Monkeying around in East Sabah

On Thursday we took a very short flight over to Sandakan which used to be the capital of Sabah until it was destroyed in the war. We didn't actually see Sandakan because we'd gone over for our "environmental" phase. (We know it's not environmental flying but we have decided that we will not be taking any more internal flights)

First stop was Sepilok Jungle Resort. A wooden hut affair pretty much next to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. Still we had a fan and plenty of lizards for company and they did do good big plates of fried rice and fried noodles.

(Mr G - chief Orang Utan)

Just a walk around the garden lead to us seeing at pretty close quarters some hornbills (Oriental Pied Hornbills to be exact) - closer than Si had seen in the jungle. The following morning we went over to the Sanctuary. Sepilok has a mix of wild and rehabilitated orang-utans, if young abandoned orang utans are brought in they gradually give them the skills they need to survive in the wild and release them into the reserve.

Feeding time is pretty manic - suddenly Orangutan's and Macaques start appearing from all angels. Macaques are the small grey monkey type's who are the Borneo equivalent of pigeons or some other pesky creature that hangs around and hassles tourists.

Seplilok is a bit of a spectacle, it's not like seeing wild orangutans and there is a lot of people with their cameras out. However you do get to see them at incredibly close quarters - sometimes too close, one Raleigh guy managed to pick up an Orangutan bite. Probably asked for it I guess, mostly they and the macaques won't go for you unless you make some kind of agressive move. You can also take a few walks within the reserve where you stand a chance of observing orang utans in a more natural situation.

Next stop after Sepilok was Uncle Tan's Wildlife camp on the Lower Kinabatangan river. This region is an area of protected jungle alongside the lower reaches of Sabah's biggest river. It's probably the best place in Sabah for wildlife spotting. Being in somewhere like Danum is great but when you're slap in the middle of the jungle, trees tend to get in the way of you seeing much. On the river however you've got a much clearer view along the banks.

(monitor lizard)

The tours are often on two night, three day basis and involve a combination of river cruises and jungle trekking both during the day and night. It's worth doing and to be fair to the guys from Uncle Tan's they were really into their jobs which was good to see. We saw Probiscus and Silverleaf monkeys & Crocodiles on the river banks. A variety of Birdlife including storm storks, kingfishers, owls , hornbills & eagles. We also had an orangutan and several monitor lizards come right through camp. A troop of macaques hung about camp continually, they got into our hut once and we returned to find stuff strewn all over the floor outside and tooth marks through our toothpaste. In the kitchen area we only turned our backs for one minute and they'd come down from the roof, lifted a heavy wooden lid to a storage cupboard and made off with a tin of condensed milk! Cheeky little blighters...

(Probiscus monkeys in the tree's - enlarge the picture to have a look)

(Croc - don't let the picture fool you this one was massive, 4m long at least....... maybe)

The night walk was interesting as with Raleigh we generally did very little at night due to the increased risk factor... We saw various scorpions, centipides, tree frogs and one enormous tarantula which was camped happily about 10m up a tree. All in all a worthwile experience, the tourists on the trip with us found the accomodation a bit of a shock I think but after Raleigh it seemed 5* to Charl & I. They have electricity, roofs and matresses which is a step up from some of the places we've stayed.

(Black scorpion the guy fished out from under a tree - apparantly they only sting if you try and touch their back. I politely declined the opportunity to hold it as i thought it'd be sod's law I survive three months in the jungle only to get stung after making a conscious decision to have a scorpion crawl on me)

We're now in KK about to depart for Bangkok and Ko Tao where we want to spend a couple of weeks chillin and diving. We'll be sorry to see the back of Sabah, fantastic place and well worth a visit. The people here are chilled out and hospitable. To be honest I'm not looking forward to getting into Bangkok and having to bargain for every single thing I buy and having to persuade cab drivers that I actually really do just want to go to the bus station not their brothers jewellery shop etc... still needs must.

(Kingfishers asleep - until we blundered past shining our torches in their eyes that was)

(long legged centipede, nasty fella with potentially fatal bite)

The blog will probably be on hold now for a while - there's only so many pictures of people chilling out on a beach that hold any interest.

(That might be what Si thinks but I'm actually enrolling him in Buddhist meditation and I will get pictures! Charl x)