Sepilok > Kinabatangan river (110km, 2h15 by car)

Yesterday afternoon we met Mr. Aji who came to us. He proposed a boat tour in the jungle which is 2 hours away from Sepilok by car. For 350Ringgit we will spend 3:30 hours in the boat seeking for monkeys and other wild animals, one night in an Home stay with dinner and breakfast included, a one hour night walk in the jungle and finally another bush walk the second day. That sounds honest. We texted him yesterday evening and met him at 11:00am this morning in Sepilok. Let’s start the adventure!

Map.

This is where we slept last night and what we saw when we woke up. That’s definitely a nice spot :-)

From here, there is different walk that tourists can do. We are going to see the jungle for two days so this is not a big deal if we miss that place.

Last night, we had a roof and a big one. I wish it would have rain but nothing, not even few drops.

That’s where we slept.

Fancy flowers.

Fancy firefly :-)

The good thing with this tour is that Mr.Aji brings 4 people maximum on his tours. This is even more important when we will be close to the animals because this is easier to stay quiet. Mr. Aji proposes also longer trips like 3 days / 2 nights.

Mr. Aji will pick us up at the Orangutan rehabilitation centre at 11am so we have time to get some breakfast at the warung where we stayed yesterday. This fat cat seems to have some rough time :-)

Life is too hard… It doesn’t look like the cats in Indonesia that are so skinny.

We met Mr. Aji as planned and drove first to Kota Kinabatangan to have some lunch (at our charge). As we were going to the river, Mr. Aji said that we had some spare time so he turned off the highway to get in the jungle.

The interior of Mr. Aji’s car is really nice. It feels like adventure. He sticked his pictures everywhere in the binnacle. The seat have a leopard pattern when the doors are like tiger. The dashboard has some fur on it. His car is like a jungle itself haha.

We did not have to wait a long time as we saw our first monkey of the day but it was so quick that we’ve just seen a shape moving down a tree. The experienced Mr. Aji told us what it was (I don’t remember the name of the monkey) and that was it. We kept walking along expecting to see some more wild animals around.

We continued walking around when Mr. Aji saw an unusual animal lying vertically on a tree. This one is a Lemur. It’s a nocturnal animal that can fly. It must be lost or something because they normally sleep in tree holes during the day.

Mr. Aji (in Yellow) and Stephane try to get closer to the tree to get a better shot.

My camera is far too weak to get a shot closer enough.

I’ve found a good spot to see it and show it to Mr. Aji. He asked me for my SDcard and pictured the animal with his own camera which has a super zoom. That’s definitely better :-)

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We finally came back on the road and drove until the Kinabatangan river, our last target for the day.

We are going to sleep at the Sukau Homestay part of the Sukau village.

There is some beautiful flower around here.

That’s one part of the village, very rural, very quiet, very nice.

The Kinabatangan river! The boat is actually waiting for us. Mr. Aji (with the hat) is ready.

The weather is great, that’s going to be nice for sure.

Let’s go!

On the river’s bank there is few habitations but most of it is thick forest.

Thanks for Mr. Aji and his bionic eyes, haha. We would completely miss that tiny crocodile!

We left the main stream river to ascend a smaller branch.

First thing we saw, a giant wasp nest. If we disturb them, their attack would be deadly…

Roh nooo, there is some tourist here! ;-) (like us, hahaa)

That’s the jungle.

Ouh, a baby lizard :-)

Some more jungle.

Suddenly, we’ve seen few branches shaking. Here they are :-) These monkeys are called Macaque. They are the most widespread monkeys across the globe.

And two other ones!

And some more! Actually, there is the whole tribes here, about 30 monkeys. Humans built those “bridges” for them so they can cross the rivers easily.

During about 20 minutes, we waited, quiet, watching the troop crossing the river.

They all have their own techniques: some of them walk on the side. Some other are suspended, some are really confident but most of them seem not really comfortable with that installation.

They seem to be afroad as we certainly disturbed them. Some male are like waiting for others to cross. They make sure no one is left behind.

The monkeys in video.

That’s a big dude this one :-)

Don’t look for monkeys here, there is not any :-)

This is the monkey Mr. Aji was looking for since the beginning. He said we have 99.9% of chance to see one. This is called Proboscis monkey and lives in Borneo only. Their have this unique big noze that characterizes them.

Again, Mr. Aji borrow my SDcard to give me some closer shot of it because my camera… well… Actually, maybe there is too much details on this one… ;-)

We continue slowly our 3 hours and a half trip along the river. That’s another monkey bridge here.

River and jungle. That’s time to turn around.

We go back the same way (naturally). Some monkeys are still trying to cross that bridge or what? Or this one is lost maybe.

Ouuuh, some more monkeys!

This one is shy.

Or angry…

They are not really afroad. Maybe even curious.

What do you want?

We have seen only few boats in the past hours. That’s good.

Sunset is going on.

They got there wooden house close to the river, some canoe and lots of jungle. That’s nice.

Short video.

Nearly coming back.

Stephane and Mr. Aji :-)

We have 10 minutes to organise our stuff and then go to the local restaurant over there next to the water. After dinner, we will do the night walk.

As we walk around we’ve seen first some wildcat, or kind off. I’m not sure to have heard the right thing. Mr. Aji said “Look for red eyes using your torch”. Apparently those “cats” are blind and the few of them we have seen did not really move. Then we saw this thing called a “lantern bug“. They were actually many of them but only on one tree. That’s curious.

That’s blurry, sorry I tried many shots but could never get a clear shot. That spider does creates a very design web though :-)

That’s a stick insect, a fat one.

And for the last one, a Long Legged Centipede. That’s it for today :-) That was an interesting excursion. Tomorrow we will do a shorter trek than plan because we want to catch a bus that goes to Semporna at 9:30. See ya! Mr. Aji will drop us on the road because if we go back to Sepilok with him we will have to catch a bus that will use the same road again. That’s silly to pay twice. See ya!