This morning we joined the other guests (a couple of very young and very Australian girls and a French chap) for the outing to the Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary a couple of kilometers down the road. We love the idea behind the place. They rehabilitate and care for Orangs in need and then re-introduce them to the wild. Going as far as teaching the babies to climb and tempting them further and further into the jungle with feeding platforms. They don’t want them returning to the sanctuary and it appears to be a truly noble endeavor.

The morning was overcast and muggy as we sat waiting on the causeway near to one of the feeding platforms with at least 50 other tourists. Various types and sizes of macaque (the equivalent of vervet monkeys) started arriving stirring up a bit of noise and mischief. Precisely on time two men climbed onto the feeding platform with two large buckets of bananas. The macaques were frantic but the guys were having none of it, continuously chasing them away. It didn’t take long for an Orang to come cruising in along the cables. A mom with her baby buried in hair under her arm. They are amazingly cool animals with those big arms. Beautiful to watch swinging along. Mom politely took 3 bunches of bananas (one in each foot and one in her mouth) and headed off to a nearby platform to enjoy breakfast. A cheeky macaque managed to steal a few bananas from her but she seemed content. She ate and then just as gracefully swung onto another cable back into the jungle. Unfortunately that was that. No more Orangs arrived so I guess the sanctuary is doing it’s job very well.

After lunch and a chance to hammock out for an hour or so before we bundled into a minivan with three others for the transfer to the jungle camp. An hour and a half in the van and another chilly hour on an open boat heading upriver and we arrived at Tan’s camp. Not bad at all. Not as snazzy as Mulu National Park but the staff seem more jacked (and their website is cool too www.uncletan.com) Guess that’s the difference between government and private. The overcast weather that had been threatening all day thankfully didn’t amount to much – just a few drops as we headed out after dinner for our night river safari. We didn’t spot much. Typical… Some baby crocs thinking about having a go at a large Night Heron, some owls and a lot of sleeping Macques. Something we didn’t know – monkeys can sleep on branches because of their tails but apes (like the Orangs) have to build a nest. Anyway we got back to our hut around 11 – it was a long, hot and humid day. Tomorrow we have a morning safari, so up at 6am. Yay.

[Pictures: Huts + water = mozzies… Yikes! We’ll upload more pics as soon as we can]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi