We were up bright (or dim) and early at 6 for yoga this morning. Amanda led a session with Lauren, Cat, Heather and I, and it was absolutely surreal, with the view of the jungle out the front windows and the sound of the river (with the usual cohort of jungle bug sounds) coming from the back. We had the door open for a little while, but a dog tried to come inside so we closed that quite quickly! It was really nice to stretch out our sore legs. After about 40 minutes we went and had a quick shower and packed up our bags, before heading outside the complex for a quick breakfast of nasi lemak (rice, dried fish, nuts, cucumber and some chilli) at a local restaurant. Then it was back to the hostel and loading into the minibuses for the big drive to Kinabatangan.
It was a long trip, but it went quite quickly. Initially we were driving through the mountains, and the roads were surrounded by jungle. We had a toilet/snack stop about an hour and a half in, and all tried a steamed bun from the shop - I had a peanut one and it was very yum! As we kept driving, the jungle gave way to palm plantations (for palm oil) and the scale of them was quite mind blowing, just palm trees as far as you could see over the hills. The road was not the best quality, and there was lots of driving on the wrong side of the road to avoid enormous potholes and getting stuck behind huge palm oil trucks. Made us a bit nervous playing chicken with huge oil tankers! Our second stop was at a roadside marketplace, where ironically enough we had to pay for the toilet for the first time, and found a squat toilet. Not ideal for our sore legs! Then it was back on the road for our last hour.
We arrived at the Bilit river dock on the Kinabatangan River at 1pm, so the journey from Poring took exactly 5 hours. It went quick though! It was absolutely pouring when we arrived, just to be different. We had to wait a while, because we needed to get a boat down the river and didn't want to get drenched. Once the rain eased off a bit to more of a drizzle, we all hopped in the boats for a quick 5 minute ride down the river. It's bigger than I expected, a wide, fast-flowing river surrounded by jungle. We hopped off the boats at another dock and were led up into the Bilit Adventure Lodge to an open dining area where we were served a buffet lunch. Much more westernised food than anywhere so far, rice with meat stew and veggies, but also fried fish and crinkle-cut chips. After we'd eaten and had a cup of coffee, Jeffry told us that there had been sightings of Pygmy elephants in the area this morning, so we've all got our fingers crossed for that! You could even see their footprints in the mud right outside our hut. Otherwise if the rain continues, we won't be able to do our safaris, so also fingers crossed for that to stop. We hung around for about an hour and just got changed/read our books and relaxed before heading back to the restaurant area for afternoon tea (they eat so regularly here!). Afternoon tea was drinks and banana fritters, and as we were eating it stopped raining!
We hopped in the boat at 4 after a brief explanation from Jeffry about the different types of primates in this area of Borneo. We headed upriver first, as this is the area the elephants had been seen in. After spotting some long-tailed macaques, a very common variety of monkey, we saw a whole group of boats ahead, and as we came closer we saw the Pygmy elephants! There was a whole family group grazing in the grass by the river, around 24 we think, all spread along the banks with babies tucked in between and behind the adults. It was really spectacular, and they were so noisy, letting out trumpets and other noises as a warning to boats coming too close. We watched them for quite a long time, as they were moving around and little babies would pop out and then be hidden again. After a good amount of time though, we started back up and headed downriver. Not long after, we saw another couple of boats, but we couldn't see what they could see. After a few minutes of observation of quite a dense tree, we realised there was an orangutan building a nest in the top! Not only that, but it was a mum and a baby. They were hard to see because of where they were, but with the aide of Jeffry's binoculars, we all got a view of the little baby (not being very helpful with the building work). Couldn't really get any pictures of them, but it was fantastic to watch. Next we spotted a proboscis monkey (the ones with the big funny noses) high up in a tree, and a species of hornbill in the next tree. We saw lots of groups of long-tailed macaques, a few storks and egrets, two big serpent eagles and a big family group of proboscis monkeys. All of this with amazing views of thick jungle on each side of the river, and the sounds of millions of cicadas which has followed us basically everywhere except for KK. We also had a gorgeous sunset on the drive back to the 'jungle resort' that we're staying at.
Once we arrived back at the resort, we had about 45 minutes to relax before dinner. We mostly just got our stuff ready for the post-dinner night safari walk and then just headed over. Dinner was a similar buffet to lunch, with chicken, veggies, rice and chips, with watermelon and papaya for 'dessert'. We all chatted about this afternoon's exciting boat safari and what we had and hadn't expected. Just after we finished eating, someone spotted a palm civet just off the raised platform/walkway that the restaurant is on. It was a really odd creature, like a cross between a cat and a weasel but with beautiful spots like a big cat. We had been told that if the Pygmy elephants were too close to camp we wouldn't be going on our night walk, so we didn't have very high expectations, but after having a look at the civet, Jeffry told us to grab our gear and come to get our leech socks and gumboots.
We all got kitted up in our knee-high (or above, in some cases, including me) leech socks and high black gumboots, and were given a safety briefing by Jeffry, who explained there were 4 park rangers already sussing out the surrounding jungle, and that there would be one in front of us and one behind with him. After that we began our walk into the jungle. We were all carrying our head torches (so we wouldn't have bugs in our faces), but it was very dark still. The mud was unbelievable! It had been raining so much over the last few days that we were sinking into ankle deep mud with every step. We spotted a scorpion cricket, a giant leaf insect, a number of beautiful colourful little birds, and a real scorpion. At one point we heard elephant noises so had to change our route slightly to avoid getting too close to them. After that we saw a lesser mousedeer (tiny little deer with skinny legs). We heard some loud bangs as we were starting to head back towards the lodge, which most of us assumed were gunshots, but Jeffry explained that they were bamboo 'cannons' of sorts, designed to scare the elephants away from the local's houses and farms. We got back to the lodge at around 10pm, and after cleaning our gumboots, headed straight to bed, as we have an early boat Safari in the morning.
Kinabatangan river
Friday, April 07, 2017
Bilit, Sabah, Malaysia
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