Into the Jungle again - Sepilok, Sukau & then off to Sandakan

This time we were heading to Sepilok on the bus. Unfortunately I felt incredibly nauseous & had to throw up twice before we reached our lodge in the jungle called Paganakan Dii.
Wow-this was a great spot. Once again the Flashpacker was here. We met them all including a lovely lady who lived in Calcutta who had a school in the slums where she taught the children art.
We also met Hannika & Jose who would be our nature pals as we hunted down animals at night!
From this spot we got to see the Orangutans & the Proboscis monkeys as well as a host of other living creatures. The Proboscis monkeys were my fave though.

The alpha male is always greased up & ready to GO!

They are able to leap huge distances, hurling themselves from tree to tree

The group members have smaller noses & are not so "ready to go" as big ol'Alpha male

We saw these orangutans at a "rehabilitation center" where ropes have been strung p for them to learn to swing on

We had a great little hut with a semi-outside bathroom. The Dutch girls, Hanneke & Jose had rats but we got away with perhaps only one on the last night (though never saw him).

This was our amazing cabin where which actually had AC & a semi outside bathroom

The basin was a wok

From here we took a ride to the rivers edge about two hrs away in Sukau. We had planned to take some boat rides during the day & night to espy creatures along the way. The Dutch had done the same so we were a merry group snapping away with our rather crappy cameras. Once again-most people had giant lenses for this kind of photography. 

A sighting of some rather rare pygmy elephants. We spent hours waiting for them to get closer & it just got tiresome so we left

 

I nearly knocked this Kingfisher off his branch with my camera.

These swiflets were living in this rock. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you'll see there's a coiled snake ready to munch on these birds when he gets hungry. The snake was a poisonous Dogtooth snake

The downside of this adventure to Barefoot Lodge was that the huts we had to stay in here were unrivaled as yet in rankness! Dave & I got privately angry about it until we understood that this was normal in the area.

So we stuck it out & saw some incredible animals in the river, on the river & by the river.

Barefoot Lodge at the edge of the river-unmatched in rankness

Fantastic bathroom complete with a varied selection of exotic spiders & blocked drain

Our room was cramped, full of bugs & filthy. It wasn't even that cheap, but we found this was the norm in this part of the jungle

This monitor lizards fed on the chicken bones & scraps that the cook threw out onto the mud by the river. Checkout the size of some of the other footprints though...this one was just a baby!

This one was pretty large

The animal sightings were really worthwhile, though I got a bit tired of the birds & even the proboscis monkey began to bore me a bit by the end of it all. By the time we were ready to leave we were all absolutely stinking & sticky with bugs in our hair & leaves in our shoes. 

Being on the river really brought to mind Apocalypse Now

Walking into town!

 

 

 Funnily enough we still had not been suckered by a leech. Like us Hanneke & Jose had wanted to be prepared for this great onslaught of leeches we’d heard about & had even bought leech socks. But nothing! Not one. The closest we’d got was catching one trying to get into Dave’s boot. That was it-nothing more. Actually kind of disappointed!
We’d eaten enough eggs & papaya to sink a boat & we were pretty desperate to get outta there. But we’d had such a good time with the Dutch it was kind of sad to leave them. I hope they come to NYC one day & we’ll show them the wildlife of NY!
Next we took a ride to Sandakan in Sabah where we were going to take a plane to Kuching. Actually we had to take two planes, as we couldn’t get one direct. So right now I’m writing this in the departure lounge at Kota Kinabalu while we have a six hour layover before our plane to Kuching.

View from the roof of our hotel in Sandakan