Trekking

Woke at 6 and went out to sit on the balcony and soak in the atmosphere as the mist gradually lifted from the treetops and the many insects, birds and animals woke up around the forest. It was magical…. I recorded some of the noises for when I want to have a moment of calm at home.
Once V woke we got ready and came over for breakfast (OMG the food here is gorgeous and there’s so much to choose from. I had a freshly cooked omelette with some smoked salmon and toast then a plateful of fruit..gorgeous!
We got kitted up in our trekking gear…long sleeved shirt and long trousers, walking boots and leech socks, hat, and swimming costume underneath, then set off for our walk of about 2.5 km up to the top of the hill opposite the lodge across the river, 200m higher than we are here. That doesn’t sound much, but with 28 degree heat and 95% humidity it was quite a slog! Interesting to walk up through the forest, discovering the usual array of fungi, facts about some plants (some with poisonous leaves, others that can be used as tissues, some whose unfurling leaves provide a home for bats during the day or, in one tree, a space for a tarantula to have its nest (it was asleep when we went passed!), and various cricket and bird noises to identify. At one pointQuite tough walking though, so goodness knows how easy the paths would be if it had rained recently! To think we assumed it would rain everyday here! We’ve not lifted the ponchos from our packs once (or the nets for our heads….we’ve not had a single mosquito bite)! We stopped regularly, as I (the man in our group who has trouble with social graces) was struggling with his breath, but in fact we were all very hot and pleased to drink back the cans of isotonic drinks we’d brought from the fridges in our rooms. He was also the only member of our group to get a leech land on him….it was tiny! Walked across his hand and then Nicholas the guide took it and talked to us about them before disposing of it. To be honest I think we were all surprised about how much stress there is on avoiding leeches when they’re so tiny and basically harmless….much rather have one of these than a tic!
Fascinating to be in the forest like this though, and some great views to be glimpsed down to the valley through the trees. When we were nearly at the top we took a detour to see the Coffin Caves. Local tribes who lived down in the valley 2-400 years ago used to carry important people’s bodies in coffins up to these caves and slot them into the smallish round holes.over many years some have degraded and slipped out, and we saw (well, I didn’t as I’m not great with graveyards) some bones that have been DNA tested and belonged to a woman in her 30s who must have been of high status to have been brought up here, but who had a damaged skull which might mean (apparently!) that she was killed, perhaps by headhunters attacking the village, about 200 years ago.
We left her in peace and carried on the last 100yards to the observation deck from which we could see for miles, including down to the river and our lodges. Stunning!
We just sat and enjoyed it for a while, then set off at a pace to reach another waterfall and swimming pool area. It was lovely to just jump in and swim around and under the waterfall, but you had to keep moving or the little fish would swim up and not just nibble your feet but nip your legs too! It was so refreshing and lovely…we all enjoyed it although B didn’t come in…he just played with a little boy from a Scandinavian family staying at the lodge, throwing stones to hit a branch in the water.
After that we came home and got changed (soaking wet and not just from the swimming!) before lunch. I had delicious laksa soup, some lamb curry and rice, then fruit jelly type desserts with more fresh fruit…just as well we’re doing lots of exercise as otherwise we’d have put on a ton here!
We hardly had any time to turn around and get ready to go on the canopy walk, which involved a walkway slung between trees. A bit tricky for B and I who don’t love heights, but I managed because there were still trees above us and we could focus on looking straight ahead rather than down. The second (wooden) section was closed after storm damage so we didn’t take too long on it, but as we came back Nicholas thought he’d seen an elephant on the riverbank…we were all very excited! Couldn’t see it, so we carried on along the main track to the lodge when he got news there were two females and a baby orangutan in the trees ahead of us. We ran! Just saw them before one disappeared, leaving the mother and baby playing and feeding on the branch. We watched happily for a while then set off again and suddenly heard that a lone female was very close to the track…we ran again! This time we arrived just too late but she’d sat on a branch and watched the group, then ambled down and across the road right in front of them! Oh my word…..!
Gutted we had just missed her, but we enjoyed looking at their photos and videos and it provided quite the talking point for the rest of the evening!
We had some drinks and then a delicious dinner of ribeye steak, black pepper sauce and (somewhat strangely for Borneo!) mashed potatoes…which was gorgeous, and although we all said we were way too full and didn’t need supper we troughed away good sized portions!
Not long after (we were all so tired by now!) we went out for a night walk, each with our own torch. Felt like we’d just graduated from night safari school and the teachers had given us control, and we had a rare old time e plotting the ponds, bushes and tall trees for things. We found a water snake (small!), three frogs, some spiders, a millipede that curled up when you touched him and a poisonous centipede, and at one point saw eyes in a tall tree shining back at us…another flying squirrel that we watched glide down to another tree. A lot of the time we found ourselves saying ‘oh it’s just a leaf’ which has become one of the phrases of the holiday!
It was so exciting to turn all our torches off for a while….talk about pitch dark!….and Nicholas told us what to do if we were stuck in the jungle at night (basically, construct a hide/shelter and light a fire!). When the moon came out from behind a cloud it became so much lighter…but we could still see the stars and identified Orion which seemed strangely like home.
We walked for quite a while but no owls, then just as we were giving up and coming back a lesser mouse deer ran across our path…lovely way to end the evening. Straight to bed…tired out!