Dear all,
Well after a quiet dinner downstairs with Mary last night it’s time to say goodbye to the girls and head to Sepilok to see the Orangutans after all that was the main reason for coming to this country. Mandy – sorry you couldn’t make it and sorry if I now make you really jealous.
The bus took around 7 hours and then I had to catch a taxi for the last part as I hadn’t started early enough. The first guest house was full so ended up staying in the Sepilok Jungle resort. It lived up to it’s name as I was getting eaten alive just standing at reception. The wonderful Borneo backpackers in Kota Kinabalu had let me leave some luggage there so at least I hadn’t had to travel with much. I didn’t have the greatest people in my dorm so I went for dinner and had an early night.
After breakfast, time for Sepilok.The centre was only a 5 minute walk away so I got there in time to see the film about the whole project. Sepilok was featured on a BBC series just before I left the UK. It is probably the most well known of the 4 orangutan rehabilitation centres that exist. It does seem incredibly well run. After the film an English volunteer came in and told us about the work and adoption program they run as a charity. If anyone is interested you can find it at :
http://www.orangutan-appeal.org.uk/
Orangutans have 96.4% the same genetic makeup as us and after seeing their hands you can see why. In fact translated, Orangutan means “Man of the forest”. There are estimated to be only 20,000 left and around 300 at Sepilok (not including babies) so they are now full to capacity. The information centre displayed photos of the ones we were most likely to see and details on their individual personality traits. There is only one main viewing platform now. There used to be one further in to the jungle but this is closed. I’m not sure whether it’s because you’d see the older animals and they really shouldn’t have human contact if they are going to be released in to the wild or if it’s because tourists were getting attacked en route by the long tail macque monkeys. Also all of the trails are currently closed . You cannot take anything to the platform and must apply mosquito repellent before you get there so you need to put everything in a free locker provided – otherwise they will try and steal it from you. Also repellent could kill them so it’s best to be on the safe side.
10am morning feeding time – there were quite a lot of people at the platform. There is a main feeding area and ropes from either direction leading up to it that the Orangutans use to get to the platform. As soon as the rope started twitching everyone got excited as it meant they were on their way. The rangers also bang trays to alert them that the fruit is waiting. Initially only one came, had a quick feed and then left. The ranger than brought a much smaller one and it stayed for ages , lying on the platform and eating fruit. They were also drinking milk from a bowl and getting it all over their faces. Eventually they left so I went for lunch and to the information centre to look around. Sepilok also looks after Sumatran rhinos of which there are less than 400 in the wild as well as hundreds of other species of animal that live in the jungle there. In total they have 4000+ hectares of land which an English guy had the sense to protect back in the 60’s.
Time for the afternoon feeding session and 6 turned up.They were all on the feeding platform together (picture below) and they work a “buddy” system just like divers where a weak one will team up with a stronger one and he/she will make sure the weak one gets fed. This time as they come along the ropes they stopped in front of us and struck various poses for the cameras – they really look in to your eyes. One of them went to leave and jumped off in to the trees nearby. The next minute he was coming up the ramp and luckily the ranger saw him and dragged him back to the jungle, he went quite happily. I stayed until they’d all gone back to the jungle. All of a sudden I saw something leap high in a tree over quite a distance to the next tree. It was a flying lemur , amazing. In total Sepilok have looked after nearly 700 orangutans to date. It takes 6-10 years to rehabilitate each animal, some have been successfully released back in to the wild where as the breeding has worked so well that they now have 3rd generation orangutans at the centre. On the way back there were two huge birds with massive beaks in the banana trees next to the guest house. Had I realised I’d spend the next couple of days trying to get anything like as close to these to photo them I’d have been a lot more excited. All I could think about was that the beak could take my finger off, so I stood still until they flew off. They were black hornbills – I hadn’t realised there are 8 types of Hornbill in Borneo.
Another early night – well there’s nothing to do apart from the centre and then it rained all through breakfast. I’d booked a tour to the river that day but decided I’d go back for one last morning look at my new friends. This morning 7 turned up. Maybe because it was bananas for breakfast and they certainly liked those. They stayed for ages. On their way off they kindly crawled along the rope and did the occasional poses for us. I think their favourites were the laid back position and the rings position for the men’s gymnastics. Eventually there was just one left, little Annelisa, aged 6. Apparently she’s a bit of a loner but she loves hanging around to the end of feeding time on her own with the tourists. She just climbed up a pole and stared at us. After about 30 minutes she left.
It was fascinating to come here. I didn’t realise it would be such a guaranteed viewing and the centre has been set up extraordinarily well. Now it’s time to see if I can find some in the wild.
Transport count :
Plane = 7, Bus = 21, Train =2, Boat = 6, Sunglasses = 5, Mosquito Repellant = 7
Take care
Sally x
