Nature Lodge Kinabatangan close to Bilit is a backpacker jungle retreat with both dorm-style huts and twin bed chalets; elevated wooden boardwalks wind through secondary rainforest to the quite luxurious wooden chalets on stilts (to backpacking what glamping is to camping), complete with resident wildlife including a troupe of Long-tailed Macaques. The first wildlife encounter is this area was a stand-off with a male Macaque who’d taken a fancy to some of the bags and was trying to see if he could nick something from them. Over the course of our stay, they stole a number of things ranging from fruit, cake, breakfast and packets of sugar to a rather large ashtray from someone’s hut. I didn’t know they smoked!
We had a very quick late buffet style lunch with rice, poached eggplant, chicken, battered fish and an onion salad. Dessert was orange slices and water melon. Then it was off for our first river cruise up the Sungai Kinabatangan. We saw a few types of birds including Swallows, Hornbills (2 of the 8 varieties), Long-tailed Macaques, Proboscis Monkeys, Egrets and Hawk-Eagles.
Dinner was another buffet with local foods including onion soup, deep-fried oysters, rice, chicken, fish, vegetables and fruit. This was followed up by a local singing and dancing demonstration (for the latter keen participants were plucked from the audience to demonstrate their skills; it was a bit like watching a rendition of Whigfield’s Saturday night or the Macarena). It was a pretty early night though as the adventures started again before the sun would be up the next morning.
Getting up at 5.15am, we watched the sunrise over the Kinabatangan before heading off on an early morning river cruise, this time trying to spot crocs. There were more hornbills, egrets and monkeys; we also saw a snake curled up in a tree but no crocs. However we did stop at one point where the crocs slid into the river and clawed themselves out. One croc must have been enormous as the claw marks were huge!
After a buffet breakfast of noodles, beans, sausage, scrambled eggs and toast and another stand-off with a male Macaque, our adventures continued. We took a boat ride a short way along the river then did a jungle trek to an Oxbow Lake. The area we walked through was secondary rainforest which had previously been logged. The government here have realised that if they lose the rainforest, they will lose tourists and so there are now tighter controls on both palm oil plantations and logging, though they still have a problem with illegal logging. Replanting of trees is being done in areas that were formerly palm oil plantations; these usually have a life span of 28 years and then the area becomes desolate unless they replant with another palm plantation. We did see smaller creatures such as various millipedes, spiders, Huntsman Gorilla (which is not a spider but part of the same larger family as them and looks rather similar; it is locally known as a ‘Daddy Long-legs’).
We had some free time after our buffet lunch of rice, chicken, a local fish dish, vegetables and fruit (there’s a theme developing here) before reconvening for ‘afternoon tea’ of well tea, cake and waffles (although my first cake disappeared into the hands of a very fast and devious thieving monkey) to enjoy the thunderstorm and lightning display. Then we had another river cruise which was the most successful so far; we saw some big crocodiles, several troupes of Long-tailed Macaques (close up), Proboscis Monkeys, several types of Hornbills, Serpent Eagle and Egrets. Unfortunately wild Orangutans are very rare in these parts and they no longer get pygmy elephants (which apparently are very dangerous even though they’re only 2m high). Dinner was cabbage soup (tasted much nicer than it sounds), followed by rice, chicken curry, oysters, vegetables and fruit. Then it was another early night; for another early start the next morning and a packed day ahead.
Our 2nd early start wasn’t as fruitful as the previous day. We did see a crocodile, hornbill, Proboscis Monkeys, Kingfisher, eagle and egrets. After a breakfast of noodles, sausage, beans, veg and Indian bread and a stand-off with monkeys who were trying to steal the food, we headed off to Sepilok. This is the home of the Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and Sun Bear Conservation Centre.
We visited the latter first; a treetop walkway viewing the rescued Sun Bears in a natural habitat learning natural behaviours so that they can be reintroduced to the wild. After lunch in the little cafĂ©, we visited the Orangutan Centre to watch the orangutans coming to feed. All our bags had to be stored in lockers because orangutans will steal anything; in fact someone didn’t follow the advice and lost some clothing. Semi-wild orangutans at various stages of rehabilitation return to the feeding station; including a mother with her baby. We probably saw almost a dozen orangutans, which our guide advised was a particularly good turn out; she doesn’t normally see that many. Then we visited the outdoor nursery where juvenile orangutans are learning the art of swinging through the trees on a series of rope walks and climbing equipment. The centre uses this as an opportunity to educate the public and promote conservation of their habitat, the rainforest.
We opted to go for an optional extra night walk through the edge of the jungle at Sepilok. This proved to be an extremely great idea and we were incredibly lucky to see some surprising animals. There were orangutans hanging around, one seemed to join our tour but the rangers want to discourage human-orangutan contact with older orangutans so shooed him off. We saw several individuals of two different species of Flying Squirrels – and saw them gliding through the air from tree to tree. Then over our heads soared a Flying Lemur. It disappeared into the trees but when the rangers tracked it down, found it with two other Flying Lemurs – this was something that the rangers who’d been there for 20 or 30 years had not seen before. Besides this we saw two different species each of vipers (one was a pit viper), stick insects (one looked like the standard skinny one, the other was fatter and had more resemblance to a cockroach; this turned out to be the 57cm stick insect that has only recently been discovered), geckos, frogs (Swamp and Harlequin) plus spiders. Finally the tour finished by coming across two sleeping orangutans, which’d been too lazy to make a nest so were sleeping near the centre on the walkways. It was an amazing experience.
That night we stopped in Sandakan and had the opportunity to have something other than a non-traditional Malaysian meal, plus sample some local cocktails.
A 40-min boat ride from Sandakan is a cluster of islands, known as the Sandakan Archipelago, where Green and Hawksbill Turtles inhabit the waters in large numbers. The Turtle Island Marine Park was created encompassing the islands of Selingan, Bakungan Kecil and Gulisan. However, there are other islands within this turtle hotspot that provide a sanctuary outside of the official marine park. One of these is the 460-hectare Pulau Libaran, a mere 5 minutes from Selingan. Trekkers Lodge Sdn Bhd on the island opened a hatchery on the island in Nov 2011 as part of their corporate social responsibility (a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with Sabah Wildlife Dept. in July 2013). The programme includes awareness of the conservation value of sea turtles (locals and visitors), research projects to better understand the life cycle of turtles visiting the area. Both Green and Hawksbill Turtles are protected under the Sabah Wildlife Enactment 1997. Possessing and consuming turtle eggs are illegal and offenders can face a fine of 50,000MYR (£10,000) or five years’ imprisonment or both.
To reduce environmental impact, the Lodge consists of semi-permanent tents (Malaysian glamping). The island was hotter than anywhere we’d visited so far and we spent the time during the heat of the day sheltering in the cool breeze of the island trees. The sea was shallow for some good distance and went out a long way leaving mud flats and small pools in its wake. As the heat started dissipating (as much as it does here), we had a tour of the turtle hatchery.
Eggs are collected as soon as they are laid and transferred immediately to the hatchery, where they are protected from predators such as Monitor Lizards and birds, weather events such as nest flooding during high tides and nests being damaged by a later turtle digging up an earlier turtle’s nest. The survival rate of these eggs is about 95%.The mother’s shell is measured (and tagged if she is a new visitor); number of eggs laid recorded with time & date. After 50 or 60 days the hatchlings are released in small batches onto the beach under the cover of darkness; they say that instead of using the tactic of swamping predators, they release a few in different places along the beach so that there are less likely to be predators waiting for them. When they come out on mass, the predators lie in wait. Tiger, Reef (Black-tipped, White-tipped and Silver-tipped) and Hammerhead Sharks and birds in particular like a tasty turtle snack.
The survival rate of the baby turtles is about 3% that survive to breeding age (15-30 years old); they believe adults can live up to 100 years old assuming they haven’t mistakenly eaten plastic bags for jellyfish as this blocks their intestines and kills them or been injured by boat propellers or been drowned in (discarded ‘ghost’) fishing nets. A mother turtle will lay up to 6 clutches in a season of between 50 – 190 eggs at a time, every 2-3 years, between the ages of 15-30 years old.
As an exciting surprise we accompanied the Ranger to release a batch of newly hatched turtles onto the beach to start their life in the ocean.
After dinner of rice, chicken cooked in soy sauce, fried fish, vegetables and fruit, we watched a DVD on turtles and the work being done in the Turtle Marine Park and here to protect and conserve the turtles for the future. The thunderstorm that followed cooled the air and allowed us a reasonably good night’s sleep.
It was lovely to wake up next to the beach and by 8am the sun was hot. We were off by 8.30 on the boat back to shore then via the Sandakan Memorial Park to the airport for a flight back to Kota Kinabalu. The memorial park is on the grounds of a WWII POW camp where approx. 2400 Australian and British prisoners were held. The majority of them perished due to starvation, overwork, beatings and punishment; 1000 sick and weak prisoners (about 40% of the camps inhabitants) were force marched under brutal physical conditions on three ‘Death Marches’ between January and August 1945. Of those who had been alive in January 1945, only six Australians survived having escaped from the marches. Prisoners suffered from malnutrition and tropical diseases including beri beri, malaria and dysentery so escape was often difficult due to their weak state. The Japanese offered large rewards for the recapture of escaped POWs but there was also an underground network of local people who assisted escapes until they were picked up by Allied Units. It was very poignant and it was a shame that we couldn’t spend longer there.
Back in KK our group was splitting. Six of us were carrying on to climb the mountain and being joined by four others (Tyler & Laura from US, Rena from UK and Emily from WA), whilst the rest were heading home or elsewhere. After our welcome meeting/briefing for the mountain climb, we had a last dinner with the participants of the first part of the trip.
It was a traditional Kadazandusun tribe buffet consisting of all manner of local tribal foods such as normal rice, sticky rice in banana leaves, chicken curry, deep fried chicken marinated in ginger, cooked chicken’s feet, fried fern (Sayur Manis) with chillies, other local vegetables, bamboo soup, fish dishes including raw fish marinated in chilli and lime (Hinava), various desserts and lemongrass tea.
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