The early morning flight had some fantastic views of Mount Kinabalu. I have friends who have climbed it, but it wasn't really on my list of things to do. We also flew over some of the rainforest which was lovely and green to look down at.
I got to my Sandakan hotel around 9am and asked if they could recommend a way for me to see orangutans. They called their tour expert who showed up in about 20 minutes and sold me 3 trips. Later that day I'd head off to the Kinabatangan River for a short cruise to hopefully see some orangutans in the wild (40% chance). The next day was a full day trip to the Sepilok orangutan and sun bear sanctuaries, the Lubic Bay Proboscis monkey sanctuary, and the rainforest preserve. Lastly I was sold on going to Turtle Island overnight, where the chances of seeing turtles laying was 90%, and the release of some baby turtle hatchlings was 99%. I was excited!
The minibus out to Kinabatangan River was about 90 minutes. Most of the trip the only scenery was oil palm plantations - it's everywhere. On arrival at the resort (where I belatedly discovered I could have stayed overnight and potentially seen lots more!) we were met by a man rabbiting on about leopards who was very keen that we follow him. Not really sure who he was (turns out he works there), but not about to pass up an opportunity to see a big cat, the bus-load of us followed him along some walkways to a bunch of huts (the cabins I could have been staying in), and there in the tree above one of the huts was a young Cloudy Leopard. The rangers there were ecstatic - it's incredibly rare and they had not seen one there for 2 years. The proboscis monkeys and long tailed Makacks were not terribly happy about the spotty visitor, but (s)he seemed utterly uninterested in their vocal disapproval, and just continued to lounge in the tree, occasionally looking at all the tasty-looking tourists with cameras.
An exceptionally good start to the trip, which only got better!
In the resort's open air restaurant area, the Makaks make a nuicance of themselves trying to steal food. There is always one staff member on duty with a long stick to discourage them, but they are watchful and cunning beasts, and occasionally cute-looking too. One pooped on a table from the rafters, then while it was being cleaned up it swooped in and grabbed an unguarded biscuit
We finally hit the water for a few hours and were again lucky enough to orangutans 4 times, including some young ones and some older ones.
There were also more makaks, some proboscis monkeys, a Crested Serpent Eagle and some Wallace Ox Eagles. All in all, a damn good haul of wild stuff!
I got to my Sandakan hotel around 9am and asked if they could recommend a way for me to see orangutans. They called their tour expert who showed up in about 20 minutes and sold me 3 trips. Later that day I'd head off to the Kinabatangan River for a short cruise to hopefully see some orangutans in the wild (40% chance). The next day was a full day trip to the Sepilok orangutan and sun bear sanctuaries, the Lubic Bay Proboscis monkey sanctuary, and the rainforest preserve. Lastly I was sold on going to Turtle Island overnight, where the chances of seeing turtles laying was 90%, and the release of some baby turtle hatchlings was 99%. I was excited!
The minibus out to Kinabatangan River was about 90 minutes. Most of the trip the only scenery was oil palm plantations - it's everywhere. On arrival at the resort (where I belatedly discovered I could have stayed overnight and potentially seen lots more!) we were met by a man rabbiting on about leopards who was very keen that we follow him. Not really sure who he was (turns out he works there), but not about to pass up an opportunity to see a big cat, the bus-load of us followed him along some walkways to a bunch of huts (the cabins I could have been staying in), and there in the tree above one of the huts was a young Cloudy Leopard. The rangers there were ecstatic - it's incredibly rare and they had not seen one there for 2 years. The proboscis monkeys and long tailed Makacks were not terribly happy about the spotty visitor, but (s)he seemed utterly uninterested in their vocal disapproval, and just continued to lounge in the tree, occasionally looking at all the tasty-looking tourists with cameras.
In the resort's open air restaurant area, the Makaks make a nuicance of themselves trying to steal food. There is always one staff member on duty with a long stick to discourage them, but they are watchful and cunning beasts, and occasionally cute-looking too. One pooped on a table from the rafters, then while it was being cleaned up it swooped in and grabbed an unguarded biscuit
We finally hit the water for a few hours and were again lucky enough to orangutans 4 times, including some young ones and some older ones.
There were also more makaks, some proboscis monkeys, a Crested Serpent Eagle and some Wallace Ox Eagles. All in all, a damn good haul of wild stuff!
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