Uncle Tan's wildlife survival camp
The day started with a visit to the Rain Forest Discovery Center in Sepilok, not far from the Orang-utan rehab center. It's only 9 o'clock and we're the first visitors to arrive at the park. This is not your usual park where you just walk around and see animals in cages and just 'admire them'. It's a huge protected territory, with nothing but a bunch wooden pathways and an under construction high steel canopy that boasts 3 towers of the 6 to be built in total. The total path is about 7km long if I did my math right so you can easily spend the whole day and... not see a single animal. Naturally wildlife tends to keep itself that way, far from the big human predator and it's really not that easy to see animals there: within the compounds there are orang-utans, monkeys, kingfisher, humming birds and even crocodiles and snakes. Despite not being able to see any of the aforementioned creatures, one become easily fascinated with the views from the top of the canopy where you see nothing but exotic trees, as high as 50m that have been growing for generations! The stroll is cut short by a massive rainfall... after all, it is the wet season and we're stuck in the cafeteria for the rest of the day :(
The bus back to KK leaves at 2pm so we make our way to the junction about 45 minutes before... however, I am unhappy with going back, feels like we've done so little in Sabah when there's so much to see and do! And what the heck am I gonna do in KK for 3 or 4 days! We decide to say 'screw the budget' and head for Uncle Tan's base of operations which is halfway between the rainforest and the junction. The tour starts in 30 minutes... do we go? We have enough money to make it to the camp but... only 1 ringit left :) And we will need some spare cash to buy fresh water, at least! No atm's around, just 10 euros... luckily they could change that cash but then how would we go back to KK? The bus ticket clearly stated no refund nor changes allowed... a phone call later and no problem, they'll take us 2 days later anyway... awesome, we're off to the Kinabatangan(??????????) and into the jungle!:)
We sit down and grab a quick lunch, followed by a 1.5h jeep ride and a 45min boat ride to the camp! Arriving at the camp, I am impressed: I thought it would be a tiny thing in a slightly deserted area but no! The operations camp is actually pretty big, all built a few centimeters above the ground to help avoid flooding (which happens often, preventing any tours on the camp) and the staff is immense! Actually, the staff was far superior in number than the guests, there were only 5 of us there :)
As soon as I check the premises where we're gonna sleep, I start laughing... this is gonna be fun! There's nothing but a mattress and a mosquito net, covered by a simple metal plated roof to protect from the rain. That's it, as simple as that. No doors, just some small side walls to protect from the wind and the rain but they only cover things half way! Under us, some swamp and I immediately get a glance of a pretty big lizard! We were also told to put any medicines, food, water, etc. in a special bucket sitting outside the 'cabin' in order to avoid unwanted guests... aka, rats! Just the night before, one rat went into one german girl's 'room' and pierced a huge hole through her backpack... Welcome to the jungle!
I make my way back to the dining area and see some of the staff and nearby villagers are playing what they call shaolin soccer! The ground is wet, more like mud, and most of them are playing with no shoes on... of course, I immediately ask to join and spend some good 45 mins playing and mostly... sliding! Pretty hard to play any real football in such conditions but I don't really care, I just want to spend some time with them and get to know them and I know that football is one of those things that just opens doors 'that easily'. After the match, we all shake hands and the inevitable question of where I'm from comes from one of the guys, the best player of the staff I must add and as soon as I say Portugal, the stereotype takes form! 'Oh, I love Ronaldo, my favorite player! He's so much better than Messi (he really said that, no bullshit :)' and so we form an immediate bond. It's amazing how easily it happens once u are traveling and being from Portugal definitely helps these days when football is so global and Portuguese are becoming very well known in the sport. After a 20 minute chat he tells he needs to get some work done and I go and have a bucket shower (or whatever you wanna call it, u just pour water into a bucket and then on yourself!) before the night tour.
The night tour consists of traveling by boat upstream for about 1 hour and checking wildlife that is mostly active at night. The first thing that dazzles me is how on earth the guide (or better said, the 'spotter') is able to find animals! He was able to spot and owl from 30 meters away followed by a monitor lizard quietly lying on a tree at about the same distance! Obviously they know the place like the back of their hands but I find nevertheless impressive to see how they can so quickly and easily find animals in pitch dark light and immediately identify the exact species and variant that they belong to! We spotted some birds, night owls, lizard but for me the most impressive was the civet cat, a wildcat that lives in this area and was near the shore climbing on one of the trees. They were not bothered at all with our presence, they didn't seem to care at all, all they wanted were the tasty fresh figs sitting on that tree...
Soon enough the tour is over and we need to head to bed. As I arrive back we see an uninvited guest, a lovely huge spider crawling on the bed... I'll play the tough guy's role here and say they don't scare me but... the truth is that I have no idea whether it's poisonous or not so, just in case, I call some of the guys who belong to the staff. They come around and soon just smile at me: "this is only a wolf spider, don't worry about it!". Hmmmm, a wolf spider... sounds harmless!
That night I didn't really get much sleep. I must admit I didn't feel all that comfy sleeping outside and I probably did not sleep more than a couple of hours...
6am and one of the staff comes to wake us up. No need, I'm already up! Early morning is one of the best times of the day when one can go and see the wildlife... most animals, like ourselves, have just woken up and head to the shores in order to drink some water and find some food. We start with a bunch of birds, namely an eagle, and soon enough a kingfisher - easily identifiable through its long and thin beak and shiny colors! But the most interesting part is yet to come and apes are definitely the main attraction! Soon enough we see a big bunch of monkeys jumping around... the so called, long-tailed macaques aka 'jungle mafia' due to the fact that they always move around in large groups!
As we continue upstream, we become slightly disappointed as we missed the orang-utans... and time is up for the trip. We drive back to the camp at full speed until we see a single urangutan up on a tree enjoying his morning breakfast! Very nearby we get a glimpse of 2 gibbons as well: far lesser in size, the gibbon manages to swing effortless and gracefully between branches thanks to very long arms and flexible wrists. Watching these animals in their natural habitats is impossible not to get a smile on your face and... think about taking on of them home with you :)
The rest of the day is rather quiet. We have scheduled a jungle walk at around 10am which lasted for 2 hours but... no wildlife was to be seen. Mostly due to the intense heat, no animals came out to greet us! We took that time to get to know our guide a little better and I immediately get the feeling that he really loves what he does, to be in the wild and show people what that is all about. He tells me how they need to go through a specific training and how they need to learn and all the animals, plants, trees, etc. that live in the region! He is actually a Filipino who has never 'visited' his own country, and even struggles to speak Tagalog. He spends 2-3 months straight in the camp he tells me: "This is what I love to do, this is where I feel at home". He sometimes walks around and records the sounds he hears and then heads home and looks up info on the specific animal... he can recognize any animal by the sound it emits!
Nothing happens in the camp between lunch and dusk. The animals are resting and so is the staff... so I follow them as well and try to get some rest... there is another jungle trek scheduled for 5pm but it's pouring down and no wildlife is to be seen so we postpone everything until late evening. A couple from Switzerland and a girl from UK have just joined the group so we're no longer the only ones in the camp... the night trek is interesting, some frogs, spiders, night birds and bats are seen during this hour out in the jungle... soon that is over as well and we had back to the dining area.
The staff has gathered and is happily singing some local songs at the sound of a guitar played masterfully by one of the staff. They are all extremely young, my guess is that most of them are under 20 and hardly anyone gets even close to 30! Still, they all act very professionally and certainly know what they are doing! I definitely get the feeling that this is their dream job, that this is what they are happy doing every day: just spending time with each others in the nature, far from the stress of larger cities, free from concerns and simply enjoying what we all like the most which is to simply be with those around us who we like the most. They do this every day, they have no weekends, they don't really talk about vacation nor do they worry about it! And an interesting part of it, there is never any alcohol involved... something to think about, huh?
And thus comes the end of the day... it has been a long one and this time I fall asleep like a baby...
The last day includes a last boat ride but nothing 'new' happened so it's not really worth mentioning here. The camp is, however, turned into a huge football stadium! There is a tournament going on organized by the camp staff and other village chiefs, and everyone has formed a team and gathered there in order to promote the 'inter-connection' of different villages.
They are dress in jerseys by Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool among others and they take it seriously! I really don't know how some of the guys are playing without shin pads but... that seems to be the way! The ladies are screaming, cheering for their young ones and guess what: there is nobody screaming at the ref, no one is angry nor pissed at teammates... what the heck, isn't this football?!? Seems like it's just one huge party :)
Unfortunately time has come to leave the premises... can't stay long enough to see the event through. I farewell some of the people I met there and one of the guys tells me: "Tiago, keep practicing football, good luck for the Euro!". Feels somewhat sad to leave... and it's only been 3 days!
We then head back to the base camp in Sepilok for lunch and then walk to the junction to wait for the bus.... which was supposed to come at 2. Several companies do this Sandakan-Kota Kinabalu route (Sandakan is on the very edge of Borneo, about 25km further from Sepilok) and one bus passes by at 1.45 and stops... I show them the ticket, the conductor says I need to wait for another bus but the driver tells me to get on, he will just take me! Would he have taken me without a ticket I wonder? :)
The trip is long, 6 hours on the bus before the early boat trip to Brunei the day after... Again I get no sleep and there we are back in KK for a few hours, back in North Borneo Cabin. One issue after these days... laundry! I had packed only for 2-3 days (left the bigger backpack in the hostel in KK) and my clothes stink, horribly!!! The laundry shops are all closed and I don't have a single clean t-shirt, underwear, nothing...
Meanwhile, Ly feels a bit sick and we decide to postpone the trip to Brunei for a day! This gives us some time to rest, do some laundry and catch up on our blog posts and so on :)
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