Whilst walking down the wooden board walk to the park HQ, we startled a common water monitor. It made an almighty crashing and thrashing underneath us as it struggled to get away in the swamp. We did catch sight of it though, it was about a meter in length and olive green in colour. It was at this thrilling moment that we realised that the camera wasn't working...how typical. We couldn't work out why, but after some discussion, we decided to continue the walk, trying to collectively be positive as we individually moped along. We made our way in silence along the Telok Paku trail listening for, (as the leaflet suggested), strange grunts or movement in the canopy, lol...We were gutted not to hear anything but our own laboured breathing! The jungle seemed eerily still.
It took us about an hour to get to the beach. This was perfect timing as the tide was out and we were able to explore it in the morning stillness. After having a look around we sat in the wooden shelter and had another sad look at our camera. After some fiddling Wiji managed to get it to work with the aid of a tiny bit of cardboard inserted by the battery. We had a bit of a reminisce about how long the batteries had lasted...since Noumea, New Caledonia. We had, of course, used them everyday. So with the camera temporarily fixed we got to work taking some pics, and acknowledging how great the walk really was and how glad we were that we could photograph it!
There was a great deal of debris on the beach.
The sandstone stacks were really intriguing...
Fantastically eroded into melting honeycomb shapes...
There were some huge seed pods. This one was sprouting. We wondered how far it had travelled...
It really looked like the jungle! Funny to say, but it seemed so perfectly wild.
'Take pictures!' We marvelled at the greenness and growth immediately shooting up off the rock face.
Wiji loved these massive palm/yucca trees, they were very tall.
Below them some more interesting erosion.
75 million years ago the park was under the sea. Sediments carried to the coast from inland mountain ranges were deposited in the sea. Over millions of years the particles cemented together to form the hard, but porous rock that is sandstone.
Jungle meets coastline.
This beauty was conspicuous by its singular presence.
There was an incredible amount of crab ball patterns...
...Of all sizes!
Iron deposits in the sandstone had caused some areas to become pinky-purple and yellow.
Another sandstone stack.
23 million years further on in the timeline of Borneo, Sarawak experienced uplifting events causing hills and mountains to form...
We could clearly see the iron veins where the sandstone had eroded away.
There was a flat plateau of sandstone where solution pans had eroded in the run off from the sea. Lots of these were full of clams.
There were several cave entrances on the beach. This made me think about Waitomo and the creation of caves through erosion.
In the debris were some huge old barnacles.
The hermit crab that we spotted earlier was still sifting through the sand.
After taking in the scenery and the tranquillity, we decided to head back on the trail. It was still early, and we still hoped to catch sight of a proboscis monkey yet.
A very impressive balancing act and an uplifting event!..These rocks were huge! Wiji waves from below, and the camera gives us one more shot!
I could not believe it when I saw it! It wasn't on the trail when we first passed. I had seen them on wildlife documentaries that capture, through slow motion, the fungi as they push their way up through the soil. The pink 'netting' unfolding last from the central cap. A totally brilliant spot, I was very excited!
The pink netting was covered in what looked like tiny fruit flies. It was very special indeed. We took some time to gaze at it.
Back at the hut Wiji broke the rangers golden rule: don't make eye contact with the macaques. He looked at one outside the hut and spoke to it. It responded by opening its mouth and baring its teeth. I couldn't help thinking about my PGCE course, where it was essential that you made eye contact with the monkeys. In Bako though, I felt it was entirely possible to get bitten by one. They were watching us from on our veranda too. We peeked at them through the curtains, Lol.
At the canteen the macaques were watching the diners from the trees...
Just biding their time...
There was even a whole gang of infants just mucking about.
And these two, still watching...
While we were drinking our cans of iced tea the inevitable happened. Wiji saw a monkeys head pop up on the seat next to me and the first I saw was a furry grey hand grab my fruit bag. I jumped up, but the adult female macaque was much faster and grabbed the NZ braeburn apple off the floor and legged it! She then re-emerged to eat it in the tree in full view of us...
It was a big apple, illegally imported by Wiji himself...
You can just make out the apple in her hands.
Mmmm, munching away. Wiji was quite gutted.
It was a result for her!
After lunch and some camera fiddling, we decided to check out Telok Assam beach in front of the canteen. Plenty of eroded sandstone formations to look at... Cake mixture?
This one was particularly stunning.
The purple iron skin on the sandstone.
We then made our way back along the board walk to see if we could spot the proboscis monkeys down in the mangroves at low tide. We were told that this would be a good place. They are mostly arboreal (tree dwelling) but venture into the mangroves to feed on leaf shoots, fruits and seeds...
Our first spot was way out in the distance, in the centre of the 'y' bed in the tree, we spotted the ginger fur on the back of a proboscis monkey.
We hung around on the board walk hoping to see more. While we waited we watched these fascinating prehistoric looking mud skimmers dodging the incoming tide. They can jump and kind of run with their front fins.
Waiting patiently and quietly paid off...Here we saw two adults slowly wandering off...
Two adults wandering through the mangrove...
Perfect and close! A male proboscis monkey! We could clearly see the pendulous nose and pot belly. Such huge hands and feet! Males can weigh up to 20kg.
We slowly followed them from the boardwalk...
...And into the trees at the edge of the jungle, where we had started our walks each day... Here you can see one sat in the crook of the tree facing us...
...Getting ready to jump onto the boardwalk...
...One on the boardwalk and another on its way...
...making their way into the trees...
...and off...
A quick look back at us...
A female leaping higher into the trees...
Watching us from above...
Making off up the tree...
Lol, sitting on a branch and taking a break!
After this great sighting we felt that anything else would just be even more of a bonus! We continued on our second walk of the day on the Telok Pandan Besar trail that would lead us to the coast. Again we hiked up into the jungle before emerging on a plateau with low vegetation.
A larger variety of pitcher plant than previously seen.
Looking across to Santubong peninsular (tallest peak Gunung Santubong) from the plateau. It was incredibly hot and devoid of shade. A totally different environment.
Swathes of pitcher plants drape over and swamp some of the trees.
Our first view of the coast and the fabulous sandstone towering out of the jungle canopy.
Looking out over Telok Pandan Besar and the South China Sea.
The tarn coloured river water running into the sea.
Sitting on the cliff top overlooking the jungle and sea. A truly fantastic view and a very memorable and special moment for me.
After taking some time to enjoy the views, we made our way back on the same trail to join another one that would lead us to another bay, Telok Pandan Kecil.
What is this? Was it part of the pitcher plant process?
The trail broke free of the scrub to a huge plateau overlooking Telok Assam.
Incredible! We planned to take the path down to the bay below.
Looking back at the trail.
Loving the sandstone!
A nice pic of us, but not quite capturing how totally dripping in sweat we were. It was incredibly humid and the sun was really burning down on us. Loving it.
In the distance the sandstone sea stack that we had purposely come to admire.
After hoofing it down through a buttress riddled track and some very dodgy ladders we made it on to the beach.
The rock that we were stood on, above.
The tide was coming in pretty quick. We had thought about a swim here, but the grubby South China sea really wasn't that appealing on closer inspection. Not to mention the massive floating tree stumps, and possible macaque menace.
Captured in the act! This one seemed a bit OCD about its balls!
A joint effort.
It was super hot on the beach so we decided to get back to the trail, and up the ladders again...
Looking up at the boulder filled trail. It was a scramble.
Back in some shade, with the cicadas screaming. This was pretty much what the trails looked like at Bako, a mass of tree roots. Stunning.
On the shonky boardwalk plateau.
The Santubong peninsular in the distance.
Just as were were about to make our way down hill on the last bit of the trail we heard some grunting noises, and as we creeped along the path were treated to another sighting of the proboscis monkeys. They were really having a good look at us this time too.
Balancing with that long tail.
Off and away.
Checking us out.
We took a break on a bench and took in the view through the jungle down to the mangrove.
Back on the mangrove boardwalk we spotted hundreds of tiny crabs, with their huge single 'robo' claw that was bigger that their entire body. They were very territorial and it was a bit of a game of musical statues trying to photograph them.
Looking through the mangrove and out to sea in the late afternoon.
The edge of the mangrove and the river divide to Telok Assam.
On the beach we watched a couple of hermit crabs have a battle. The one with the spiral shell seemed disadvantaged by its aesthetically pleasing, but impractical choice of shell.
Floating in the sea and washed up on the beaches, were the mahoosive bases of palms. This one was covered in barnacles and reminded me of the pinata's that we had seen in the Mexican markets.
Back at the park HQ, we had to sign back in after our walk, lol.
Back en route along the boardwalk to the hut we spied a particularly lovely pitt viper. Check out the super arrow shaped head! Lol, 'never mind that they are poisonious, I want to get a good piccy!'
Aaaah, back at the mildewy smelly hut! Trying not to (and it was surprisingly hard mind), to make eye contact, or worse still give the naughty macaque monkeys voices! LOL.
We stank! What a totally brilliant day!
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