LOWER KITABATANGAN RIVER, MALAYSIAN BORNEO
It's a jungle out there. No, really! Which means that there's a lot to explore, so we began early this morning with a 6am wake-up call, and another boat safari on the Kinabatangan. This time, we saw a lot more proboscis monkeys and macaques, and a number of medium-sized crocodiles on the riverbank, but not a whole lot that we didn't already see last night. Regardless, the Kinabatangan is a beautiful, wide river to meander along in the early morning.
After breakfast, we did a trek on foot into the muddy jungle with a guide, and saw a lot more creatures, including cotton bugs, red-legged stick insects, and lots of tractor millipedes, plus the smallest species of frog in Borneo (trust me, it's tiny!). The coolest thing was when our guide told us to look inside the rolled-up shoot of a wild ginger plant--there was a little bat in there, using it as a sleeping bag!
After lunch, I took a nap in a hammock, and watched a funny little pygmy squirrel run up and down a tree--it was so small, it looked and acted just like a little gecko, jerky movements and all. It was probably only about four inches long; really tiny for a squirrel.
We then got word from Lan that he would try to take us downriver to see if we could spot some Asian pygmy elephants! Yes! This was what we had been hoping for--it's not really the season to see them around here, but we had heard that there was a herd moving steadily downriver for the past few days. But because they were so far from camp by now (probably about 20 kilometers or more), the Uncle Tan's staff couldn't promise us a trip to catch up with them unless they had the approval to buy the extra fuel for the boat. But apparently that came through this afternoon, so at 3pm we hurried down to the dock, boarded a boat, and headed downstream. As we pushed off from the dock, Lan asked me, "John, how certain are you that you'll see elephants today?" "One hundred percent!" I told him confidently, although of course I had no idea.
But sure enough, we had only gone a few kilometers when we looked ahead and saw a big ol' elephant on the bank in front of us! It quickly (well, for an elephant, at least) climbed up the bank and crashed off into the trees when it spotted us. Evidently this one had somehow gotten separated from the herd, and was now wandering around on its own. Which was a little sad for it, but cool for us! I had never seen a wild elephant before, so this was really an event.
As we made our way further downriver for close to an hour, we began to see signs that many more elephants had recently been in the area: big footprints, broken branches, and muddy slides down the bank and into the water. The tracks got fresher and fresher...and then finally I spotted some big grey shapes through the trees. We had found the big herd, still traveling down the river!
The trees were thick, so it was difficult to see how many there were, but we pulled the boat to shore where there was a small clearing, and watched several of them pass. Then Lan motioned for us to get out of the boat(!), so we quietly climbed the bank and crouched down in the grass right below the path where the elephants were passing! It was kind of freaky to be sneaking around in the grass this close to wild elephants--they may be called "pygmy," but they're still friggin' huge, maybe three meters or more in height, and, well, BIG like elephants! We were right below them, too, so they could very easily take a few steps to the right and squash us like tofu if they wanted to. But they just walked past us, only 10 feet or so away. Some of them startled a little if they spotted us, and others just sort of eyed us warily as they chewed on the trees.
After getting some closeup pics, we piled back in the boat and headed a little further downstream to where the elephants were headed: A bend in the river with a low, grassy bank that made for a good elephant watering hole. Apparently every evening at around 5pm they would stop their marching and choose a spot like this to gather, drink, and bathe in the river. So as we rounded the bend, an amazing sight came into view: Over 35 elephants just standing by the riverside, tails and ears flapping in the heat! Just incredible.
There was actually a professional film crew on the other side of the river filming the whole thing, so for awhile we stayed pretty far from the elephants to not block their shot. But when they gave the "all clear" sign, Lan moved the boat in right up to the shore, right next to all the action! This time we were even closer--the elephants were just a couple of meters away, pulling up grass, throwing dirt on themselves, and backing down the bank right into the river, where they submerged themselves and splashed around. It was unreal to be in the middle of all of this; just like a Discovery Channel special, only in 3-D! At one point one of the elephants trumpeted, and the others immediately bolted up and started running into the forest. That was a little scary, because they moved fast. I'm glad I wasn't in front of them then! They soon calmed down again, though, and returned to the river.
After about an hour of observing, we had to leave, so we made our way back to camp, and got there just after sunset. On the way, we spotted another monkey species that we hadn't seen so far: silver leaf monkeys. Like their cousins, the red leaf monkeys, they stayed really high in the trees; too far for my camera's 3x zoom to do them justice.
The elephant safari was more than any of us had asked for; we were all on cloud 9 after that and had to celebrate by having an "elephant party" back at camp. Well, a couple of beers, at least--we didn't want to rub it in too much, because the people just arriving at camp probably wouldn't get to see the elephants. Ah well.
It's a jungle out there. No, really! Which means that there's a lot to explore, so we began early this morning with a 6am wake-up call, and another boat safari on the Kinabatangan. This time, we saw a lot more proboscis monkeys and macaques, and a number of medium-sized crocodiles on the riverbank, but not a whole lot that we didn't already see last night. Regardless, the Kinabatangan is a beautiful, wide river to meander along in the early morning.
After breakfast, we did a trek on foot into the muddy jungle with a guide, and saw a lot more creatures, including cotton bugs, red-legged stick insects, and lots of tractor millipedes, plus the smallest species of frog in Borneo (trust me, it's tiny!). The coolest thing was when our guide told us to look inside the rolled-up shoot of a wild ginger plant--there was a little bat in there, using it as a sleeping bag!
After lunch, I took a nap in a hammock, and watched a funny little pygmy squirrel run up and down a tree--it was so small, it looked and acted just like a little gecko, jerky movements and all. It was probably only about four inches long; really tiny for a squirrel.
We then got word from Lan that he would try to take us downriver to see if we could spot some Asian pygmy elephants! Yes! This was what we had been hoping for--it's not really the season to see them around here, but we had heard that there was a herd moving steadily downriver for the past few days. But because they were so far from camp by now (probably about 20 kilometers or more), the Uncle Tan's staff couldn't promise us a trip to catch up with them unless they had the approval to buy the extra fuel for the boat. But apparently that came through this afternoon, so at 3pm we hurried down to the dock, boarded a boat, and headed downstream. As we pushed off from the dock, Lan asked me, "John, how certain are you that you'll see elephants today?" "One hundred percent!" I told him confidently, although of course I had no idea.
But sure enough, we had only gone a few kilometers when we looked ahead and saw a big ol' elephant on the bank in front of us! It quickly (well, for an elephant, at least) climbed up the bank and crashed off into the trees when it spotted us. Evidently this one had somehow gotten separated from the herd, and was now wandering around on its own. Which was a little sad for it, but cool for us! I had never seen a wild elephant before, so this was really an event.
As we made our way further downriver for close to an hour, we began to see signs that many more elephants had recently been in the area: big footprints, broken branches, and muddy slides down the bank and into the water. The tracks got fresher and fresher...and then finally I spotted some big grey shapes through the trees. We had found the big herd, still traveling down the river!
The trees were thick, so it was difficult to see how many there were, but we pulled the boat to shore where there was a small clearing, and watched several of them pass. Then Lan motioned for us to get out of the boat(!), so we quietly climbed the bank and crouched down in the grass right below the path where the elephants were passing! It was kind of freaky to be sneaking around in the grass this close to wild elephants--they may be called "pygmy," but they're still friggin' huge, maybe three meters or more in height, and, well, BIG like elephants! We were right below them, too, so they could very easily take a few steps to the right and squash us like tofu if they wanted to. But they just walked past us, only 10 feet or so away. Some of them startled a little if they spotted us, and others just sort of eyed us warily as they chewed on the trees.
After getting some closeup pics, we piled back in the boat and headed a little further downstream to where the elephants were headed: A bend in the river with a low, grassy bank that made for a good elephant watering hole. Apparently every evening at around 5pm they would stop their marching and choose a spot like this to gather, drink, and bathe in the river. So as we rounded the bend, an amazing sight came into view: Over 35 elephants just standing by the riverside, tails and ears flapping in the heat! Just incredible.
There was actually a professional film crew on the other side of the river filming the whole thing, so for awhile we stayed pretty far from the elephants to not block their shot. But when they gave the "all clear" sign, Lan moved the boat in right up to the shore, right next to all the action! This time we were even closer--the elephants were just a couple of meters away, pulling up grass, throwing dirt on themselves, and backing down the bank right into the river, where they submerged themselves and splashed around. It was unreal to be in the middle of all of this; just like a Discovery Channel special, only in 3-D! At one point one of the elephants trumpeted, and the others immediately bolted up and started running into the forest. That was a little scary, because they moved fast. I'm glad I wasn't in front of them then! They soon calmed down again, though, and returned to the river.
After about an hour of observing, we had to leave, so we made our way back to camp, and got there just after sunset. On the way, we spotted another monkey species that we hadn't seen so far: silver leaf monkeys. Like their cousins, the red leaf monkeys, they stayed really high in the trees; too far for my camera's 3x zoom to do them justice.
The elephant safari was more than any of us had asked for; we were all on cloud 9 after that and had to celebrate by having an "elephant party" back at camp. Well, a couple of beers, at least--we didn't want to rub it in too much, because the people just arriving at camp probably wouldn't get to see the elephants. Ah well.
But the wildlife-spotting wasn't even over: We still had night jungle trekking, where we walked deep into the jungle to look for creepy crawlies. And boy, did we see them! I learned tonight that just by holding a flashlight near your eyes and pointing it out into the jungle, you can see reflections from the eyes of all kinds of things--not just big animals like cats and snakes, but also the eyes of every spider in the forest! And thank god I'm not afraid of spiders, because there were thousands of them! The most impressive was a big tarantula in a tree, but there were plenty of others, as well. Our guide also found a huge black scorpion and let it run all over his hands (they won't sting you unless you actually grab them), as well as a harmless whip scorpion, lots of different tree frogs, and a sleeping pigeon in a tree.
People met today:
- Dan from Alaska, who quit his job as a trial attorney and is traveling the world with his wife for as long as their money holds out!
posted by John Kuge at 11:53 PM
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