Borneo orangutans Part 2 (2-3)

Monday was my last day on the river and viewing the orangutans. Breakfast included my first snake fruit, but I didn’t know what it was at the time. The skin is like that of a snake; thus the name.

It was a lovely morning. Just after we started to move, I saw something dark fall in front of the boat and then heard a loud thump as it hit the water. Dewa called me to see if I had seen it—two proboscis monkeys had jumped into the river and were swimming to the other side. I got to the front in time to watch them swim. They swim very quickly. Dewa was surprised because they usually wait until the boat passes and then jump behind it. As we moved on, one monkey was sitting in a tree at eye level looking at us. I got a good look at its nose—really up close.

We had a quiet trip on the river for about an hour during which I enjoyed the reflections 

and the trees against the beautiful sky. 

Our destination was Camp 2 again, but went to a different feeding station. As we were cruising along, the assistant/mechanic gave me a bracelet he’d woven from plant stem fibers. (The one on the right was given to me later in the day.)

When we arrived at the dock for Camp 2, Dewa pointed to six proboscis monkeys sitting in the treetops. 

They were in a line ready to jump. And they did. One by one down the line they jumped. Except the smaller/younger one that was last. It would pose to get ready and then wait and not jump. Like a person standing on a diving board being afraid or hesitant to jump. It did this several times before finally making the leap into the water.

When we arrived at the feeding station, a mother and baby were already there. Dewa thought it was about a year old. 

Two other young ones of different ages joined them. When they left, the younger one stayed with the mother. The other went a different way on its own. It was a little hesitant being on its own and took a while to swing from tree to tree. The mother would wait until it found a way to make the next move and then she would move on.

This was a short viewing—about twenty minutes. When they had left, Dewa asked if I wanted to join the other remaining visitors to go trekking in the forest with the ranger for about two hours. Of course I did. The others were a retired couple from Indiana and a middle-aged couple from Germany. The ranger pointed out various plants along the way—rattan trees, ironwood, a tree that’s leaves are used for malaria (We weren’t clear as to how it is used—curative or preventative.) One of the guides made each of us women a bracelet from plant fiber. Almost exactly two hours later, we arrived at the dock.

Then we moved on up the river for a couple hours to Camp 1 for the 3:00 feeding, the one I missed the first day. Just as we arrived, we saw the dominant male, about 27 years old, in the trees above us. Dewa hurried me to the viewing area. This platform was quite far from the viewing area. As we sat waiting for the male to get there, we heard a loud crash when the branch he was swinging from broke. 

Then three females with two babies arrived. 

The dominant male arrived about half an hour later. 

Then a young male came.

He was followed by three adolescents. This feeding station had a bowl of milk for the mothers and children. When I asked why the other stations didn’t have that, Dewa said they were probably out of milk, which is provided to keep them healthy. 

The females were skittish and would come to the platform, grab something, and leave quickly. It seemed to me that they were especially skittish when the males were there. Later one of them stayed for a long time. 

The three adolescents were independent but stayed close to the mothers and to each other. 

They helped each other. When they left through trees, they would move along, swing, stop and hang and then move to another place, swing, stop and hang. The process took quite a while.

Since there was so much activity, we stayed at the feeding station until 5:30 when all the orangutans were gone. I was totally mesmerized and immersed in the experience as I was at all the stations, but this was the one with the most orangutans and, therefore, the most activity. It was also my last.

The most visitors I saw at one feeding station was about twenty. It’s hard to imagine how many would be there during the summer tourist season. I’m glad I was there in the quieter season even if there weren’t as many orangutans. Because it wasn’t crowded, we were able to move around as we wanted to and didn’t have to worry too much about having a good view to see and to take photos. Since there were fewer orangutans, I got to really observe the ones there. I enjoyed watching the younger ones play around. I enjoyed watching the interactions between the young ones and their mothers. They tended to stay close and often put a hand on their mother’s shoulder. It was really interesting to see them stand up. When the adults stood, it reminded me of pictures of the yeti, but yeti are in the Himalayas, not in Borneo. Interesting. And seeing them swing from tree to tree was amazing. Especially the adults. It’s hard to imagine how they do it, but they do. All in all, this was an incredible experience.

The plan for the day had been to visit the two feeding stations and have a walk through a village. Since we stayed so long at the last station, there wasn’t time for the village, which was OK since I’d had a village walk the first day. And I wouldn’t have wanted to miss any of the orangutan experience.

When we arrived at the boat, the sun was just about to set. For the first time, it wasn’t raining. After dinner everyone sat in the front and watched the river go by. It was nice. I realized that we would have done this every night if it hadn’t been raining. We traveled up the river for an hour and a half to get to close to the junction with the big river and port because I had to be at the airport early. We passed the firefly trees, which had originally been the planned camping place, but they are too far from port. The fireflies hang out in groups in some of the trees. When they light up, it looks like sparkling white Christmas lights. It was magical to see them.

Tuesday morning I had to be at the airport at 7:30. This was another change in the original trip plan. My original flight was in the afternoon, but it was cancelled. The new flight was in the morning; so I lost half a day of the tour, including a morning walk. I was disappointed when these arrangements were made, but it was OK in the end because I had several good walks. A slower morning on the river would have been nice, but that wasn’t to be.

So we started early Tuesday morning. I watched the sunrise as I ate breakfast. Half an hour after starting, we arrived at the port and I was off the boat and on the way to the airport. My wonderful, amazing river boat and orangutan adventure was over.