Borneo Intro

It felt like we woke up in paradise. This place is filled with beautiful sites, sounds and smells.

Here were our first spottings bedore breakfast:

• Orange tabby cat

• Swallow

• Pied fantail

• Spectacled spiderhunter

• Brown barbet

• Crimson Sunbird

• Long-billed spiderhunter 

• Macaque monkey

• Red-eyed bulbul

• Blue eared barbet

• Green pigeon

• Orchids

• Fish

• Chipmunk

• Brahminy kite

For breakfast on the deck overlooking the water I had Rendang beef with poached eggs. Bill had roti and scrambled eggs. 

Yunus and Nexter met us at 9:00and we took a five minute drive to the Sepilok Oragutan Rehabilition Centre. We watched a short video about the history of the centre and how they rescue and rehab the orangutans in many cases for several years. Organutans can live for more than 50 years, but the females only give birth 2 or 3 times, which makes rehabilitation and repopulating so challenging. It takes mothers 7 or 8 years of caring for their young before they are able to make it on their own. 

We walked over to the feeding area to see some of the older orangutans. We saw some of the rescued ones and a wild alpha male who has learned that there is no alpha male in this area and there is free food. THe macaques have also learned about the free food and we saw one come and help himself to a bunch of bananas while we were there.

We had a bit of excitement when the wild alpha male decided to make a run at the rangers who were feeding them. It caused quite a stir for a few minutes. Fortunately, he was just blustering, so it turned into nothing. 

We walked over to the practice area for the younger ones. First we saw one by himself, then three together. It was really sweet when one started to nuzzle and clean the other’s ear. 

We had a short refreshment break, then walked across the parking lot to view the Sun Bears. They are the smallest of the bear spieces. 

There were five in one enclosure and three in the other. They were rooting for grubs and termites and eating fruit. Each one has a unique colour and shape on their chests that you can see when they sit on their hind legs or lay on their backs to eat. They are really fun to watch.

We drove into town and had a buffet lunch and Tiger beer at Sabah Hotel. From there, it was a short drive to the jetty where we boarded the reluctant cruiser (only one engine wanted to work) and departed from Sandakan on the Sulu Sea for the 2 1/2 hour journey to our home for the next 4 days, Sukau Rainforest Lodge.

We did not see much along the way, as we were not that close to land, were very noisy and going very fast.  Until we entered the river, my side was a shore line and Bill’s side was the open sea. There was very little traffic, mainly a few small fishing vessels. We did see:

• Little Heron

• Tern

• Cormorants

• Macaques

• Egret

• Proboscis monkey

We dropped our bags off, realized we had two double beds and asked to switch to a king. I really wanted to take a shower. I was sweaty, covered in sunscreen and had a layer of diesel fuel fumes, but there was not time! We headed back down to the dock for our afternoon cruise.

We had lots of treats on our cruise, beginning with two pygmy elephants swimming across the river.

We also saw:

• Anhinga or snake bird which dives like a comorant

• Beautiful stork-billed kingfisher, the largest they have here

• Proboscis monkeys 

• Oriental white hornbill pair

• Ringed hornbill 

• Silver leaf monkey

• Wallace’s hawk eagle

• Lesser adjunt

• Swiflet like, swallow but not fork-tailed 

• Dollarbird

Our cruise was capped off with a beautiful sunset.

On the walkway to dinner, bats were clearing the bugs for us. 

We had a nice buffet dinner with chicken, veggies and lamb curry.

After dinner, Wexter gave us a history lesson about Sabah and Sukau, the area we are in on the island of Borneo. You can drive from Sandakan, it is 130km, but is a boring and bumpy ride. It is much better to take a cruiser.

We are in a Riverine Forest along the Kinabatangan River. Native people here are the Orang Sungai, who were the ones that sold the birds nests to the Chinese merchants dating back to the 1800’s. 

Conservation is a priority - minimizing the carbon footprint when building, using river water for the rooms, solar panels for heating the water, training locals to become guides, sourcing seafood from the locals, hiring locals for the staff, tree planting projects, enviormental education programs, medical camps, etc. 

It was a nice way to cap off the day, so we headed to bed early, as we will be having an early start tomorrow.