In the jungle

I was awake 4-6am (which meant I could close the windows before the macaques woke up to make sure they didn’t break in!) but managed to get back to sleep for an hour afterwards, then we took down all our (dry….so quick!) washing so the place looked less like a laundry and packed the cases again….the packing cubes certainly make all the difference when moving around so much.
We had a last breakfast out on the huge deck watching the ferry and the safari boats chugging up and down. It’s been gorgeous here…we’re quite sad to leave in fact but are hoping that each time we move on we’ll feel the same..ie getting better and better through the holiday.
Despite four of us going to the same place once again we travelled in two minibuses, and Remi chatted on “I tell you….” about housing and family traditions, the new region we were entering, traffic and populations and airports, all sorts! The journey took about 2 hours and we arrived at Lahad Datu airport where we had to register to go into the new area (and were given a great little wildlife book so we can keep a list of all we see) and wait til another couple from a different resort and another minibus arrived to take all 6 of us to Tabin reserve. A further hour and a half til we arrived, and straight away had some (late) lunch…rice, tuna, stir fried veg and then fruit. Beautiful location right in the forest with a large lodge for mealtimes, a shop and office and then several chalets around the grounds. We were supposed to be in a river chalet (twin rooms) but instead were in a hill chalet (extra) with a king sized bed! They said we couldn’t swap as the river chalets were all full (with couples!) so said they would bring us an extra bed ‘for no extra charge’ (hmmm!) so poor V ended up on a child’s fold up bed!
We didn’t have much time to get changed into jungle explorer gear after all the kerfuffle so when we got to the place to join the trucks to take us to the start of a forest walk B&J who we have really taken a shine to and have a brilliant sense of humour were on the first truck and we got stuck with I&D - and I is a real pain…patronising, teasing and loud…grr! We thought we’d still all meet up together but no, we had a guide with the 4 of us and had to keep trying to avoid I the whole way on the drive and then the forest walk up to a mud volcano. It wasn’t as scary as I’d expected to be walking through the forest…I thought we’d be dodging snakes, leeches and huge spiders with webs trailing across the paths, but luckily apart from the heat and humidity and the fabulous sounds around us it was surprisingly like walking through the woods at home! One big difference was the huge buttressed trees all around us, soaring up into the sky. Apparently bashing the buttresses is a way of summoning help if you’re lost in the jungle!
We saw one huge tree that is called a honey tree as bees like to next in it…it is too tall, with smooth bark, and broad trunk and few branches until the very top, to keep safe from monkeys and apes. This one had around ten huge bees nests built around
the top branches of the tree and looked very magnificent.
The mud volcano was fun…we all daubed our faces with it to make ourselves 20 years younger (not sure it worked!), then had to walk and ride back to base before we could wash it off! On the drive we saw a monitor lizard and a crested serpent eagle…both very dramatic looking!