Day 12... The river runs through

The river runs through...

I woke up this morning to slightly grey skies. It had rained heavily overnight and the ground outside was very muddy and full of puddles.

My shoes, which had been immersed in muddy water yesterday had not dried out, nor had my last pair of dry socks!

Putting wet socks and shoes on wasa mildly unpleasant start to the day. Hopefully it would improve.

Today's main course was a trip to Kinabatangan River with an afternoon cruise along it. It didn't leave until 1pm so I had some time to kill and decided to head back into the jungle one last time.

I had a leisurely breakfast and the strolled the 400m to the rainforest entrance. Despite the grey skies it was still pretty warm (sorry to those back home, don't worry alI will get my comeuppance when I freeze on my return!)and it was a pleasant stroll down the road. 

Once in the park I decided to try the Lakeside trail as Jaity said I may see the langur monkeys there. But all was quiet.. nothing stirred, not even a mouse. 

It was a nice enough walk... the occasional skink scuttled away from me and an occasional crash in the trees caused me to look up... but nothing moved. It didn't matter. I had seen a huge amount in my time on Borneo and there was no disappointment in the lack of fauna out and about this morning. 

It was soon time to turn back and await my ride to Kinabatangan... a 2 hour bus journey  to the river. The coach arrived on time, already pretty full and we were conveyed as speedily as the roadworks and the weather would allow. It had started raining again. and the roads were full of slow moving cars, negotiating their way round large puddles or potholes. 

The journey was essentially one unbroken line of palm oil plantations. Some obviously small holdings with a traditional wooden house on stilts at the entrance... some larger corporation size. It was an uninspiring view. 

I knew that the forest around Kinabatangan river has essentially been pared back further and further, giving the animals less room to roam. This had the advantage of making it a good place to spot the animals but it's future looked less than rosy despite the protections in place. 

It was raining pretty heavily by the time we got to the lodge where some of the party in the coach would be staying a night or two and the rain did not let up as we had a snack provided by the lodge. The rain was not good news as many animals would hide in this weather and our chances spotting them had just taken a tumble. 

We boarded the boats after we had put on life jackets... some alterations to the seating arrangements had to be made as our boat was listing worryingly to one side. Boat balanced and off we went. 

A hornbill flew high overhead, I asked what type but didn't really hear the reply. It was too faraway to see it properly anyway. We motored along slowly... 25 pairs of eyes scanning the river bank. It was way to cold and no sun for crocodiles to be basking, though I checked the sandy banks anyway just in case. Not a sign of life. 

Then another large bird... I looked questioningly at the guide... purple heron he said. Another bloody heron! I snapped a picture for posterity... to be fair I hadn't seen THAT many herons here. 

We then sped up bouncing over the wake of another boat... there were at least 5 scouring the river banks for a sign of life. 

Then we slowed abruptly as the guide pointed out the grey langur huddled at the top of the trees. Monkey species number 6 for this trip.. not bad. 

The grey langur has a very long tail and a cute little face, but we couldn't see them that well. 

We could see in the distance boats gathering around one part of the riverbank... always a good sign for wildlife spotting. 

We motored over and joined the jostling queue... some guides were a little more forceful than others in maintaining their position, even going so far as to practically barge other boats out of the way. Our guide was not best pleased... muttering something about setting the rules and then breaking them. Then suddenly he gunned the engine and moved us round the boats to a little farther up the bank. 

I still wasn't sure what we were supposed to be looking for but the whisper went round that there were elephants there. Can you smell it, our guide asked?  my answer was no... the only thing I could smell was the pungent gasoline. 

As if on cue, a trumpeting emenated from nearby... 

We sat and waited and the other boats caught up to us but we were in prime position. 

A shaking of the trees indicated that they were close and as we peered through the dense foliage an outline of an elephant came into view. 

Now although they are called pygmy elephants and are the smallest species of elephant, they were still pretty big. And there were a few of them. We sat in awe as first one, then another... and another passed through the forest right in front of us. A baby elephant, the top of his head just visible sauntered past. Glimpses through gaps in the foliage as the herd wandered through, pushing trees and branches out of the way. There was an ear flapping away... there was a trunk... and of course.. the backside of an elephant! 

The noise of the occupants of the boats increased... excitement out weighing the need to be quiet... I got a bit annoyed... and even more annoyed when one lady, in a boat that had shoved its way in front of ours, stood up, effectively blocking our boats view. The elephants wandered a bit deeper into the forest, now out of our view. Our guide pulled back from the riverbank and tried to get the other guides to do the same. Give them space he kept saying to no avail. It did increase my respect for him though. He motored a bit further up the river, in the hope that they would continue wandering that way and his instincts were proved right when a few minutes later the herd started passing by us once again. There were at least 6 or 7 elephants, some with tusks that you caught a glimpse of through the trees.

The other boats caught up again and once again the noise increased.

I began to feel a bit uncomfortable with all this. We had had the privilege of seeing the elephants, perhaps now we should silently pull away. But of course that wasn't going to be the case. We stayed there for over 40 minutes, watching them forage in the forest and slowly wander past. At one point, I put the camera down and just watched, in awe, at the spectacle I was seeing. We had been so very lucky.

Our guide informed us that maybe they saw the elephants 8 to 10 times a year but I'm not sure how true that was as I met someone at sepilok who had seen them a few days before. That said, with the weather being so bad, we were lucky that they hadn't chosen to shelter deeper in the forest.

Eventually they moved on out of sight. The rain was now bucketing it down and my choice of not wearing a raincoat was now coming back to bite me with a vengeance. My hands were shrivelled up from the constant moisture and it was not warm anymore. I didn't seem as badly off as some of the boats occupants who were by now huddling behind one another, desperate from protection from the rain, poncho hoods pulled down almost over their eyes.... no chance of spotting anything like that! 

Despite the rain I kept my eyes focused on the riverbank, fully aware that our animal. spotting for the day was most likely done. The guide gunned the speedboat engine and we were away, the rain stinging the eyes if you looked the way were going, so I sat side on and watched the jungle whizzing by on the opposite bank. 

We were nearing the lodge once more when the boat slowed and stopped.... there up in the tree was the 7th monkey species I had now seen and possibly the weirdest looking. The proboscis monkey, named because of its pendulous nose in the males is a wierd looking monkey! 

Three or four of them sat up in a tree, looking about as miserable as the occupants of my boat. It was quite a funny sight. 

It was now time to go back to the lodge and I was soaked through. To add to my wet shoes from earlier, I was now wringing wet from head to toe and shivering a bit. 

We climbed out of the boat to the lodge where I retrieved my fortunately dry bag and asked for a towel, which they were so. kind to provide. I dried myself off as best I could and then made my way to the modest buffet dinner. The food was pretty good though and I sat with a couple I had met previously at the b and B who had already been there for a night and were staying another. I hoped for their sakes that the weather improved as they weren't going to see anything at this rate. 

We all chatted. Generally everyone agreed that the elephant had been at the top of their list and that we were really lucky. 

Shortly after dinner, the minibus to take the few of us back who weren't staying the night arrived. We clambered on and before long snores emenated from some of the elder of our group (not quite me yet😂) 

The drive back was a slow tricky one as the deluge had made the roads and the slow moving cars even worse than earlier. But eventually I was dropped off to the B and B.

Despite this being my last jungle day in Borneo, I was not quite finished with animal hunting as I have engaged the services of a fairly renowned snake hunter to take me out in Kuala Lumpur searching for snakes... but I was sad that my time in Borneo was nearly done.

Tomorrow I had a very early start to catch the bus to Tawau. Sam, the taxi driver who had picked me up when I got here, was going to pick me up at 0630 in the morning.

I got back and went to reception to claim my key deposit back as the reception would not be open that early in the morning. I claimed my 50 ringiit, promised to drop off the key tomorrow morning at the desk and went back to my room for a reasonably early night.

The way home will begin tomorrow.