We arranged our river tour from Sandakan, so had to get a bus from Sepilock to Sandakan where we stayed for a night before our tour begins. Nothing much to report about Sandakan, it's a bit of a dump really, although they are rebuilding a whole new structure for the place. If you come back in years to come, it will probably be a lot better. Although we did see a monitor lizard (cousin of the Komodo dragon) swimming in the sea near the harbour, which was pretty cool.

Day 1

We had a 2 hour bus ride from Sandakan to Sukau. Once we arrived there, someone from our lodge came to pick us up to take us to the other side of the Kinabatangan river. We're staying at the Nature Lodge, it's a basic accommodation, but it's all we need really. When we arrived, they gave us some welcome drinks and introduced the team and showed us our room. We got a room right at the front overlooking the river which was small, but sufficient for what we need. Just after we arrived, the heavens opened, so we were lucky to have missed the rain.

Once we'd settled in, we had afternoon tea where we got to chat to our fellow travellers. Then it was time to be taken on our first cruise upon the Kinabatangan river. We thought we'd be stuck cruising in the rain, but just a few minutes before we boarded the boat, it cleared up. There were 2 boats departing from our nature lodge, each with our own guide and driver. Our guide would be Ramsan, a local man with expert knowledge of the flora and fauna. We set off down the river with speed on our motorised boat, all excited and hopeful that we'd see a few things along the way.

Hornbills and eagle

For the first part of the cruise we didn't see anything, but we knew we would, given time. On our pampas trip we saw many things, and this tour is similar, so I know we will see other things. We travelled further down the river, then our guide shouted look up there it's a hornbill. There are 8 different types of hornbill, and they can all be found along this stretch of river here in Borneo. The one we saw was a rhinoceros hornbill. It flew over the river and into the branches, because it was high up in the trees, it was hard to see it with the naked eye, so our guide let us use his binoculars. It looked like a toucan. Further along the river, we saw a sea eagle high above us, which was brown and white.

Long tailed Macaque and Proboscis Monkey

We travelled further down the river, and dusk was fast approaching. Our guide said around this time the wildlife settles down for the night and make their nests. We spotted some monkeys swinging around in the trees, so the guide stopped the boat for a closer look. We saw bearded macaques in Bali, but the ones we could see here were long tailed macaques. So named due to their long tails. They were also quite high up, so we used binoculars to see them. They were all playing and chasing each other from tree to tree. Then Ramsan said he'd seen a proboscis monkey, only native to Borneo. These are the monkeys with a very large long nose, which makes them look really ugly. The males have a huge belly, and are much larger, whereas, the females are smaller and don't have such a big nose either. We saw them only high up again, so the only way to view them was through the binoculars. I haven't ever seen this monkey before, so I was intrigued to see them in real life. I would prefer to see them a bit closer so I can look at their behaviours a bit more. Perhaps we'll get to see some more on our next cruise.

Wild orang-utans.....?

So we were just cruising back as it was starting to get dark and I was just saying I wonder if we'll get to see any wild orang-utans, as that would almost certainly be a highlight if we did. Then our guide hurriedly took us over to the edge of the river to say he's seen an orang-utans nest in the trees. They make up a new nest every night to sleep in, just before it gets dark. Sure enough, when we looked through the binoculars, I could see the orang-utan sitting up in his nest. It wasn't facing me as it was sideways, but it turned towards me, so I got to see the wild orang-utan that we'd all been hoping to see. I felt to privileged to have been able to see one in the wild, as not many people can say they've seen an orang-utan in their natural habitat. We started cruising back further, then bumped into our other boat, who were stopped further up river. There was another orang-utan in its nest. I could not believe our luck at seeing two in the wild, as the guide said we're very lucky even to have seen one, let alone two. I'm glad I sew them here, where they belong, but at the rehabilitation centre, at least we got to see them a bit closer. Just as we were coming back, we also got to see a wild boar just on the river bank, so all in all, it was a successful first cruise.

Jungle night walk

After an excellent buffet dinner, we were to take a guided night walk through the jungle. The guide warned us about leeches and told us to wear long sleeves, pants, and to tuck our socks into our trousers or they will get us. I've not been anywhere where there could be leeches, so hoping not to run into one. I tucked my top in, along with my socks, those little blighters are not getting anywhere near me. So armed with torches, in a big line, we set off trekking through the jungle. We had to wear wellies due to the heavy rains, which was a good job as the mud is so squelchy. We don't expect to see much walking though the jungle at night, but along our walk we saw a frog in a tree, a kingfisher sleeping in the tree, a brown snake up a tree and some cool insects and spiders. It was an adventure walking though the jungle at night anyhow. I had a leech that went on my finger, so I panicked and asked John to take it off me, which he did. It hadn't yet started sucking blood from me, luckily. It was a small leech, so I wouldn't have really seen it go on my hand. Nothing much else happened on the night walk, but everyone was knackered, so we all went straight to bed as we've to be up before 6am for another cruise.

Day 2 - morning cruise

We got up early to take our morning cruise for 6am. The river looked mystical as there was a smoke rising up from it. We sailed up river this time, so at least we'd go to a different place. We sped up the river to see the first animals rising of the day; the macquakes. They were on low branches right by the river bank, and some were chasing each other on the ground. We got a good close up view of them, but we've seen many of these monkeys already, so it wasn't anything new. There was also some proboscis monkeys in the trees, but we couldn't even get close enough to see them that clearly.

Salt water crocodile

We carried on going further up the river and didn't see much else for a while, only a few birds flying over us. A short while later, Ramsan slowed the boat right down as he'd seen something. It was a salt water crocodile lurking in the water, swimming along. At first we didn't really see it, so our boat ensued it down the river so we could take a closer look. We saw only it's head poking out of the water, particularly it's eyes. Then it went under so we couldn't see it, annoyingly. It did reappear a few minutes later though. We saw nearly the whole length of the croc, it looked huge. Apparently they are around 5 metres long here. You would want to be swimming in these murky waters here. I would love to see it on the river banks, but it didn't make it's appearance there for us. When we saw one at Ferndale Wildlife Park, that was huge, so I imagine the one we've just saw would be around the same size. After the amazement of seeing a croc, we just saw another bird, an oriental darter, they reminded me of the cormorant birds as they look similar. The only other interesting thing that happened on the cruise was a sunrise over the mystical waters. The sun was poking through the clouds to reveal this serene place to us right before our own eyes, it was pretty special. The moment I turned around and saw it first, everyone else turned to look and all started snapping away with their cameras. We didn't see as many new things on this cruise, but the highlights were the crocodile and the sunrise.

Jungle day walk

After the morning cruise, we returned for breakfast, then it was time for our next activity, the jungle walk. Ramsan met us and told us we'd be doing an 8k walk to get to the Oxbow lake and back through the jungle. Not all of the group came, so there were just a few of us. As we were setting off, Ramsan showed us a spider in its web, which was a pretty big one and was cool to see. We did the walk through the sloppy mud, only really seeing millipedes, centipedes and butterfly's along the way. We got to see pigmy elephant dung, but no elephants. They haven't been spotted in this area for over 3 weeks, so it's unlikely we'll see them on this trip. At least we know they are here though.

Oxbow Lake

We arrived at Oxbow lake and it was a pretty green lake which joined up with the river. At one stage in time, it used to be part of the river, but it separated into another body of water. There is a jetty there, so we sat in the shade to cool down for a while. There was some kind of wasps nest on its roof, which we didn't want to disturb, so we steered well clear of that, after what happened in Flores on our bike adventure! Ramsan brought some bread with him to feed the fish, so we all threw it into the water and loads of tiny little fish came up to eat it. John hand fed them, when a big fish came up to eat the bread, he tried to catch, unsuccessfully. Then we had to do our 4km walk back to the nature reserve. We didn't see so much wildlife here, but just going for a walk in the jungle was good enough for me.

Afternoon river cruise

We were all knackered after our jungle walk, plus being hot and sticky, but you have to expect that for being in the jungle. After lunch, we had a couple of spare hours before the cruise, so took a nap as getting up at 5am takes it's toll on you. Then we got ready and set off on our 3rd cruise of the trip. We've seen so much already, so we can't expect to see much else other than what we've already seen.

We travelled much further down the river than we had done before, so didn't really see anything at first as we were travelling at speed. We turned down a smaller river to the right of the Kinabatangan, which our guide said we should see wildlife from a closer distance as the river was narrower. Our guide pointed out some ropes, attached high in the trees, which are for the orang-utans to climb across as they don't like swimming over to the other side of the river. Amongst some of the animals we saw along this journey included a python, a couple of monitor lizards, hornbills, kingfishers, proboscis monkey, and plenty of macquakes. So I guess it was another successful cruise.

Proboscis on a tight-rope!

While we were travelling back, some of our group were pointing to look up above us. It was from a distance, so I couldn't really make out what it was, but as we got closer, we all realised what we were witnessing! It was a whole group of macquakes crossing the river on the rope that's for the orang-utans to cross! Some were swinging on the rope, and some were walking across like it was a tight-rope! It was so amusing to watch, and I guess we were in the right place at the right time to see that! There must have been at least 20 of them all crossing the river! That was a highlight of this cruise too!

Night jungle walk

After dinner with the group, we had our last night walk in the jungle. We'd seen a few insects, frogs and birds last night, so it would be good to see some mammals tonight. We set off walking on a different trail to that we walked on last night, which was good, as we may see other animals hopefully. It's a lot harder to spot animals high up in the trees, but somehow, the guides do manage to spot things. Among the things we saw tonight were a civic cat, snake, a tarsier, which is a very rare animal and a scorpion. One thing we all did, which was pretty cool, was turning all our torches off so we were in pitch black darkness of the jungle, listening to the noises around us. We looked up to see the stars over the forest canopy. Without our lights on, you realise that it's really wild out there, especially when you can't see anything, not even your own hand!

Last dawn cruise and end of the trip

It was another early morning rise for us, so we awoke in time for our cruise and headed out on the Kinabatangan river. We headed upstream again, seeing more hornbills, mackqakes, proboscis monkeys, the usual stuff we've seen already. But further up the river we saw a crocodile basking in the mud. Only it's head was our of water, but as we approached, the motor on our boat must have scared it off as it slithered back into the water. Not long after, we saw another one right out of the water, and then another basking. We were able to get a bit closer to these, giving us a great view of this magnificent huge reptile. I would say it's at least 5 metres long. I captured it swimming off on video too! Nothing much of interest other than that on our last cruise.

We retuned for breakfast and afterwards, promptly left to catch a boat to the other side of the river and a bus back to Sandakan. We had a 3 hour ride back there, where we got stuck in traffic for a few hours. We had to hang around all afternoon waiting for our bus from sandakan to Kuala Lumper. We waited in harbour side backpackers as that's where we booked our tour though. We managed to get our bags locked in the baggage storage, so perhaps we'd miss another flight again! Luckily in time for our flight, we managed to retrieve our bags and caught a taxi to the airport to get the flight.