Out Of The Jungle

Over a week has gone by and no blog entries. First of all apologies,I thought all this chat about going into the jungle was just the tourist version of the jungle (with broadband). Unfortunately not, I should have suspected something was up when the airports began to get smaller and I didn’t even take much notice when the planes got smaller. It wasn’t until we boarded our small boat (klotok) and turned left up the river that I realised, I was in the ‘freakin jungle’. (With hindsight the lack of any western faces, intense heat, huge mosquitos and panic on Lynsey’s face probably were the key signs that I was actually going to the jungle.)

‘So what’s the jungle like Jonny?’ I hear all one of you asking me. Well lone reader I have to say it wasn’t really what I was expecting.

First of all I thought it would be brimming with wildlife. In fact it’s not. It takes about a day to get into the flow of things so you can start picking out the monkeys, rare birds and other creatures that like to call the jungle home.

Secondly its very very hot. So hot in fact that you give up trying to keep the sweating thing under control, even the animals were sweating!

Thirdly any most importantly, it’s very beautiful in away I can’t really describe. It’s incredibly quiet in such away that makes any noise stand out like a bright colour on a dull day. Even though I’ve been out of the jungle for a few days I can still remember everything we did on each day we were there. I could thoroughly recommend the jungles of Kalimantan to any one who has the time and inclination to find their way there.

Of course the main reason we were Kalimantan anyway was to see the Orangutan. In case you did no the word Orangutan means ‘person of the forest’ in Indonesian. Orangutans have been identified as the second most intelligent animal on the planet after humans. They come in three different flavours, cute baby, cuddly female and shit scary male varieties. They are, as I have discovered, very difficult to photograph properly but try I did and when I’m back I’ll upload as many as possible to flickr.

Our days were spent on the Klotok boat, sailing further up river from our lodge to visit various feeding stations located 20-30mins trekking time into the jungle. The feeding stations are there as a result of the re-orientation of captured or orphaned Orangutans into the jungle in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s by Dr Mary Galdikas and others. These Orangutans have had contact with humans and some still live in around Camp Leakey where they were originally released.

In the evenings we would return to our lodge at sunset for some Indonesian dinner before getting an early night to start the next morning. (Earliest start was 5.00am!!)

Oh! the Orangutan pictured is called ‘Sweet Po’ she is one of the ones sitting in the ‘cute baby’ classification.