Following our strenuous climb of Mt. Kinabalu, Zack and I headed for Sandakan where I was planning to begin my jungle trek at the Sungai Kinabatangan. Instead of the usual bus option, we decided to hitch hike the approximate 250km to Sandakan. Thankfully we only had to wait approximately 20 minutes before a local Malay man picked us up and offered us a free ride almost all the way to Sandakan. It was an entertaining 3 hour ride with an Abba cd on repeat (he was obsessed) and a quick stop at his sisters place. Nonetheless, it was a good experience and a free ride to our destination. In Sandakan we spent a couple days hanging around (there's not much there) and celebrated Zack's birthday with him and his friend Sarah.
On Thursday Sarah and I jumped on the bus to begin our jungle expedition while Zack headed to Brunei. We booked our travel at the Nature Lodge which was a relaxed enviornment sitting right on the Southern end of the Kinabatangan (Sabah's largest river). The three days there were quite exciting, with a typical day consisting of a 5:45 wake up call to start the day with an hour long 6am river cruise just after sunrise. We would then return to the lodge for breakfast (the food was really good -- and there was lots of it) then a 3 hour day hike through the jungle. Following the hike we'd come back for lunch, an afternoon rest during the hottest hours of the day, then another river cruise from 4:30 until 6ish. Dinner would be served then followed by a night jungle trek which was by far my favorite activity.
Unfortunately, the jungle around the Kinabatangan has been seriously destroyed by palm plantations so from the river the jungle only extends about 200m deep. However, that does mean that the wildlife is more concentrated near the river. We were therefore able to see tons of proboscis monkeys, silver leaf macaques, pig tail macaques, long tail macagues, and Borneo's own hornbill birds. Luckily, we also had an orangutan spotting which our guide told us was quite rare. On the last morning we were fortunate enough to spot a baby crocodile near the boat. The night adventures usually led to other wildlife, including the beautiful rufus beak kingfisher, black back kingfisher, Malaysian blue fly catcher, storm storks and various other birds. There were also a handful of snakes.
Sungai Kinabatangan
Storm Stork
Monitor Lizard
Gold Ringed Cat Snake --
1 bite hurts for two days, 2 bites kills you
Malaysian Blue Fly Catcher
Blackback Kingfisher
Proboscis Monkey
Following our great adventure in the Kinabatangan, I took two separate buses to get to the Malaysian/Indonesian border town of Tawau. My plan was to take the ferry to Tarawan (Kalimantan) on Sunday then fly from there to Jakarta. Unfortunately there are no ferries on Sunday so I will have to wait until Monday to catch the ferry into Indonesia. There's not much to do here in Tawau, so I'll do my best to keep busy.
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