CAMP LEAKEY, Tanjung Puting - Indonesia, Borneo - Friday Oct 19, 20012
OMG - this was a magical and brilliant day - we were so in awe by the end of the afternoon we could no longer find words to describe our feelings!! The day started by waking up, so excited, at 4am so by 5am we were up and checking email for the first time since we were on the cruise and enjoying a latte in the Club Lounge while we did that. Breakfast was served on the back deck at 630am and after a light breakfast (we were all like pop bottles - ready to explode with excitement!) we loaded onto the zodiacs 8 at a time (6 zodiacs) and we were off on one of the main days we had been waiting for - Camp Leakey and the orangutans in the Tanjung Puting National Park! Everyone on the ship was excited and to look on the river in the dark, the sunrise was barely coming over the horizon and to see the zodiacs all taken down and on the river waiting to load us (they are stored on the top deck of the ORION II when not in use)- we just couldn't wait to be on our way!
But let me explain something first! The entrance to the Kumai River where the ORION II was docked and which we had entered to come up as far as the town of Kumai, is a shallow river and is silted at the mouth. As a result there is a very specific time and short window for crossing the sand bar to enter the river! It was quite exciting knowing that Captain Vincent was at the helm of the ship with all hands on deck as we crossed the sand bar with no problems - everyone looking over the side and flashlights down into the river to see if the projected tide level and timing was correct and we'd be crossing without getting stuck on the sand bar! No problems - it was a smooth crossing for us!
On the zodiac (we were the first to be loaded) 9 of us in ours: Sue, Audrey, Michele, Linda, Carrie, Brenda, MarLou and Terry and I - first we had a slow cruise down the Kumai River (back along the same way we had entered last night after dark) enjoying the houses built on stilts and the locals starting their day - washing, fishing, getting into boats, Moms and their small babies - fabulous for photos and watching the world go by. After about 30 minutes we turned off the Kumai river into the Sekonyer River which would take us into Camp Leakey. We were lucky to have Max as our zodiac driver. Max told us how lucky we were on this trip. Today it was sunny. Last trip it was raining and so smokey (from the logging and burning of the rain forest ) that they had to be very careful to not run into the zodiac in front as the visibility was so poor. (Imagine coming all this way and then not being able to see the birds and wildlife in the trees all along this river!) For us we were so lucky, it was truly a great ride and we saw so much wild life: proboscis monkeys, macaque monkeys, storkbill kingfisher, black &white Asian hornbill, long tailed parakeets, gharial long snout fresh water crocodile, black eagle, crested serpent eagle, turtle, huge black and yellow snake, coucal,red leaf monkey, orangutan - it was amazing! There were also beautiful pandanus palms and water lilies you could see the patches where huge crocodiles had been sunbathing - they lay on the pandanus palms and there are large flattened areas. Captain Mac would stop sometimes for us to get closer and take photos - it was wonderful!
After about 2 hours of watching for monkeys and birds and crocodiles along the shoreline, our first stop in the Tanjung Puting National Park was Pondok Tanggui where we were to walk to a feeding station for the orang-utans . This was amazing - we walked along wooden walkways built above the jungle floor so that everyone can get around during the wet season when the jungle floor is flooded and the water and marsh can be several feet deep in water. We were instructed about being quiet, staying back a minimum of 5 meters from the orangutans but if they come towards you that's OK, just don't make eye contact and move aside to let them by. Orangutans are not dominant animals - the most important thing to them is food, versus chimpanzees who are all about dominance and can be extremely dangerous to be around.
We walked along the jungle trail to the feeding station where the keepers had lots of bananas and rambutans as food in a backpack. They started to call the orangutans and the first to arrive was a mother and baby, she took what she wanted and her baby was busy eating bananas. Then one of the keepers came over and asked us to stand back and make a path - within seconds a huge male came charging through and even though he was incredibly quiet you could feel the power of him as he passed by. As soon as the Mother heard or felt him in the vicinity, she climbed down from the feeding platform and headed up a nearby tree with her baby - the baby then climbed off Mom and started to climb higher and swing around in the trees. So the only competition on the platform (about 6 feet off the ground) with the male was a beautifully coloured black brown and white squirrel who had no compunction about jumping onto the platform, grabbing bananas and enjoying a feed! On the ground there were a couple of bearded boras (pigs) who so badly wanted to get on the platform and join in the feast - but they couldn't climb the steps (which the keepers use not the orangutans!) and based on the looks the orangutans were giving them, there was no way that they were sharing their food!
We then continued our walk through the jungle to the second feeding station at Pondok Tangggui, following our guide - all walking in essential silence which is really important since the orangutans are very silent animals themselves and barely make a sound at all. You don't hear them when they are in the forest, at the feeding stations or even the next day when they were playing with each other in groups at the Orangutan Foundation Rehabilitation Centre. As we walked we heard a few plops and within minutes we had a short light rainfall - enough that we really welcomed the cooling effect, even the wetness on our shirts was welcome since it was steaming hot, our clothes were soaked and the sweat was running down everyone's body, and the small of your back - yup - no beauty competitions with the photos on today's expeditions!
Again at the second feeding station we had several orangutans arrive. We would see trees bending in the distance and then the orangutan might appear - large orange hair balls swinging through the trees - sometimes hanging on to two trees with their hands and feet so they looked like a huge "x" in the forest! They can be 8 feet stretched out from finger tip to finger tip - so you can imagine what they look like when you look up into the forest canopy and see this big orange hairy X in the trees! Their limbs are not that big around and the long hair hangs off and can glow like an orange halo if the sun backlights them. Their hands and feet all have 4 fingers and a thumb so they can cling and grasp anything - they also seem to move their joints in any direction with no difficulty at all, seemingly double or triple jointed. You can watch for hours they are so alive and aware - their eyes watching every direction at all times (although they very rarely looked directly at us humans), the Moms with their baby hanging on to the Mom's hair and seldom letting go. The baby usually suckles until about 1 year old before they start taking fruit as food, and stays with the Mom until about age 5 before they start travelling alone swinging in the trees behind Mom, but still travelling with Mom. In the wild most orangutans only have a new baby every 7 or 8 years.
After thoroughly enjoying the second feeding station we walked back along the platform to the dock on the Sekonyer river - and the orangutan which had been on the dock when we arrived was still there! He was happily hanging on the side watching us walk slowly and quietly by until one client (idiot) took a flash photo that we had absolutely been told not to do. At this point the orangutan made a lunge at Sue who was now level with him, but the keeper was there quickly to pry him off!
We then loaded on to the kloktok boat - also called water taxi, motorized gondola, or mini-trawler. The kloktok name comes from the sound it makes as it travels along - klok tok, klok tok. It is a traditional Indonesian wooden boat with a shallow draft - perfect for traveling up the river especially as the further up that we traveled into the Tanjung Puting National Park, the narrower and shallower the Sekonyer river would become. The kloktok have a roof so that you can hide from the sun and rain, but also that you can sit on top of for great viewing - and what great viewing we had! We saw two wild orangutang, maybe a hundred proboscis monkeys with the long white tails and the upturned noses, macaque monkeys, the beautiful coloured storkbill kingfisher, black and white asian hornbill, black eagle, crested serpent eagle, gharial freshwater crocodile, large Mambo yellow/black snake. We saw in the huge non flowering water lilies where the crocodiles had been sunbathing - some areas as big as 20 feet by 20 feet. We also were carefully watching the pandanas palms along the Sekonya river sides where the orangutans had eaten the fruits.
I really don't know how long we had watched the orangutans - all the interactions through the day becomes one blur in my mind but I can tell you it was an amazing day! But it was time to move on to Camp Leakey itself, so Max (Expedition Leader) loaded us on to the kloktok and away we went up the river. Before we boarded around 11am we were each given an insulated lunch bag that weighed really heavy so we knew we had been given more than enough lunch! So we sat and relaxed, replenished ourselves with sodas and water, sandwiches, chocolate bar, cookies and fruit.
I'm not sure how long we cruised up river in the kloktok, maybe 2 to 2 1/2 hours - but again it was so peaceful and enjoyable being in the middle of the jungle in Borneo watching the animals and birdlife in the wild. Max was great, he sat with us and would answer all our questions, give us lots of information and was so interesting. The middle of the kloktok was covered with a table and chairs and both the front and back had no roof so some of us were up font and some at the back - all calling to each other as we saw something of interest. We were so lucky we saw so many proboscis monkeys - who look so humanlike with exceedingly long white tails and the very large upturned noses. What is amazing is that the proboscis monkeys are an endangered species but there just happen to be so many along the Sekonyer river and as we found out on our return trip at sunset, they all come to the river at the end of the day and huddle together in the trees along the river - it was so wonderful to see them. They "jump", which is really like flying, from tree top to tree top - it is almost impossible to get a good photo, even when you can see that they are getting ready to jump, but it was just so much fun to watch.
We reached the landing for Camp Leakey and our excitement was at an all time high! We were soon off the kloktok and heading along the wooden boardwalk towards Camp Leakey where we waited for awhile for Dr Biruti Galdikas to join us. She had spent the morning at the Camp Leakey Rehabilitation Centre and then raced along the river in a speed boat to meet up with those of us at Camp Leakey in the Tanjung Puting National Park. Meanwhile I took photos of some amazing blue, white and black butterflies - the air was full of them. Then we were entertained for a long time by the arrival of Princess - she is a long time adult orangutan resident of Camp Leakey - she was raised from a baby by Dr Galdikas and obviously runs the place! She arrived from around a corner of a wooden building and went inside the basically empty room - she came out with a large pink blanket and spent a long time hiding under it, peeking out of it, rolling around in it - she was so funny to watch! Then another female orangutan with a baby on her back arrived and was busy watching us just before Dr Galdilkas arrived.
Dr Galdikas gave us a short background on Princess' life along with an introduction to Camp Leakey, then we all walked along the path towards the other basic buildings in Camp Leakey and Princess led us all dragging along her pink blanket with her! Soon we were walking to the feeding station here - probably a mile or so - and it is here in the wild where the orangutans come to supplement their diets with fruits such as coconut milk, along with bananas and rambutans (from the lychee family). We had to stand back behind a rope and there are also several long benches to sit on here to wait and watch.
This is absolutely in the middle of the forest and the keepers from Camp Leakey (local Indonesians) start calling the orangutans to the area after they have put down fruit on the platform which is about 6 feet above the ground. You sit and wait for awhile and then you start to see branches and leaves moving in the distance - eventually there are several orangutans in the area - some staying in the trees and some coming to the feeding station. There is obviously some rank involved - some would move quickly away when another orangutan appeared and others would share the feeding station, some close together and others staying apart. It was truly a wonderful experience - orangutans coming and going - at times there were 6 or more (some with babies on their backs and heads) swinging in the trees - these huge orange X's in the trees. The babies stay with their mother clinging to them for the first two years of their lives. We were so lucky to see a small baby, less than 1 week old! Sitting on top of its' mother's head! Dr Galdikas asked for any of us who had a photo of the baby's face to email it to her since she did not yet have a photo and the baby did not yet have a name!
Everyone was really quiet - lots of smiles and looks at each other as we absorbed this very special interaction and viewing time with the orangutans. Dr Galdikas sat on the bench and would answer questions, and talk with those who approached her - but the respect and love for these wild orangutans that she had rescued and eventually released back into their natural habitat (that she had fought for with the Indonesian Government) came through very clearly. She came here as a young University Graduate in the very early70's and she's still here today nearly 40 years later. She still teaches at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver BC and maintains homes in Vancouver, Los Angeles and Borneo. We were so lucky to visit Camp Leakey and meet with Dr Galdikas.
Even though we had spent a long time with the orangutans enjoying their activity and taking a million photographs, all too soon we headed back to the Camp Leakey central area. On the way back along the trail there were a few moments of excitement when Linda was walking with Mick Fogg - for one moment she put her backpack on the floor when Mick told her she could hold the hand of the orangutan that was walking with Mick - big mistake - in less than a millisecond that orangutan grabbed the backpack and was up the tree! A keeper appeared instantly and was 20 feet up the tree as fast as the orangutan! He offered the orangutan a rambutan, and then retrieved Linda's backpack! Talk about seeing how fast these orangutans are and how intelligent they are!
Once back at the main Camp Leakey area, Dr Galdikas pointed to various photos on the wall explaining which of the orangutans we were seeing and what their history had been. Then we wandered back down the wooden decking back to the kloktok which we boarded for our 3 hour return trip along the Sekonyer River to Kumai where the ORION was waiting for us.
The return trip was magic - the proboscis monkeys were all gathering along the river banks at the top of the trees and we saw lots of them. We all sat and enjoyed the lazy meander as we klok tok'd along the river - this time getting a little wider around every bend. We would see an occasional large dark orange form high up in the trees - such a reward! We shared our stories and feelings about the orangutans, and our amazing experiences.
The sun lowered gradually down to the horizon and just before it set we saw a zodiac racing towards us with someone standing at the front waving a white flag - it was Clayton, our Maitre'D! The zodiac pulled along side and as we looked down we could see baskets of chips and guacamole, trays covered with sushi and bottles of wine, beer and gin and tonic! What a wonderful surprise and when you realise the ORION boys had zoomed along the river on the zodiacs for maybe close to 2 hours to reach us - what a wonderful treat! Needless to say, as sweaty and grubby as we were by now after close to 12 hours in the heat, rain and jungle - we felt like royalty sitting on the kloktok and enjoying our sundowners. As if that wasn't special enough - by now the sun had sunk below the rain forest and it was getting dark along the river, but the fire flies made an appearance as it got darker - thousands and thousands of them - twinkling like white Christmas tree lights in huge patches along the side of the river - it was beautiful! The local Indonesian assistant to the Captain put his hands out and captured a fly - when he opened his hand in his palm was a fire fly flickering on and off - he gently released him back to continue his show - it was truly spectacular!
We eventually reached the main river and soon saw the ORION II with its' lights reflecting across the dark water of the Kumai river - and shortly after 8 we were welcomed back on board by Captain Vincent, Maitre'D Clinton and many of the crew. Dinner was being served so after washing our hands and faces we were soon enjoying another wonderful dinner in The Restaurant as we all excitedly continued sharing the day's adventures. But there was no let down as we headed to bed, for tomorrow we would be spending the morning at the Camp Leakey Rehabilitation Centre where we would be allowed to get "up close and personal" with the orangutans!
SATURDAY OCTOBER 20, 2012
The town of KUMAI and the Camp Leakey Rehabilitation Centre
We peered over the side of the ORION II and there was a large coloured banner on the pier "WELCOME ORION BORNEO EXPEDITION CRUISE". We soon finished breakfast on the back deck and were getting off the ship - to be greeted by several young locals wearing traditional costumes and dancing for us as we walked from the ship to the large 40 passenger bus waiting to take us to the Rehabilitation Centre.
This morning we drove along the very narrow main street whereas yesterday morning we had been on the zodiacs cruising along the river side of the street. The village was awake and active with everyone busy setting up stalls with fruit and vegetables, opening their small stores, and the myriad of motorbike taxis sitting on the street corners waiting for a passenger. Actually they were waiting for passengers - since it is very usual here for a single motorbike driver to have an entire family somehow perched on the back of his bike - Mom and Dad with 1 or 2 kids squeezed in somewhere!
We had a police escort, and you realise the escort is what helps to move other vehicles off to the side so that the very large bus can get through these very narrow streets! It is always interesting to watch daily life in any village, town or city anywhere in the world. One sight was the gas station where there were probably close to 100 trucks lined up waiting to buy gas. Later in the day on a return trip, the trucks had all gone and now there was a lineup of hundreds of motor bikes!
We soon turned off the main road and entered the Camp Leakey Rehabilitation Centre where we had a short wait for Dr Galdikas to arrive. While waiting we looked over the few items for sale and I purchased a beautiful hand made basket and something very exotic - some blow darts and their holder - true Borneo blow darts made by Dr Galdikas' husband, a native Dayak. Other items were purchased including Teeshirts and bracelet - all in the good cause of fund raising for Camp Leakey. There are many paid local workers at Camp Leakey, along with unpaid volunteers from countries such as the Uk and USA. Talking to one of the volunteers I discovered that she lives with a local family who feed her, do her laundry and provide basic accommodation for a very reasonable price, I think around $300 per month.
I also found out that ORION, due to its very special relationship with Camp Leakey and Dr Galdikas - due to the long term friendship of Mick Fogg and his love of Borneo, the Orion passengers are allowed to do what no one else is allowed to - namely visit up close and personal the rehabilitation centre. Even the new volunteers have to be quarantined for 3 weeks before they are allowed to interact with the orangutans. There are more than 300 orangutans, and more every day due to the rain forest being destroyed leaving no homes for the orangutans, that at the rehabilitation centre they live in cages. Every day they are let out - males one day and females the next day. There are 3 groups: the babies and very young, the young children, and lastly the teenagers.
Our group of approximately 40 passengers were split into 3, so about 13 of us went to visit the teenagers first. They were swinging on a specially built wooden playground set with ropes, frames, swings etc - they were having a whale of a time and being watched by several keepers. They came over to us and held up their arms to be picked up or simply put their arms on our shoulders and climbed up our legs onto us. They wanted to be held and fussed - it was amazing! They would run off and run and swing and just enjoy doing whatever they wanted to do. Their strength was amazing and the keepers stayed close to ensure that none got too rambunctious or naughty! If it appeared that any of the clients were uncomfortable they would come and take the orangutan away - it was wonderful and amazing! Some seemed to want to climb or be held by the men in the group and others preferred the women, and others weren't fussy at all! We were absolutely enthralled with these children and stayed about 45 minutes or so before we walked the short distance back to the Camp where we changed with another group and headed off to see the babies and infants - OMG talk about adorable!
I suppose there might have been 30 or so, again with a play set (within the forest) and several keepers watching over them. Most of the babies were having so much fun - some swinging high in the branches, others in the low branches, and all of them completely ignoring the people and the keepers and the other orangutans. There were half a dozen who had found a mud hole full of water - they were adorable and so happy getting covered in mud and rolling around in it! We had several climb up us holding out arms to be picked up and loved- this was enough to make you laugh at their antics, and cry at their lot in life and desperate future for these endangered animals. Our time with the babies came much to quickly to an end and we were off to see the teenagers.
ORION fosters an orangutan for all their passengers and we had received the foster certificate for Linda - and we were so lucky because we got to see Linda today! We walked along the wooden walkway through the forest passing a green viper in the branches of one tree, to where several teenagers were allowed to roam pretty freely in the forest. One was busy breaking off branches to build herself a nest in the tree - orangutans sleep and rest in their nests, building a new nest every day when living in the wild. Suddenly she hopped down and walked along the walkway with no concern or interaction with us at all - apart from the expectation that we would move out of her way!
Back at the Rehabilitation Centre we took a look at the orangutans in their cages - so sorry for them, they so badly wanted out but there is not enough forest here for all these animals to be let out - it underlines very significantly the desperation in trying to save enough protected forest for these animals to be allowed to live in and be left alone. Every time another huge swath of forest is cut down and replanted with palm oil trees - there are hundreds more orangutans left without a home. There was a huge male who had experienced a stroke and was paralised completely on one side - nowhere for him to go now at all, and too big to be let out of his cage, so his life is in that cage - unbelievably sad.
Dr Galdikas spent time with us showing us the facilities including the office, the pharmacy, the surgery theatre, the recovery room, and the other rooms used to run this shoestring operation. She has a dry sense of humour, and shares easily and with passion her history here in Borneo and the trials and tribulations she has been through over the last 30 + years as well as what continues today. All too soon our time at the centre was over and we headed back to the ORION on the bus for a wonderful lunch - again filled with memories of the interactions with the orangutans in the rehabilitation centre and with Dr Galdikas. Unfortunately no photos at all are allowed in the rehabilitation centre - I suspect to prevent pictures of orangutans in cages racing around the world on the web without the clear description and understanding of why they are kept in cages, as unfortunate as that might be.
After lunch we drove back to visit the Pangkalan Bun village on the river - and as in many, if not most, places in the world the waterways are the centre of life and here is no different. It was a quick walk through admiring the stalls of vegetables, fish, and other items essential to daily life on sale. There are very few travellers who make it to this part of Borneo and so we were as much of an attraction for the locals to look at, as we were to enjoy viewing them!
The highlight of the afternoon was arriving to the Istana Kuning cultural centre of town for a formal welcome by the Tourism Minister, which was quite an event with ladies in traditional costume dancing for us as we arrived, and men in traditional costume doing a sword play-dance ending with cutting a barrier of bamboo and leaves in half to let us enter into the beautiful cultural centre. Inside there were artifacts and paintings to view, a small stall selling traditional items (the hand beaded items were lovely and meant another beaded purse for me!) and intricate dancing by young men and women dressed in striking and brightly coloured costumes.
All too soon we were heading back to the ship on the bus with the police escort in front with his lights flashing and sirens sounding! It was quite priceless and very funny (for us) to have this major escort back to the ship. There is also no doubt that without the escort the return trip would have taken us at least twice as long - but seeing trucks coming towards us and forced off the side of the road to let us by was quite the experience I was sitting in the front seat behind the driver so had a very good view and when the driver saw us laughing at the sequence of events he joined in the laughter as well!
The issue was that we had to get back on board the ORION by 5pm and leave the dock to cruise back up the main river and anchor at the bottom of the Sekonyer river where the other half of the guests would be returning on the kloktoks after their day at Camp Leakey. The timing was critical since we essentially had a very small, maybe 30 minute, window to get back across that sand bar at the mouth of the river - remember on the way in we had to cross at exactly the right time?
Shortly before we arrived back at the pier to board the ORION we were talking to our guide and since they were mostly Muslim we asked if they had banana pancakes here? He said yes and they were delicious - we had first been exposed to this delicious street food in Thailand more than 10 years previously. Our guide asked me to ride back with him on the back of a motorbike to buy some back in the village - he said it would take no more than 5 minutes! There was no way I was going anywhere on the back of a motorbike but we gave him money for the banana pancakes and a good tip and off he went. Meanwhile the ORION is getting ready to pull away. Everyone else had gone aboard, just Terry and I stalling on the pier with Tracey trying hard to get our attention to get us to board. but our guide soon arrives back just in time to hand over a plastic bag full of lots of very hot freshly deep fried bananas! Not quite what we were expecting but delicious! We had one and gave one to the other members of our group that we could find (they all said No then smelled the delicious bananas and all devoured one! and then I gave the rest to the crew on the deck outside our cabin - so for the next 10 minutes every crew member was walking around eating hot fried bananas! Unfortunately while the banana episode was happening, Carrie discovered that she had left her digital camera on the bus! She was devastated and in spite of everyone's best efforts (the bus was well on its' way back to the city) the camera was not found. (well it was found the next day in Carrie's purse but that's another story!!!)
So the ORION still managed to pull away on time, and the events recounted above took longer to tell you about than took to happen! So we were soon anchored at the bottom of the Sekonyer River sipping a cold white wine as we watched an amazing pink, red and purple sunset reflecting on the river's surface and then we were off to get ready for dinner at 730pm. We soon heard exciting voices as the Camp Leakey Expedition folks arrived back to the ORION and the anchor was quickly raised and we started cruising back to the river mouth while we were eating dinner. At one point we heard some rather large grinding noises coming from underneath us and there is no doubt that we bottomed on the sand bar as we exited the river mouth and crossed back into the ocean! There was no doubt at all that Captain Vincent is extremely rigorous and careful with this entrance and exit to and from the river but we were safely on our way for one more day at sea before we would arrive at the Benoa Harbour on the Eastern Coast of Bali for 9 nights of relaxation.
