Hippie hating Orang utans!
After a bumpy boat ride back from turtle island we were straight onto our next adventure. This time it was Orang Utans and not turtles though. Not far from Sandakan there is a place called Sepilok which is a Rehabilitation Centre for orang utans. It is set in a vast jungle but there are several feeding platforms where there are usually Orang Utans to be seen at feeding time.
Arriving early we decided that we would go for a walk into the rain forest to explore. ––”t”Tl‹„—Í‹„—Í‹„ñ•C˜ ŠD˜ —Í (sorry I'm in Hong Kong and for some reason the key board just started writing in Chinese! If any one can translate what I have written please let me know!) Anyway..... yes we decided to explore! There was a trail that we could follow that would take us about 2km into the jungle. Not far we thought, it will only take us about an hour. We didn't really think about the mud covered, fallen tree blocked, undulating path that we would be following. After about 3 hours we emerged from the jungle filthy and sweat covered only to be confronted by 3 young Orang Utans playing on a small bridge (oh Nigel went for a pee in the jungle and almost had a nasty incident with a leech! Could have been very interesting and painful!). This was amazing (the Orang Utans - not Nigel and the leech!) as neither Ells nor me had seen any before. However the best was to come as they decided to steal a ladies coat, try and put it on while hanging upside down and then pull bits of it apart. They rolled around and generally had a good laugh.
However I did feel that one of the Orang Utans was on the same wave length as me. I hate people who have been away from home for a couple of days and get bloody braides in their hair. Why oh why would you do that??? Anyway the Orang Utan in question either had the same hatred for them as me or just saw lots of ropes, because he reached up and hung off them. This was so funny as the stupid hippy that they were attached to was reduced to a screaming pile on the floor! Oh how we laughed! (well Nigel and I did anyway!)
After this amazing chance encounter we also went to see the feeding time which was great but not a good as seeing them in the wild just doing their thing! (and hurting hippies!).
After spending the night near the sanctuary we set off on another adventure, this time into the middle of the rain forest. This required a bus journey then a boat trip of just over an hour. This sounds great, however once again it was tipping it down and rain whacking you in the face while on the boat resulted in temporary blindness and a wish to be in a nice warm bar with a nice cold beer! Anyway after the boat journey we were faced with a walk to the camp through what can only be described as a swamp. Once at the camp it stopped raining and we settled into out 3 walled cage that was our room and had some dinner (things were looking up!). Over the next 3 days we had an amazing time going on night boat trips and treks into the jungle where we saw crocodiles, monitor lizards, snakes, spiders, frogs, monkeys and again wild orang utans. Nigel, who is a very very keen bird watcher in his spare time (when he's not train spotting) was very impressed with the abundance of Hornbills in the area (Over 5 species apparently including the blue beak!).
However my personal favorite things at the camp were the jungle football and our search for the jungle elephants! Football is self explanatory but the search for the elephants was ill conceived to say the least. It involved all of us setting off down the river in torrential rain and then jumping onto a river bank that was so deep with mud it came over my knees (spent quite a while getting my shoes back and freeing Ellie's and Anna's feet so that they could get out of the mud). After this we trekked for several hours though thick jungle into palm plantations to get to a place where the guide thought the elephants would be. After waiting a while he consulted some local people who "apparently" told him that the elephants would appear at 6pm. It was only about 4pm but some of the gung ho and gullible fools we were with decided that we should wait the 2 hours for them. As you can image standing around in the rain waiting for some "elephants" was not our idea of fun. Little did we know that the fun was indeed only just beginning. As you guessed the elephants didn't appear singing and dancing at 6 so we trudged back in the pitch black to the boats (without torches!). It was at this point though that the true level of stupidity of our guide came out. Not realising we would be returning so late he hadn't brought any boat lights with him which meant that we had to go back down a log and crocodile infested river blind. "Sorry I can't go very fast. If we hit a log the boat will turn over" was the last thing Nigel and myself heard before we stared to plan how we were going to kill him and drink all the beer in the camp!
After having a bucket shower that involved filling a bucket with brown water and tipping it over ourselves outside in the cold we decided not to kill him.......
....but we did try and drink all of the beer in the camp!!
PS: Sorry Nigel, I was only joking. Everyone knows you don't go train spotting!
Arriving early we decided that we would go for a walk into the rain forest to explore. ––”t”Tl‹„—Í‹„—Í‹„ñ•C˜ ŠD˜ —Í (sorry I'm in Hong Kong and for some reason the key board just started writing in Chinese! If any one can translate what I have written please let me know!) Anyway..... yes we decided to explore! There was a trail that we could follow that would take us about 2km into the jungle. Not far we thought, it will only take us about an hour. We didn't really think about the mud covered, fallen tree blocked, undulating path that we would be following. After about 3 hours we emerged from the jungle filthy and sweat covered only to be confronted by 3 young Orang Utans playing on a small bridge (oh Nigel went for a pee in the jungle and almost had a nasty incident with a leech! Could have been very interesting and painful!). This was amazing (the Orang Utans - not Nigel and the leech!) as neither Ells nor me had seen any before. However the best was to come as they decided to steal a ladies coat, try and put it on while hanging upside down and then pull bits of it apart. They rolled around and generally had a good laugh.
However I did feel that one of the Orang Utans was on the same wave length as me. I hate people who have been away from home for a couple of days and get bloody braides in their hair. Why oh why would you do that??? Anyway the Orang Utan in question either had the same hatred for them as me or just saw lots of ropes, because he reached up and hung off them. This was so funny as the stupid hippy that they were attached to was reduced to a screaming pile on the floor! Oh how we laughed! (well Nigel and I did anyway!)
After this amazing chance encounter we also went to see the feeding time which was great but not a good as seeing them in the wild just doing their thing! (and hurting hippies!).
After spending the night near the sanctuary we set off on another adventure, this time into the middle of the rain forest. This required a bus journey then a boat trip of just over an hour. This sounds great, however once again it was tipping it down and rain whacking you in the face while on the boat resulted in temporary blindness and a wish to be in a nice warm bar with a nice cold beer! Anyway after the boat journey we were faced with a walk to the camp through what can only be described as a swamp. Once at the camp it stopped raining and we settled into out 3 walled cage that was our room and had some dinner (things were looking up!). Over the next 3 days we had an amazing time going on night boat trips and treks into the jungle where we saw crocodiles, monitor lizards, snakes, spiders, frogs, monkeys and again wild orang utans. Nigel, who is a very very keen bird watcher in his spare time (when he's not train spotting) was very impressed with the abundance of Hornbills in the area (Over 5 species apparently including the blue beak!).
However my personal favorite things at the camp were the jungle football and our search for the jungle elephants! Football is self explanatory but the search for the elephants was ill conceived to say the least. It involved all of us setting off down the river in torrential rain and then jumping onto a river bank that was so deep with mud it came over my knees (spent quite a while getting my shoes back and freeing Ellie's and Anna's feet so that they could get out of the mud). After this we trekked for several hours though thick jungle into palm plantations to get to a place where the guide thought the elephants would be. After waiting a while he consulted some local people who "apparently" told him that the elephants would appear at 6pm. It was only about 4pm but some of the gung ho and gullible fools we were with decided that we should wait the 2 hours for them. As you can image standing around in the rain waiting for some "elephants" was not our idea of fun. Little did we know that the fun was indeed only just beginning. As you guessed the elephants didn't appear singing and dancing at 6 so we trudged back in the pitch black to the boats (without torches!). It was at this point though that the true level of stupidity of our guide came out. Not realising we would be returning so late he hadn't brought any boat lights with him which meant that we had to go back down a log and crocodile infested river blind. "Sorry I can't go very fast. If we hit a log the boat will turn over" was the last thing Nigel and myself heard before we stared to plan how we were going to kill him and drink all the beer in the camp!
After having a bucket shower that involved filling a bucket with brown water and tipping it over ourselves outside in the cold we decided not to kill him.......
....but we did try and drink all of the beer in the camp!!
PS: Sorry Nigel, I was only joking. Everyone knows you don't go train spotting!
posted by Ellie and Adam at
1:48 AM
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