We
departed as planned at 0630 and less than an hour later we were ready to give
our orders for breakfast at the tea farm. Every meal we have had the waiters
have been in full control and managed to keep track of orders and often also
who ordered what. But that changed here. It took several attempts after only a
few orders had been handled, wrong dishes etc. Also, because the power suddenly
went out they weren’t able to supply their special pancakes which just
increased the chaos.
Kinabalu. Which we didn't climb.
Flowers at the breakfast place.
After
this slight catastrophe we were to have a tour of the processing plant; another
group was being toured when we arrived so we had to wait 15-20 minutes before
it was our turn. I wasn’t impressed; it was interesting to see the process but
it was too noisy to hear anything the guide said, and the short moments you
actually hear a word or two his accent was so heavy you didn’t have time to
adjust before the noise overpowered him again.
Tea fields.
We left
and headed towards the day’s final destination. Our deadline was 1330 as lunch
would be removed then, but when arriving at 1415 we found that they were fully
aware of our delay and had left the food out. Hurray!
At 1600
we mounted a small 12-passenger boat to take us up and down the river passing
by the resort. The cruise lasted app. 2½ hours and we managed to see quite a
selection of wildlife despite the heavy foliage on both riverbanks. According
to the list our guide compiled after returning, among other things, we saw
hornbills, kingfishers, long tail macaques and silver leaf monkeys. And the
cherry on top; 33 pygmy elephants and 2 orangutans, a young one and its mother.
While it was great to see the elephants they felt much less impressive than expected,
likely due to having seen and being used to large males walk close by the
vehicle in Africa. And these being of the pygmy variant were quite a bit
smaller. A peculiar difference, apart from size, was the fact that these have
much longer tails which reach almost to the ground. The orangutans were almost
as one would expect; high up, climbing around and at all times at least
partially hidden by the foliage. But they were popular; like in Africa if one
vehicle sees something interesting soon several appears seemingly out of
nowhere. While they don’t have radios here it did get quite crowded on the
river and it was obvious from a distance that there was something interesting
to be seen. My lens also garnered more attention than usual and someone in another
boat give me her email address with a request to send a copy of my photos of
the orangutans as they didn’t have the necessary reach themselves. That was a
weird situation.
Brahminy kite.
Green crested lizard.
Crab-eating macaque.
Female proboscis monkey mid-jump.
Female proboscis monkey.
Prized kingfisher.
Great egret.
Pygme elephants. Ears are smaller and tails are longer/larger than on other elephants.
Orangutan.
Ropes/wires were set up across the rivers to let monkeys cross safely.
Male proboscis monkey.
Coming
back to the resort we had dinner at 1900 and at 2030 we left for a 1½ hour
drive in the dark to see if we could spot any nocturnal animals. Apart from
darkness and shadows we also got to see a monitor lizard, jungle fowl and a
slow loris. With regards to the last one I have no idea how our spotter managed
to see it considering its size and hanging on a tree trunk away from the road.
Lights at the resort.
Buffy fish owl (that looks like it's had too much caffeine).
Slow loris.
A jungle fowl of some kind.
Monitor lizard.
You can see the tail reach down to the split in the trunk.
Due to
having my own room I think I’ve hit jackpot here. The rooms are of same size
which means that I have my own double bed, two singles and a folding bed
available. I think I have just enough space in my room.
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