Wellington, my travel buddy in Borneo, described our most recent adventure as "Boot Camp in the Jungle," and in some ways he is totally right. There were no drill sergeants and no rifles (though there are rumors of head-hunting tribes around and lots of big crocs, so maybe an M-16 wouldn't have been a bad idea,) but things were definitely basic on the the Kinabatangan River.
There were lots of boots and it was definitely camping - in the mud!!
Just a couple of weeks ago it was the rainy season and the camp was closed due to the flooding. Now it's a bit drier (it only rains once or twice a day,) and the river is back within its banks, but the mud remains and it is everywhere. It is really sticky and soupy and loose and wet all at the same time and threatens to keep your boot as you walk away. Our camp consisted of some wooden huts connected by walkways and everywhere else we wore rubber boots (Wellingtons, how appropriate,) and slogged through the deep mud and leftover puddles. When we arrived by outboard riverboat and clambered up the bank, there was a big pile of dirty boots waiting for us - but none of them had sizes printed on them! So we kicked off our shoes and hopped around trying to put together a pair that fit our feet. It took a while, but I finally found some in the general range of my big hobbit feet (though the left was a half-size too small I am sure.) Then we shouldered our gear and headed to the camp, constantly pulling our sucking feet out of mud bogs all along the way. Once we got to camp, we were supposed to pile up the boots near the start of the boardwalk, but since we all took so long to find some that kind of fit, everyone snagged that pair and stashed them away for easy finding later. Since the insides of the boots were almost as sloppy as the outside, every excursion ended with a trip to the water buckets near the squat privys (yup, bucket baths too,) for rinsing with ladles of river water. Accommodations were wonderfully basic - plank huts with the smelliest thinnest mattresses I've ever seen right on the floor, and mosquito netting - that's it. Sharing with a bed with Wellington was cozy, but we were so beat from trekking in the mud several times a day that I slept great anyway. Unfortunately for him, he didn't. And he was kind enough to not accuse me of snoring. Each hut is covered in chicken wire to keep the monkeys out, but we needed to be careful in the dining area - there were always one or two looking to snag a bite. One of the guys in camp almost lost a jar of vitamins to them , but he charged them like a crazy man, with flailing arms and strange Irish warrior cries and the startled monkey dropped its prize and fled for the trees. There were also wild boars on the volleyball court, spiders in the heads of a size I haven't seen since the Seychelles, and a five foot long monitor lizard living in the puddle under the kitchen to avoid. Electric power was on from 6PM to midnight only and with one outlet for the four of us in the hut, the iPod speakers and Wellington's 20 hour Borneo playlist always got 1st priority!
It sounds like it was rough but I had a great time - boat rides and jungle treks at all hours to spy on the amazing jungle creatures is right up my alley. We saw all kinds of monitor lizards, strange birds, huge crocodiles, several kinds of monkeys (including the strange looking big-nosed Proboscis Monkeys,) wild boars, and insects and spiders galore. I politely declined to hold the scorpion (Jeez, I jumped out of a plane last summer despite my fear of heights, do I need to prove anything else to you?) I didn't get to see any wild orangutans or pygmy elephants but some in camp saw some of the cute apes on the trek back from the boat and we could hear them calling to each other every day. An added bonus was that the food at the camp was plentiful and fantastic, especially considering that every item has to be boated in and then carried up that 400m mud trail! One of the best times was when we played soccer with the camp staff in the mud. The guys working there were amazing, dealing with some hard work in difficult conditions, but I never saw one without a smile on his face and they went way out of their way to make sure we had a great time, all the time. If you are in the area, Uncle Tan's Jungle Camp is the way to go.
Sadly, our visit came to an end and we rode the river back from "Camp Kurtz" to civilization and by that afternoon we were washed, fed, and visiting the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary. It is an orphanage and rehabilitation center for baby orangutans with regular feeding times so you get to see the babies and older apes come in for a daily load of fruit to supplement what they find
in the forest. I met and talked to some volunteers there and they were loving their three month programs! We must have seen 20 orangutans sweeping through for their banana lunch, they ranged in age from impossibly cute (less than a year maybe?) to grumpy old farts and everything in between. With their keen expressions, human-like hands and balding old man faces, they are very sweet looking and make you want to take one home. But they are also very powerful, and we saw decent sized tree limbs they had torn in two as easy as you would snap a chopstick!That night we headed to the port town of Sandanak, had some dinner and poked around and Theresa and Katja did a little shopping. The next morning we were off to the airport and bought tickets to Kota Kinabalu, the site of our next round of diving...
Next installment: an amazingly cool city on the coast and a relaxing island sanctuary...
Salamat Pagi,
Clement
