We left Poring for the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary, to see semi-wild orangutans. This is actually a rehabilitation centre for orphaned, and injured orangutans, and is set in one of the last existing pieces of natural jungle habitat. The Borneo orangutan's habitat has been cleared at an alarming rate to make way for Palm plantations, as Palm oil is the regions biggest export - so you will see Palm trees everywhere - but don't be mistaken - they are NOT part of the national environment in Borneo.
We stayed at a backpackers place, Sepilok Jungle Resort. The place was set in nice gardens and had a great communal restaurant, bar area, even if the bathrooms were pretty gross and the rooms very basic.
There were two times each day that they feed the orangutans and you can watch from the viewing area. We went first thing the next morning and saw lots of "men of the jungle" up close. Their antics are so human-like, it's obvious they are our ancestors. Check out the photo of the one which had just picked his nose, and yes, you guessed it, in the next shot you see him eating it!! Just like a kid would do. There were also some cheeky macaque monkeys coming for the free bananas too.
The grounds around the Sepilok Jungle Resort had lots of beautiful flowers. Everything grew well as there was a lot of rain and sunshine. It was really humid when we were there in early April.
Kinabatagan River Jungle Camp
We'd made friends with some English travellers at the Sepilok Jungle Resort and they talked us into going to Uncle Tan's Jungle Camp on the Kinabatagan River. It's a remote area that's only accessible by boat (1 hr trip up river) and you stay in a primitive jungle camp right in the jungle. Although we were keen to get to the Sipidan Is for our diving adventures, this sounded too good to pass up. While most people go for 2 nights, we decided to just do the 1 night in the jungle so as to give us enough time for our diving. We hated being on a tight schedule and wished we were carefree travellers as our English buddies were. Ahhh, they were the good old days....
We nearly didn't get to our jungle camp as it was pouring rain all the night before and all day the day were departing. In the afternoon, it looked like easing, so we donned our raincoats and boarded our little boats up the Kinabatagan River to our next home away from home.
After unpacking at the camp (yep it was primitive) and claiming a smelly mattress and dirty mosquito net for yourself, we had dinner and donned our rubber boots and set out by torchlight for our night time river safari. We were on the hunt for the proboscis monkey - that funny looking thing with the unfortunately super large nose, and only found in Borneo. And sadly like most wildlife, rapidly decreasing in numbers. We saw a few of them by spotlight. Our guide pointed out lots of creatures (noticing their shining eyes in the dark) including an owl and other nocturnal things that'd we'd have never noticed.
After breakfast, we jumped back in the boats the next morning for another trip up the river to spot wildlife. Here's some pics of the proboscis monkey and other monkeys and birds we saw.
After the Jungle Camp we headed off to the Sipadan Is - refer to that post (note it's out of date order, but check for the title).
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