Here began our jungle river adventure…

We had arranged a 2 night homestay here along the Kinabatangan river, complete with river cruises and jungle walks. The family (Wandi and his wife and kids, his sister and her family and his brother) welcomed us warmly and showed us to our rooms.

The only really sad thing about coming here is seeing the palm oil plantations. A reality we didn’t want to ignore but one we’d love to see reversed. It takes more than two hours to drive from Sandakan to the part of the Kinabatangan river we went to and 90% of that journey is through plantations. Some of which you can evidence from the river too…

It was good to face the reality of the situation though, and an important reminder to us all to try and avoid products with palm oil in them where we can.

Lecture over, back to the blog.

There were two other groups staying there with us – another family of four from the UK with young children and an Australian couple. It was really nice chatting and comparing notes on things we’d done – both families were off to Turtle island in a few days so we passed on our tips, and they had already been to Sepilok so gave us advice on that.

While the adults unpacked a bit and got organised, all the children (8 of them) started playing games – hide and seek, catch and tag. Elijah and Sylvie found it very sweaty work! Just as they decided they needed a break we were told the boats were ready… so off we went on our first river trip to find some wildlife!

Our first exciting sighting was of a female orangutan and her baby! They were a bit too far away to get any pictures, but that didn’t matter, it was just amazing to see them in the wild. We also saw several herons and a couple of eagles.

It didn’t take long for us to spot various monkeys in the trees – we saw proboscis monkeys, silver-leaf monkeys and loads of long-tailed macaques! One of the places we stopped at felt like a mini-monkey-nursery as there was a huge number of mothers and babies on one tree together.

After all the monkey sightings we were casually heading home when we happened upon this guy…

Back at the house we didn’t have to wait long for supper and it was absolutely delicious. A combination of rice, loads of different veggies, chicken and (to the younger children’s delight) crinkle cut fries! Plus watermelon and mini-bananas to follow, scrummy. Sylvie decided the mini-bananas were the best!

Then it was off to bed to get our beauty sleep before another 5:30am start.

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Up we got the following morning ready for our 6am boat trip. This turned out to be a bird-watching expedition as the monkeys are less active at that time of the day. We were lucky enough to see so many different birds:

• Oriental-pied hornbill
• Black hornbill
• Rhinoceros hornbill
• Wrinkled hornbill
• Fish eagle
• Yellow crested eagle
• Oriental Darter (also called a snakebird)
• Storm stork
• Bats (not a bird but does all the flying!)

It was so beautiful being out at that time of the morning, we could hear so many calls and cries from various animals and birds. It was also lovely and cool, which made a change from the heat and humidity we knew was coming.

We got back to the house just after 8am to breakfast ready and waiting for us. Veggie rice, eggs and toast with a new favourite for Sylvie – pineapple jam!

The next plan of action was to layer and mosquito-spray-up ready for our jungle walk at 9am.

Back into the boats we went for a little pootle down the river and then continued on foot from there. For any entomologists out there, this would be a real treat as we saw insects of all shapes and sizes! We saw elephant dung (a year since they had passed through) and listened to the almost whistling sound from the hornbill wings as they flew amongst the branches above. Elijah got a little leech friend on his leg not long into the walk, but other than that plus a dozen or so mosquito bites, we went unscathed.

We had a couple of hours to ourselves before lunch so we just napped and chilled at the house. We had asked to go on the longer ‘elephant hunt’ boat ride which left at 1:30pm, so it was good to just rest before then. After another delicious meal for lunch we headed out on the boats, this time armed with extra water, hats and sunscreen.

We weren’t sure how hopeful to be about spotting the elephants but after only about half an hour…

Bornean Pygmy Elephants – so incredible to see these wonderful animals up close and in the wild!

The elephants were fabulous, but they weren’t the only creatures we got up close and personal with…

All river trips must come to an end… sadly.

A totally brilliant day! Finished off with more excellent food, a game of cards and a rain-water-bucket-shower!

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The next morning we were up and packed ready for breakfast at 7am (noodles, fried eggs, sausages, toast and fruit). A brief goodbye to our fellow travellers and host family and we were back on the boat heading across the river to the jetty where our car was waiting to take us to Sepilok.