Borneo Day 4 Klotok trip

I woke just before 5am to the sounds of gibbons in the distance and various bird calls before the sound of cicadas (a more shrill higher pitched sound than ours at home that sound just like a band saw - and just as loud!) drowned out most other sounds. We opted today to all move to Sera and Dave's Klotok ( the Dave's couldn't stand up straight in this one but it was the more stable of the 2 boats) and meander at a slow pace down the river before stopping about 9am for breakfast. This gave us more of a chance to see and stop and things of interest. We headed back to the 1st station for our last Orangutan feeding session. 

The boys fishing off the front of the boat once we moored the night before 

 Passing proboscos monkeys high in the trees 

Leaving the camp Leakey river and Jono the sekoyner river, approaching our boat for breakfast 

 Our own little Orangutans grooming each other!

Our rather 'the slave' as he was described by Will 'the master' all klotok trip. The things hamish will do to achieve his savings for an electronic game! 

A local village where Sera and Dave's guides brother lives

Dave and Jasper pointing out an Orangutan near the water. We had a system of gestures to alert each other to various things and where to look. 

 And the air quality dives again from a nearby forest fire. Time to don the masks! It's not all glorious!

I think Sera's smiling for the camera?

We stopped at a village on the Sekoyner river, comprising about 300 people, Of Malay ethniticity who pre 1980's lived in and were dependent on the rainforest but were moved by the government out of the National Park. They have a primary school and junior secondary and a health clinic with a nurse. Some work in the palm oil factories who have in the past few years supplied electricity to the village and who have paved a long and wide concrete path from the village to the factory which looks quite out of place. As we strolled through the village some of the kids watching children collecting young ferns which are cooked and eaten as vegetables, playing hopscotch and  chooks and roosters meandering about with dogs that look very much like dingoes, women washing clothes, cleaning fish and having a Mandi (shower) all in the small, stagnant and dirty looking water that ran through the village. This channel come drain was the source of water for everything except drinking for which there was small (by our standards) rain water tanks and if these were empty the villagers bought water and also the sewerage system.  

Dogs that share dingoe ancestry and the channel that provides the source of washing clothes, dishes, persons etc

 Hopscotch!

Gathering young ferns to cook for vegetables 

 Palm oil tree next to the house

When we arrived at the first station again for our last OH encounter (Dave's short-hand for Orangutan from the Indonesian word Oranghutan which means person of the forest) it was raining so we battened down the hatches and waited aboard playing card games until the rain passed and we headed off. Apparently the OH's don't like rain and are unlikely to come down to the feeding station, preferring to stay dry under the cover of leaves. I've been told they're the only animals to use leaves as umbrellas. 

Well the OH's certainly came out in large numbers today with perhaps up to 10 of them visible at any moment, it was hard to know where to look. It was very humid and misty/smoky so my attempts at photographing the OH's were hampered. The dominant male was there too and we were able to witness the rather frightening interaction between him and one of the females with an infant as he grabbed her by the ankle, smelling her and then pushing her up higher into the tree. She was vocalising in distress, concerned for the infant but clearly unable to escape. This seemed to go on for a prolonged period but was possibly less than 5 mins before the infant started crying and weed on him and he let her go, upon which she climbed higher to escape where he was too big to follow and he proceeded to satisfy his own sexual needs, 5-10metres up in the tree. 

We stayed tied to the dock as after dinner we did a night rainforest walk in the hope of seeing some of the nocturnal forest inhabitants. The 8 of us and 2 guides didn't make for the ideal conditions for seeing wildlife as we crashed our way through the forest. We did however get to spot spiders, a gliding lizard,, a green tree snake and bush mouse of sorts. 

List of Wildlife seen today and previous days:

Snake (dark body and copper-reddish near the head) swimming across the river)

Snake (ribbon type yellow tree)crossing river then climbing tree

Monitor 

Black And red Broad bill (with blue beak)

Lots of stork-billed kingfishers 

Blue-eared kingfishers

Common hill miners

Hornbill (contentious whether the black or oriental pied)

Rhinoceros hornbill?

Proboscos monkeys

Long-tailed Macaque monkeys 

Silver-leaf monkeys

Orangutans (OH)

Agile Gibbon

Pygmy squirrel

Black squirrel

Brown squirrel

Pied squirrel 

Fresh water crocodile (Buaya)

Fresh water Gaviel

Butterflies 

Pied fantail on a nest

Greater coucal

Buffy fish-owl

Barred eagle owl

Swifts 

Slender-billed crow

Long-tailed parakeet

Eastern crimson sunbird

Striated heron

Chestnut-breasted malkoha

Storm stork

Cinnamon bittern

Brush cuckoo (heard escalating whoo-hoo-hoo)

Grey-rumped tree swift

Emerald dove

Peaceful doves

Fluffy white flower insect Tins called plant-hopper

Night rainforest walk:

Spiders

Draco gliding lizard

Small Green tree snake (viper-like head)

large moth 

Guinnea pig sized rodent