Hard to believe we are here, it has been a dream of ours to visit Borneo and now we are pinching ourselves and can’t quite believe we are finally here! The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Sandakan, Borneo was a surprisingly long three hours. The endless miles of palm tree plantations 🙁 finally gave way to beautiful jungle. The view from the plane was spectacular. As we neared our destination we could see the Kinabatagan River snaking through the green.
Day one and we were up before the birds. So excited to go and take our first trek into the rainforest. Like kids on Christmas morning! We got there as the forest reserve opened and had the place to ourselves, just how we like it. However for the first time ever I kinda wished there were some other folks around – The size and wildness of this place makes you realise your smallness and vulnerability. There are a lots of very poisonous snakes and insects here not to mention the large primates, boars, elephants and the worrisome pig tailed macaques. There were signs everywhere warning us to turn around and leave if we encounter them. The males are highly aggressive and will attack if they feel under threat. Lance found a big stick and went first… yes really.
Armed and exhilarated!! we set off to see what we could see and the day didn’t disappoint.
The size of the trees hard to describe – some of the tallest trees in the world found right here. I couldn’t get them in one photo! enormous and so pole straight. These trees are worlds of their own, supporting their unique ecosystems. A universe within a universe. 🙂
We were so hoping to see orangutans in the wild but we fully understood it is not so easy. They are highly intelligent animals and are very afraid of humans, unfortunately for good reason. In some forest reserves tourists can’t walk with tripods, walking sticks or even selfie sticks because the orangutans think they are guns. That sadly is their experience with humans.
Low expectations for a sighting but still we scoured the trees and landscape fingers crossed. Our luck was in Lance spotted 2 – there they were – the silhouettes of mama and young one climbing the white tree trunk (pic of trees below!!) they were far away but we could clearly see the shapes of them swinging through the branches. The young one was leaping about having a great time. As we watched them a couple of intrepid bird watchers with seriously top notch equipment came out of nowhere! They were so grateful to us for pointing out the orangutans they let us look through their spotting scope and use it to take a pic with my iphone . Here is that pic of the little one. Our first glimpse of wild orangutans truly exciting.
For eightish years mum and young live together – Every night mama makes a nest high in the trees for them to snuggle up and sleep in. Such a loving family.
So much to see the flora, fauna and the insects. Some of the cute bugs we saw. Loved this leaf one it moved so shakily just like a leaf in the wind. Incredible camoflauge.
1000 year old tree and me xxx .58 cms per year… its a slower grower!
About half an hour later we heard a crashing above us and there about three meters above us was this guy swinging through the trees we watched him for a good 5 minutes before he moved on, amazing. How can it get any better? but it did, it just kept going!
The next moving encounter was a 40 minute one. As we walked the trail the trees next to us stared to shake, that’s not the wind!! Nope. It was two youngish orangutans play fighting. They wrestled and chased each other, tumbling onto the forest floor before racing up the trees swinging and having the greatest time. An adult orangutan was watching the spectacle with us, always fun to watch the children play. They entertained us for 40 mins. What a treat to see them so close, we just couldn’t believe how lucky were. I couldn’t get a good photo of them playing together, so much foliage and they move so fast. I got some great video though. These photos were the best of at least hundred photos I took !! they don’t show the energy tho and fun of the game.
A couple of hours later we spotted a troop of monkeys in the trees, Macaques! the nice macaques or the not so nice? As the big male turned around we saw his pig tail! 🙁 luckily he was high in a tree looking down on us so in complete charge, so we were no threat to him. We didn’t hang around though and moved away swiftly.
The next day we went to Sepilok where we had a really amazing close up encounter with an orangutan and her babe. In this area is the very special orangutan rehabilitation centre. Sick, injured, or orphaned animals are brought here to the center and nursed back to health. If they are too young to fend for themselves they are housed in the nursery where they are taught survival skills. Other than the nursery there are no fences the orangutans are free to come and go as they please. The idea is they will mix with the wild population living nearby and return to independent living.
There are some board walks trails around the rehabilitation centre and surrounding forest which are fantastic for wildlife viewing. You can see Lance walking on one. As we turned the corner we met momma orangutan and babe, so incredible to be that close – there was no panic on either side. We calmly stopped walking, didn’t look at her and gave her tonnes of room. She walked around us not seeming too bothered- I snapped a quick pic at this point knowing she was calm. We felt she must have been one of the animals as our presence didn’t worry her
Also here is the Borneo sun bear rehabilitation centres. It is highly regarded by the international community for their important conservation work. It was fantasic to see the bears they are arboreal spending 80 % of their time high in the canopy.
And finally Sandakan the town, where we stayed. It is not the prettiest place. The garbage situation here is as bad as it gets, an undulating layer of plastic bags and bottles lapping the shoreline. Nobody seems to notice. So has been like this for a while we think. Sadly all this rubbish is now a part of the landscape.
Sandakan is a fishing town and the launching pad for us tourists who want to go into the rainforest. First thing that caught our eye was the bustling market. It was vast kinda like walking into costco! (size wise not product wise hehe) So many herbs, fruits and vegetables (we’ve never seen before – ) all manner of meat and a huge seafood area This place opens about 4am! But the fishermen start selling their catch about 2 am! It was a great place to get the feel of Sandakan and take some pics of local life. The stalls stacked sky high with goodies. The vendors were so friendly and taught the names of the various things some even gave us taste tests.
It was hard to see the large finless sharks and 30 or so sting rays in the market it made me challenge my understanding of what food is. I’m still working on it.
The stunning views from our room over the Sulu Sea.
Tomorrow we take a 3 hour bumpy bus ride further into the rainforest. Spending 4 days in a rainforest “safari” camp on the Kinabatanagan River.
5 thoughts on “Borneo – Sandakan”
Hi folks awesome..really feel like im there with you..thanks Julia love your story ..beautiful wow you two look good too ..💝
I see my prayer to the wildlife gods worked perfectly! What amazing encounters you had.🙂
hehe yes thanks so much 🙂 I will post the Kinabatagan story in a week or so.
What an amazing experience you are having. Love reading your posts. It’s like watching a Planet Earth episode x
Thanks so nice of you to say 🙂 we are enjoying it and learning so much 🙂