Day 39- crocodiles!

This morning we were on the boat for a sunrise River cruise at 6am. I am rapidly learning not to even attempt conversation with his lordship in the morning for at least 2 hours, I would rather have a conversation with the 3 metre Croc that was in the water just outside our resort, I’m sure his bite would be less severe!!!

The crocodile was the 4th out of 5 big borneo animals to spot, the last one hasn’t been seen for 2 months in

area;the pygmy elephants. We are not hopeful to see these.

On the river cruise this am it became obvious how encroaching the palm oil plantations are on the river banks, there2 is only actually a small strip of jungle at the river before they start, just enough to make it look ‘natural’ the only reason why we are seeing wildlife is because they are trapped here, after being driven to the riverside and unable to cross. Very upsetting and almost feel cheated in some ways! There was a huge dead crocodile upturned in the water, bloated up with air, floating in trash-such a shame to see, the river area is overpopulated with crocs so farmers can get a licence to shoot them, and Didi the tour guide was highly suspicious of this.

On the jungle walk after breakfast we didn’t see a lot at all, just got pestered by a lot of large buzzing bugs who seemed to like my hair, as soon as we stopped they were buzzing all around my head, I was trying not to be the squimish girl but I was screaming inside. The ranger said it was the shampoo and suncream I had used which was attracting them, David made sure I knew just how ‘massive’ the bugs actually were!! I was trying to use my ponytail as a whip!

We spoke to Didi about the situation in borneo, about the palm trade, and what the government are going to do about it. Many of the plantations at the riverbank have to cut the palms. Down in 2 years and replant native trees rather than palms, the government are now reviewing an proposed area to be farmed before its cut down. The mature tree will take around 50years to regrow, so even starting now it’s along way of being restored. She also told us about some plantations capturing orangutans for sick things like prostitution within the plantations…. Really what is wrong with people!

We had a walk down to the very tiny village, just 5minutes away to get An ice cream, and then back again before lunch was served, delighted that there were great options of tomato salads, spicy green bean salad and curried pumpkin!

At lunch there were 2 local men on the other side of the river doing flips into the water,but we could see crocs swimming, attracted by their splashes, they were playing with fire!

At lunchtime when we were sat in the main reception/restaurant the dead crocodile floated by in the current, even bigger than earlier, as if it was literally about to pop!! It actually looked like one of the inflatables you get for the pool!!

After a bit of down time, I tried to Take our stuff to the room but faced so many long tail Macaques on the way, and no people around, at one point I was on a boardwalk and I had a male infront of me, a mother and baby behind me and loads of youngsters in the tree above, I felt so intimidated with them all around, and eyeing up my belongings that I didn’t want to any further on my own incase I genuinely got mugged. I went back and got David out of his hammock, much to his amusement that the monkeys were intimidating me!

There was coffee and cake just before the cruise and that’s when the macaques swarmed, as much as the staff tried with broomsticks to stop them they had no fear and as soon as heads were turned for a second the cake and sugar packets were gone.

On the afternoon cruise we saw plenty again including a single juvenile orangutan up close in the trees on the bank, the orange colour of his coat really bright as the sun shone through. Later on we saw another family of 3 orangutans making their nest for later in the evening.

That night the staff put on a culture show, which was less of a show and more of a few dances which all the guests were to join in with, similar to things at home like macareena I guess. It was good fun anyhow and it got everyone talking, the last one was a game of limbo, David sat out of this one as he had no chance of even making the first level, instead he sat and laughed at my attempts saying my arms and legs are just like orangutans. The local men were really good at it, and were limbo’ing really low heights, their knees almost dislocating, they definitely put the westerners to shame.

Surprisingly David got involved in all the silly dancing, which is more than Brian who made a quick exit.

We didn’t bother with the night walk tonight because they are only around the trees near the lodges, and other than insects there isn’t much to be seen!!