Megamoon

It was a 45 min flight from Kota Kinabulu on the west coast, over the mountains, to the city nearest to the jungle (Sandakan) on the north east coast. Then a 45 minute drive from Sandakan airport to the outskirts of the rainforest. Not much to see in Sandakan other than a small port (which we return to later on our trip). The Brits established Sandakan as the capital of Borneo, before it was moved to Kota Kinabulu after Sandakan was flattened during WW2 and deemed as too difficult to rebuild.

We were dropped off at the Sepilok Rainforest Lodge – a small and rustic hotel built on stilts above a lake, just on the outskirts of the rainforest. We stayed in a spacious wooden cabin (alpine feel), with a patchwork effect of colourful weaved patterns of the ceiling (very unique!). There were also gaps to the outside world everywhere (between floor boards to the water below, above & below doors etc)….

…Operation mosquito busters started immediately! We used all (4) layers of defence: 3 different types of  sprays and the mosquito net. We stank and the Mosquitos clearly thought so too. Beaches -1, Mosquitos-0 ?

I really liked this lodge, it was very homely with lots of lounging spots with cushions and home-made decorations.

We spent the evening on the sofas by the lake, with a cocktail, looking out to the rainforest views and observing a three meter long monitor lizard who swam across the lake and exited very near to our room ?
The next day we went to the orangutan and sun bear (smallest bear in the world) conservation centres. It was very informative and incredibly moving. They take in Orangutans and bears that have been found on deaths door in the jungle, mostly due to habitation loss with the huge amounts of palm oil plantations here, but also from uninformed local people who keep them in cages/sell them on as pet. They then teach the animals the skills they need to survive in the wild and as soon as they can they release them.

96.6% of our DNA is shared with Orangutans, which is clear to see as there are so many similarities between us!  Both orgautans and sun bears are endangered and can only be found here in Borneo (with a handful in Sumatra, Indonesia which will soon be gone). There’s now approx. 12,000 orangutans in the wild (a growing number). The sun bear conservation is quite new-everyone hopes it will be a success. Unfortunately action was taken too late to conserve other species here such as the rhino.

After the sun set we went on a night walk in the rainforest. Very spooky! There were a lot of noisy nocturnal animals and armed with a ranger and a torch we saw quite a few: viper snakes, mangrove snakes, jungle crabs, sleeping orangutans, slow loris (very cute), flying lemur (it took a while to understand our guide who pronounced it as “finding memo”)

Slow Loris