After the turtles, we were ready to see some jungle life. First on the trip was the Sepilok Orangutan sanctury. This place has been established to take young and orphaned orangutans from the jungles and raise them to puberty before releasing them back to the wild. Orangutans are amazingly human like, especially as babies and infants and want nothing more than a few bananas and a good cuddle.
Gradually they wean the infants away from reliance on the handlers and move them further out into the park to fend for themselves.
We got to see them at feeding time, swinging along rope walkways and generally monkeying about. They are very animated and you get to see them fairly close up.
Finally on our whirlwind tour of Sabah we managed to squeeze in a trip to Kinabatangan river. It would have been very amiss of us if we had not made time to see the real jungles of Borneo.
The river is the longest in Borneo and runs some 500km through many unspoilt jungle areas, and also some 'spoilt' jungle areas where palm oil plantations have plagued the landscape and habitats. We spent 3 nights in a fabulous riverside hut and went on daily river 'cruises' (aka rickety row boat with outboard motor) where we saw an abundance of wildlife (probably more than we saw in the Amazon). Top favourites were a brief sighting of an aligator and also the famous long nosed probiscous monkeys.
We also went on a night walk to see the local creepy crawlies (spider, scorpion, bat etc..).
As a special treat on our final evenings we were treated with some stunning sunsets over the river.
About Us
- Caroline and Gary
- We are taking a year out of our regular lives in 2008 to fulfil a long held dream to travel around the world. We plan to visit some of the most beautiful mountainous and far flung places on earth, and learn about different cultures