch and literally causing the trees to bend with the force of each jump. And once the monkeys moved on to the next tree, the first tree would snap back upright (with a lot of swinging back and forth) while the new tree would bend under the force of the monkey’s jump. Trees were moving and swaying everywhere. It was hilarious to watch.
As we moved on, we encountered more oriental darter, once again high up on the tree before taking a tributary and spotting long tail macaques doing a balancing act on a rope that had been strung between two trees across the river. Apparently, orangutans are not good swimmers so ropes have been periodically strung between trees across the river to allow the orangutans to swing across the river.
Now the long tail macaques do not swing through trees like the orangutans or the proboscis monkeys. Instead they scamper across branches and up and down trees so going across a narrow rope was nothing short of a balancing act.
We sat and watched while numerous short tail macaques made the perilous journey across the rope and more than one lost its balance and found itself clinging to the rope for dear life. Fortunately, we did not see a single monkey fall, but there were numerous close calls.
As we moved on, we spotted a troupe of pig tailed macaques running through the bush along the river bank. At one point, one of the large macaques stopped and gave us the evil eye. He was very, very big and literally sat there staring at us. It looked like he wanted to come and take us out. Fortunately, for all involved, he moved on.
Close by, we spotted a small monitor lizard running up from the water (likely just had breakfast). And this was the point of the morning when we began our chase of a stork billed kingfisher. We first spotted the bird hanging out on a branch, but as we moved closer, the little bugger took off, circled around and landed on a branch further down the river. OK then. We will follow you.
And as we moved closer, boom, off it went. Every time we got close and pointed our cameras, zoom … off it went. We eventually gave up and stopped to take a look at a crocodile that was taking a mud bath to cool down. This thing was quite big and at one point turned and looked straight at us. Yikes. I do not like you!
Nearby we saw an oriental darter hanging out in the trees before it moved to the riverbank near a great egrit. And for the first time all morning we actually got to see the beauty of the oriental darter up close as the prior sightings had been when the birds were high up in the trees.
And close by, we once again spotted the elusive stork billed kingfisher. As we neared, I fully expected the bird to fly off again, but this time we were lucky and it hung around on a tree branch long enough for us to snag some lovely pictures. FINALLY!
At this point we headed back to the lodge for some breakfast. At 10:30, Heyman took us for a walk around the lodge. Unfortunately, we didn’t spot much other than some squirrels, but did see pigmy elephant tracks that were about three weeks old and an old orangutan nest. Oh well.
After lunch, the British couple, the two British women and I went to listen to a talk on orangutans. Now everyone staying at the lodge was invited, but only the 5 of us and 3 others attended. Sorry for them. The talk was fantastic! And as a reward, the guide giving the talk told us good karma would follow us in our quest to see the orangutans. (Prophetic words ….)
Anyway, at 4:00 our little group assembled, jumped into our skiff and headed down river in the direction towards Sandakan. Now for the first 35 minutes, we did not see much, but suddenly Heyman slowed down the boat, squinted and said in a very quiet voice … “look at the middle of that tree … orangutans”. We could not believe our luck. There right by the river was a young female and male hanging out … literally.
And because of the lecture we had attended we knew that if there was only a male and female then it was likely they were going to mate. (Males travel by themselves, mate and then leave. Females travel with up to two offspring.)
Anyway, we were all giddy with excitement. Orangutans are notoriously hard to spot. They move VERY quickly high up in the trees, swinging from branch to branch. And almost immediately, the female who had been hanging on the tree, swung to the right and moved up, up, up into the top part of the trees, hidden by leaves. The male then followed into an adjacent tree.
We watched the trees shake as the two moved up higher and higher, eating the fruit on the trees. Periodically, we would catch a glimpse of them swinging from the branches and every so often one of them would move into clear view while eating.
Now all I was doing was snapping pictures like crazy hoping against hope that one or two “might” turn out. Ultimately, I ended up with four good pictures of which two were fantastic, including the first one in which I was actually focused on the female swinging from the tree, but the star of the pic turned out to be the big guy who was hanging from a tree on the left side of the picture. I had no clue he was even there. Luck!
After well over a half hour watching these two (along with two other local boats, which stopped to watch as well), the orangutans moved on out of view. What a show! And as if that wasn’t fabulous enough, we turned down a channel on the river and spotted a helmeted hornbill. Another of those funny looking, but incredibly coloured birds. We also spotted a nearby oriental pied hornbill (which we have seen a number of), more long tail macaque monkeys making the journey across the river on the ropes strung overhead, a black and yellow broadbill, an oriental darter and a proboscis monkey attempting to shiny up a monster tree (she made it).
By now, it was starting to get dark so we headed back to the lodge. We were at least a half hour away so we ended up riding in the boat in close to darkness as it was already almost 6:00. The ride in the darkening sky was spectacular with brilliant pinks lighting up the sky. It was gorgeous, not to mention the fact we were reveling in the notion we were likely the only ones at the lodge to have seen the orangutans. (The last sighting was this past Saturday, so it is indeed rare.)
Anyway, after dinner I opted to go on the night cruise again, but it wasn’t nearly as fruitful as the night before. We spotted the brown spotted snake again, a handful of sleeping birds, including a white crested water hen, a stork billed kingfisher and a common kingfisher. But the highlight was seeing a buffy fish owl, which I spotted. (Our guide for the night was rather “off his game” and did not seem to be too attentive.)
Once back at the lodge, I was in bed by 9:50. That 5:30 wake-up call comes pretty quick. I have one more full day at this lodge before moving on to the Danum Valley on Wednesday.