We took at 6 hour bus journey to Sandakan. It was reminiscent of our travels in South America, with lots of random food breaks at places in the middle of nowhere. Endless blood curdling American films on full volume and a packed bus. We passed the most epic palm oil plantations that just went off into the distance as far as the eye could see on both sides of the road. We were overtaken many times by the huge thundering trucks carrying the palm fruits to the processing plants. We got great birds eye view's of the cargo from the bus window.
We arrived at Sandakan by passing through Sepilok via a series of roundabouts with large painted concrete jungle animals as the central feature. When we reached Sandakan we saw the fascinating roadside concrete zoo's displayed by the two competing concrete companies. Nice.
Sandakan itself was a concrete jungle where the treacherous pavements had been tiled making it all the more probable of slipping into an open drain. Our hotel, called Hotel Seafront, even though it wasn't, was fortunately another nice clean, austere and efficient Chinese hotel, and a bit of a refuge from the grime. There were some very sketchy looking eating options and I was favouring to go without and fill up on bottled water. It was quite nasty.
The next day we got all our gear together to visit the centre and do some of the trails. Unfortunately it had been raining all through the night, with regular bright flashes of lightening and raging thunder. At one point our taxi driver had to negotiate a fully flooded road, and was really chuffed with himself when he made it across. Lots of vans were stranded in the entrances to the palm plantations which were rising out of lakes, and it was still raining heavily.
At Sepilok a notice informed us that all the trails were closed. We could see why as we made our way around the board walk to the viewing platform...everything was underwater. Yes, this was the start of the monsoon season!
The centre was founded in 1964 and is supported by the UK based charity, most likely the one that we had both heard about in the past. The reserve occupies a 40sq km corner of the Kabili-Sepilok primary rainforest and because the area had been preserved, the indigenous trees were epic.
We were hoping to see some of the orang-utans come out of the jungle and take advantage of the twice daily feeding time when food is placed on platforms near the board walk. Before we even had time to start wondering if this was going to work out, we were in luck! As the rain poured down we watched as an orang-utan made its entrance through the trees and swung along the rope and down to the platform.
Here he is on his way along the rope. The warden had put out bananas and sugar cane.
For some reason the warden felt the need to get in on the action too, and obviously wanted a bit of the limelight. A bit annoying for us at the time.
The centre receives orphaned baby orang-utans that have been reported as being kept as pets illegal by people in the bush. It also rescues animals that have been injured and gives them complete veterinary treatment. We wondered why there were so many babies without mothers? Who was killing the mothers? These animals would not naturally choose to be separated or become abandoned?
At the education centre we learnt that the rehabilitation process of young orang-utans starts with time in the nursery where wardens encourage the development of nest building, climbing and food finding. Once it is appropriate they are moved to the outdoor nursery where their freedom is increased and their dependence on food and emotional support is decreased.
It was hilarious to see this orang-utan stuff the banana's into its mouth sideways after peeling them. Orang-utan is Malay for man of the jungle we found out.
While we were visiting the centre we read about a dominant male that had been raiding a village. The animal was sedated and returned to the rehabilitation centre, kept in quarantine to ensure than he had not contracted any illnesses from human contact, and then released into the park, hopefully to breed.
Apparently most animals become totally independent and integrate into the orang-utan population and are not seen at the feeding station again. Sometimes it is mothers who return for the easy food.
After a while the orang-utan retreated to the second platform to chew the sugar cane in peace and the warden left.
Then the opportunist macaques started to emerge from the trees. Here's one on the log above the waterlogged ground, on the right.
They were soon venturing onto the platform...
And having a full on binge eat of all the offerings. The male had a 'eat and peel in one go' technique for the banana's.
The orang-utan stayed on the other platform in the background.
Eventually he left and then soon afterwards another orang-utan emerged and made its way to the platform...
And selected some sugar cane to peel and chew...The other macaques left...
The male macaque stayed.
The orang-utan held the sugar cane over its head for ages.
Looking down towards the flooded ground we noticed some large orange beetles, that we later found out were the huge, but common millipede.
Here's a close up.
The rain seemed to be too much for the macaques, or they were full.
We were soaked and loving it!
It wasn't long before the second orang-utan made for the second platform with some sugar cane and as the last people watching, with the wardens waiting to lock the boardwalk, we left too.
We were gutted that we could not do any of the trails, but really pleased that we had observed two orang-utan's in the next best, protected free setting.
Here's a vid we put together of some of the orang-utan's antics.
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