Day 47 - The Kinabatangan

Today we headed off to the Kinabatangan River. This is usually a day trip as part of the programme, but John had offered us an opportunity to stay overnight in the jungle, something we all leapt at the chance to do. We went to visit the orangutans in the morning, before John came to pick us up at 12.30pm. It was around a 1.5 hour drive to the river, and four of us went in John's car. Along the way he was talking about governments and how hard it is to get laws enforced and make the best use of resources. Thankfully, Sabah is one of the best areas for conservation, and although we pass a lot of palm oil plantations on route, John did stress that most of them were planted on the soil already being used by other crops that failed – such as rubber or cocoa. Around one quarter of the land in Sabah is palm oil, and around the same amount is totally protected. There isn't really any new forest clearing happening at the moment, so hopefully this continues. A lot of the companies that are supplied with palm oil from this region (such as Palmolive, the first major company to request a palm oil plantation in Borneo) are now back-tracking and trying to contribute to conservation, to show they care about the landscape. But according to John, they are not making a wise investment – focusing on simple initiatives with a low success rate (such as tree planting) over more useful, long-term initiatives such as educational programmes and training.

At the end of the drive we headed down a pebbly track to a little village right on the water's edge. John pointed out one of the houses, which was marked with signs showing the flood levels that have been reached over the years. One was nearly as high as the top of the house itself – it must be a scary place to live. While John parked the car, we had a little look around, and one of the local children ran over to ask us what our names were. She was very friendly. There were also two little boys looking out the window and waving. We asked if we could take their picture – but one was too shy, and ducked out of sight. We could hear him giggling to himself from inside.

Then we were off down a rather steep and gapey boardwalk to board our boat. I had to sing the log song (which I usually sing when out with James) to help steady the nerves. We were staying right out in the jungle, and normally it is a boat ride the whole way. But as the river level was low, we had to hop out after around 15-20 minutes and walk for around 15 minutes through the jungle to another small boat, which took us on a short five minute jaunt the rest of the way.

We were staying at Danau TG.Bulat Jungle Camp – and we pulled up at the little jetty and ascended the steep staircase. At the top, to the left, there was the dining area, with a beautiful outlook over the river. To the right was presumably the family quarters, which had hammocks hanging underneath, and then straight ahead was our 'longhouse' – one big long porch-style building with single and double beds on a raised platform, and a small table with chairs. Steph and I agreed to share one of the doubles, which was actually quite roomy, and consisted of two single beds under one mosquito net. Behind this area were the toilets (western style), a sink with running water, and several giant tanks of water for the bucket showers. This is pretty much exactly as it sounds – you have a tap inside to add cold water from the tank to a big container, then you use a smaller one to scoop it out and wash yourself.

On my way back from the bathroom after we first arrived, I heard

something quickly buzz straight into my ear, and I realised immediately that it had stung me. I didn't actually see it, but it sounded and felt rather like the time Steph had been bitten – and it had gone for her ear too! It hurt like the blazes for a good few minutes, swelling and becoming rather red. before finally reducing to just a dull ache. Thankfully it improved fairly quickly, but that's the first time I've been bitten by anything much. Loads of the guys have had problems with mosquitoes, and although there were a lot around, they still seemed to avoid me, so happy days!

We all headed to the dining area for an afternoon snack of tea, coffee and banana and potato fritters. From here we were able to clearly see proboscis monkeys playing in the trees on the opposite riverbank, and on the shore below us there was a massive monitor lizard. Then I went with some of the others to take a little rest in the hammocks and listen to the sounds of the surrounding jungle.

We were due to go out and plant trees at 4pm. A short distance from the back of the complex, there was an open patch of land where we had each been allocated two baby fruit trees and a sign bearing our name and the date. We only had hoes to work with, and it was sweaty work trying to break through the soil, but it was a nice feeling to plant them. Hopefully they grow up big and strong, as they are very close to the centre and should be well looked after. It would be great to return and visit them one day. There were also loads of other signs scattered about on mature trees belonging to previous groups of volunteers.

There was a little more downtime before we headed out on our river cruise at 5pm. We didn't go too far before the driver pulled right over into the bank and cut the engine. He had spotted a clan of proboscis monkeys, whooping and leaping in the trees. This was closely

followed by a bright blue and orange kingfisher, and a bunch of bright eyed macaques, who were running around right by the water's edge. More proboscis monkeys were making a massive ruckus on the other side of the river, where we also saw some silverleaf monkeys, including an albino one, who remained the orange colour they normally are when born, rather than turning silver. She put on quite a performance, running straight up into a spindly tree, so we could get plenty of photos. Even though we were perfectly silent, she kept looking down at us, studying us intently - she knew we were there. We got to see the sun set over the trees, which was quite something to behold, and our final discovery of the evening was a big owl – I have no idea how the driver was even able to spot that one!

We returned to the camp for dinner, which was a lovely buffet of chicken, beef, mixed vegetables and pumpkin (I was thrilled to see some mushrooms too – I have missed mushrooms!) As we were

eating, there were bats flying in and around the area at great speed. Then John delivered a talk about how the project came about. The idea is to maintain the 100 hectare area of forest that the camp resides within, and assist in its rejuvenation by planting trees. There is one local village chief and his family who run the operation, with John's support. I gather they don't get too many visitors aside from those John brings along, so I hope the small amount we each paid will prove helpful.

When John was nearly finished talking, the rain started pouring down out of nowhere, and whipping around the building. The staff quickly pulled down some awnings, but our night walking trek was now in jeopardy. Thankfully the rain didn't last too long, and at 9pm we headed out, torches in hand. We didn't see anything spectacular, but there were frogs, birds, spiders and quite a lot of unusual insects. It was pretty muddy in places, and once again Steph nearly got her

boots stuck. It was so hard to stifle the laughter, as we tried not to scare everything around us away!

We were out for around an hour before returning back to the camp, where I decided I needed to try the bucket shower! It was invigorating to say the least! It had been a very hot afternoon, but the rain had cooled things down. Still, it was rather nice to pour a bracing bit of cold water down your back. However I still tried to move quickly, and was the only one of the group to try it. I did feel super refreshed afterwards, although as I was attempting to dry myself I felt something rather large land on my shoulder. Thankfully it was just a critter similar to a flying praying mantis.
John told us it would be lights out at 11pm, so we crawled into bed and made sure the net was pegged up tightly. We weren't really very tired, so we did lie there for a while. The mattress and pillow were actually quite comfy, probably better than the resthouse. They had given us some blankets, which I was very confident I wouldn't need with the heat, but I found that I actually got quite cold, so I had to hop out after about half an hour to grab one. Unfortunately, the other driver who had come with John was a snorer – and he had gone to bed before us, so he was in full swing already. We all started giggling as it just got worse, and we were only a few beds away – this is not the serenity we had imagined! But thankfully he did stop for long enough that I was able to nod off.