CRUISE ON THE SARAWAK RIVER

Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Damai Beach Resort, Sarawak, Malaysia
August 28 - 29
After a long day of touring on Tuesday, we just hung out, again, at the Resort on Wednesday and relaxed.  Thursday, late afternoon, we went on a three hour cruise on the estuary of the Sarawak River. The cruise was to include sightings of porpoises, proboscis monkeys, about which Bill was really excited, crocodiles and, once it got dark, viewing the multitude of fireflies on the banks of the river.
The scenery from the little boat was beautiful and we had a terrific view of the back side of Mount Santubong which was very different from the side that looks like a face peering up at the sky with open mouth.
As we puttered out into the open waters, we did see several porpoises jumping in and out of the water but they were so fast that it was near impossible to get a decent photo but I did manage to capture one from afar that wasn't great.
As we cruised through the waters and entered the estuary, the foliage along the banks was dense with mangroves and areas of enormous ferns and palms that was impressive.  However, we had no sightings of any crocodiles...we've seen so many in Mexico so that wasn't a big disappointment.  As he has always been intrigued by the Proboscis monkey, endemic to Borneo and a totally protected species in Sabah, Bill was really hoping that we would have some good sightings of them.  When we pulled right up to the bank, we did see a few of them but they were so far away that we couldn't really get a good look so that was a disappointment. They are such a weird animal that I took the liberty of adding a few photos from the internet. 
After doing a little research, I found out that when the male proboscis monkeys become bigger, so will their body and testicles.  More importantly, the males with a bigger nose can attract more females.  According to a scientific study that was conducted, "In addition to finding that enlarged male noses serve as advertisements to females in mate selection, we also found that males with larger noses also tended to have larger body mass and testis.  This suggests that nose enlargement is a reliable predictor of social dominance and high sperm count."  It appears that there is a clear link between the nose size of the males and the number of females in their harems.
If you look online for photos of the Proboscis monkey you'll find hundreds of photos of these bizarre animals....many that are like monkey pornography...showing them mating or sitting around with their bright red penises quite visible.
As we cruised back into the wider section of the river, we passed by several very scenic little villages where life appeared to be so simple and tranquil..so different from life in the cities.
    We sat on the still waters, waiting for it to get dark so we could motor right up to the banks of the river to see the fireflies up close. These winged beetles are commonly called fireflies or lightning bugs because of their conspicuous use of bioluminescence, from their lower abdomen, during twilight to attract mates or prey.  According to our boat guide, there are about 2,100 species of fireflies found in temperate and tropical climates.  It was really fun seeing the bushes along the banks of the river being lit up like Xmas trees and watching the young people on the boat trying to catch these amazing little insects.
After watching the fireflies, we headed back to the dock.  It was really eerie cruising back in the dark and the guide had to continually shine a big flashlight onto the waters to make sure we didn't collide with another boat or hit a log floating in the water.  Although we didn't see all that we hoped to, we still enjoyed our little cruise on the waters of the Sarawak River.

Comments

Susan
2018-09-13

What you saw was certainly different than what you expected to see!! You never know how things will turn out!

Amanda Frost
2018-09-14

What is the temperature like? Finally has cooled off here in S.B. (now it's regular S.B. temperatures).

2025-02-17

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