Kinabatangan River, Malaysia

  Bilit, Sabah, Malaysia
Tuesday, September 30, 2008

We were picked up in Sandakan at 11:30am to go on our 3 day jungle safari. The driver told us he had to pick up two others who would be joining us at Sepilok (where we had seen the Orang Utans). We we arrived there we met Alexandra and Dirk two of the funniest most outgoing Germans we've ever met. It turns out that the driver was supposed to pick up their bags from their guesthouse in Sandakan but forgot to so we had to wait an hour in Sepilok while someone drove out from Sandakan with their bags - bad start!
We finally got to Bilit Safari Camp on the Kinabatangan River at 3pm and saw a first: electric wire surrounding peoples property and farms not to keep animals in but to keep wild elephants out - amazing! We went on our first river cruise at 4pm and saw loads, it started of quite tame, Egrets (big white birds), Oriental Darters (big black birds), Long Tailed Macaque's (monkeys that we saw all over India) then our engine stopped working for a while and as we drifted closer to the river bank Lydia says: "Crocodile" and no, she wasn't messing, and no, it wasn't a little one either! We took a few photos as quick as we could while the guide tried to get the engine working again, luckily for us the Croc was more afraid of the boat than we were of it so it swam off! The engine got going again and we saw what we really wanted to see more than anything else - proboscis monkeys.

1-Crocodile

1-Egrit

We saw hundreds of them, big funny looking monkeys with weird noses that look like a part of the male anatomy. We sat there for about an hour watching the whole group of them swinging from tree to tree, it was amazing. Also on that first boat trip we saw Silver Langurs (another type of monkey) and lots of birds including Eagles, Hornbills, Rhinoceros Hornbills, Kingfishers and Swiftlings. We were back to the camp by 7pm and had a surprisingly tasty dinner.
At 8:30pm, when we should have been going to bed, we went on our first night trek. As there was lightening in the distance the guide was reluctant to bring us too far from the camp but we were quite happy too. We saw a few birds sleeping, not in nests as I thought they would be, but just standing on branches hiding behind a leaf. We saw some bats and frogs too and got back to camp around 10pm.

4-Long Tailed Macaque

12-Proboscis Monkey

The next morning we were out on the boat again by 6am. Saw more wildlife, mostly the same as the previous evening, proboscis monkeys, long tailed macaques, silver langurs, crocodiles and loads of birds. To add to our bird collection we saw Herons and Storks but the highlight was seeing a pair of wild boar by the riverside.
We were back in camp for brekkie at 8am then out again trekking to an Ox-Bow lake. On this trek we saw loads of Orang Utan nests (yes they build nests) but unfortunately no Orang Utans. The highlight of this trip was seeing a big cat-like animal up a tree. At first we thought it was a leopard as there are leopards in the area but it was a grey-black colour and had a really long tail. Our guide (who knew everything it seemed) said it was the first time he saw something like this and he'd have to look it up in a book when we got back to camp. Apart from that we saw some weird looking stick insects, many butterflies, centipedes and leeches!

1-Proboscis Monkey

1-Sky on River Cruise

When we got back to camp we discovered the animal was a Civet, suppose it could be described as a cross between a leopard and a squirrel! We had 4 hours to kill until our next activity started so me and Lydia walked into the village where we were invited to come back at 4:30pm for "the football match". I mentioned this to Dirk and he seemed interested, the girls less so but we were getting a bit tired of boat trips and decided it would be a good way to meet the locals. So we went along and there turned out to be about 20 locals who play football every Sunday afternoon. Me and Dirk joined in and after going one nil down early on we came back to win 4-1 thanks to two goals from Dirk, nicknamed Torres (he has similar hair) by the locals. Defending was easy too, Asians are so easy to barge off the ball!!!

1-River Cruise

9-Proboscis Monkey

Something worth a mention is the footwear used during the game. Some locals had top of the range boots but it went downhill from there. There were wellies, flip flops, bare feet, Doc Martins and even leech proof shoes.
That evening we went out for another night trek. Apart from a crab, we didn't see much until we were nearly back at camp when we saw a big brown barn owl sitting in a tree and then we saw a Malay Badger, a furry pig like creature with black and white striped fur and long claws.
The next morning we declined the offer of a 6am boat trip that would be on the same route as the previous day and stayed in bed til 8. We sat around the camp for a few hours waiting to be taken to the bus stop to make our way back to Kota Kinabalu for our last few days in Malaysia.

Malay Badger

Us on Boat

Something I have to mention is the guides views and beliefs about certain things. He told us that smoking cigarettes wasn't bad for you, it was actually good because it helped you relax and puts your mind at ease. Wonder if thats why his teeth were rotting and falling out of his head? He also told us some stuff about elephants, not what some people thought or certain  tribes superstitions but facts, bare facts including the fact that an elephant can put you to sleep by using his mind to hypnotyse you (they do this to farmers all the time then eat their fruits apparently) and by blowing their trunks a certain way and elephant can make rain, wind and lightening, so there!!!