Wildlife & Advenutre in Borneo
Starting early on the first morning it’s a gruelling trek up literally thousands of steps. After only an hour or so the group has naturally split off in to smaller groups falling into a natural pace. Quite impressively the porters are whizzing by with giant barrels full of supplies to the rest-house of Laban Rata at around 3300 metres. We took occasional breaks to rest, take in the views, and watch the monkeys play but other than that is was heads down and try and get to Laban Rata, up in the clouds.
Just shy of arriving there the heavens open and we are soaked through but delighted for the opportunity to rest and take shelter. Its’s time for food and a very early night, exhausted from the day behind and knowing we have to be up at 3am for another few hours steep climb to make the summit for sunrise. The summit of Mount Kinabalu stands at 4095 metres, offering incredibly impressive views. Everyone wants to be up there to see that sun come up and take some time to revel in the accomplishment, after all, not everyone makes it to very top. Unfortunately, what goes up must come down, so time to persevere and brave the trek back down the mountain. You would think this would be easier but, with weary legs, this was equally difficult. The only thing keeping us going was that we knew the following day we would be rewarded with a massage and a stay at the hot springs at the next town.
A day to recover at the hot springs was just what we needed and after a relaxing day we moved on to Kinabatangan River Lodge, an area only accessible by boat, in search of macaques, proboscis monkeys and wild orangutans. Lovely to be guided around the mangroves and rivers especially as the sun set over the forest with the monkeys playing together in the trees and so beautiful to see wildlife in their natural environment. I have to say the sunsets and sunrises in Borneo are truly spectacular. One of the main reasons for wanting to come on this trip was a visit to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Sanctuary, and what a highlight it was. Although the sanctuary is relatively compact to get around to the public, there is plenty of protected land within the Forest Reserve for the orangutans to live freely and come and go as they please.
Some of the more recently rehabilitated inhabitants are given milk and bananas to supplement their diet, and this is done to be repetitive and boring to them so that they are encouraged to find more variety by foraging for themselves. Across from the orangutan sanctuary there is also a Sun bear conservation, they are the smallest bears in the world, incredibly cute but sadly also very endangered, even more so than the Orangutan. This was only a small centre but great to be able to support such a worth course by paying a very small entrance fee. Turtle Island was next on the agenda and this was a fantastic opportunity to see the turtles laying their eggs on the beach. A lot of the time here was spent relaxing on the beach during the day and staying up until the early hours of the morning waiting on the turtles, as the only opportunity to see them laying their eggs is when they are good and ready. Over the evening we also watched staff from the hatchery releasing the baby turtles back into the wild, quite a sight. There were so many highlights on this trip so I decided to finish off my trip staying in a luxury resort for a few nights, enjoying the weather and the tranquillity, reflecting on an amazing few weeks away. I love adventure tours like this one and have lots of destinations to share with you, so if you fancy an adventure of your own please let me know so we can figure out the perfect trip for you.