Danum Valley, a green oasis (27 June 07)
We regretfully bid farewell to Sipadan at 7:00am and hopped back on a boat for 45mns to get back to Sempora. Once on the other side, our driver was nowhere in sight (he was waiting on another peer!) and so another driver took us to the bus station and was planning to hook us up in a local bus with women, children, pets and all sorts, but no room for 2 white tourists with 2 big suitcases. We declined, asked him to drive us back to the peer, and we called our emergency number from his mobile phone. Thankfully, we soon located our said driver and off we were....
2 hours through absolutely majestic rainforest... Roberto had his head out of the window the whole time, breathing it in as much as visually taking it in .... He was as enthralled as I'd hoped he would be. The rainforests had stolen his heart too, in just 30 seconds flat. We didn't see any monkeys or birds on the way but the sheer height of the trees and the lushness of it all was wild enough to excite us.
The Borneo Rainforest Lodge is very nice indeed, with spacious lounges with no windows, and all decent facilities to make life easier (incl. internet). We were given the best chalet they have with the best view of the river and we spend every moment that we have to be in our room on our little balcony, enjoying the beautiful view.
I've taken lots of lovely pictures and we are trying different settings on my camera to saturate the greens and show the true colours. As I unpacked, Roberto was off swimming already, with his googles, looking for fresh water fishes... He saw 4 species that he 'has in his aquarium back home'. He also noticed many plants that are in the office in London, in flower pots ! :)
That afternoon we went on a canopy walk, 27m high, and it was quite exiting but we didn't really see anything of interest. Our guide was pretty useless, he was more like a baby-sitter than a guide, he didn't explain anything to us about anything much.. be it plants, animals, etc. So this blog is going to be pretty boring. I did read up on leeches though, because they call the Danum Valley 'Leech City' and Roberto got 'eaten' 4 times.... but remained cool as a cucumber, bless him. He was like 'no point being OTT about it, if you don't like leeches, you don't come to these places'..(said with an Italian accent, of course). We were told that they are actually very good to regulate the blood pressure and all and that 'to know them is to love them' (hear that, Janet?). The longest one in the world is indeed from Borneo (30cms / 1 foot) but doesn't like human blood, thankfully, only lives on worms. Oh, Roberto also got his photo taken with a 20cm millipeed (spelling?).
After our hike we enjoyed a lovely walk by the river and at night we had a nocturnal safari drive where we managed to catch a glimpse of a civet... they are BEAUTIFUL creatures... they have the face of a kangaroo / mangoose, and the body of a cat (striped below the head, spotted nearer the tale). No time to take a photo but I was SO excited. The leopard cat is the one I really wanted to see too, with the clouded leopard, the latest species of cats to be discovered, here in Borneo, just last year ! They've captured it, checked his DNA and it is a different species and has a different coat. I've seen pictures and it looks glorious - I'm sure there's heaps of coverage on the internet as it was big news at the time.
We can rent binoculars here which is great, though we haven't had the chance to see much with them, sigh. I think Roberto is a bit disappointed in that sense, he was hoping it'd be a cafarnaum of sounds and sights and it's relatively quiet actually. But for the sound of the river that sounding like pouring rain in the middle of the night... hence, we slept in and skipped the 6:30am hike as we assumed it'd be cancelled, ooops. They saw 5 monkeys so Roberto was gutted.
Today, we had a trek up the burial site, in intense humidity. We got soaked in no time. Roberto was the first to reach the top (true to his energic self), I was panting behind... as was our guide. We got to a view point that was quite worth it though. Trees as far as the eye could see with a river meandring through it.
Our guide told me that when the first explorers ever came to Borneo they assumed that the orang utangs were the tribal men and they went back to their respective lands stating that the 'man from Borneo is orange and hairy'... he also said that the reason Borneo is called Borneo is because when a later expedition found the actual tribes and asked them 'what is the name of this island?', as they didn't speak English / French / Dutch, they assumed they were asking them 'What are you eating?'. As they were eating coconuts, they said 'Bo eeo', or something to that effect that means 'coco nut' in their native language. The explorers wrote down 'Borneo'... :)
On the way back, we stopped at a natural jacuzzi pool with a water fall to supposedly cool us down, but I didn't have my swimming costume with me as I thought it would happen after lunch... Roberto, as always, was prepared and went in for a dip. I was gutted till he had to flick off 3 leeches as he tried to change though and then I felt better! My guide said that he'd qualify for a 'Blood Donor Certificate' that they issue to all tourists who got 'done' by a leech ! :) There is at least a humourous side to everything I guess.
Righteeo, I must sign off, I've been trying to convince him to go water tubing. The river is more muddy today as it did rain quite a bit last night and so our guide was going to check if there were any risks of getting injured by floating dead wood, etc. I really wanted to do this, so I keep it crossed. I think that if we wear pants and long sleeves and water shoes, we should be protected against most scratches ? We might accumulate a few leeches on the way though... that won't be as much fun.... but not enough to deter me totally. To be cont.
We regretfully bid farewell to Sipadan at 7:00am and hopped back on a boat for 45mns to get back to Sempora. Once on the other side, our driver was nowhere in sight (he was waiting on another peer!) and so another driver took us to the bus station and was planning to hook us up in a local bus with women, children, pets and all sorts, but no room for 2 white tourists with 2 big suitcases. We declined, asked him to drive us back to the peer, and we called our emergency number from his mobile phone. Thankfully, we soon located our said driver and off we were....
2 hours through absolutely majestic rainforest... Roberto had his head out of the window the whole time, breathing it in as much as visually taking it in .... He was as enthralled as I'd hoped he would be. The rainforests had stolen his heart too, in just 30 seconds flat. We didn't see any monkeys or birds on the way but the sheer height of the trees and the lushness of it all was wild enough to excite us.
The Borneo Rainforest Lodge is very nice indeed, with spacious lounges with no windows, and all decent facilities to make life easier (incl. internet). We were given the best chalet they have with the best view of the river and we spend every moment that we have to be in our room on our little balcony, enjoying the beautiful view.
I've taken lots of lovely pictures and we are trying different settings on my camera to saturate the greens and show the true colours. As I unpacked, Roberto was off swimming already, with his googles, looking for fresh water fishes... He saw 4 species that he 'has in his aquarium back home'. He also noticed many plants that are in the office in London, in flower pots ! :)
That afternoon we went on a canopy walk, 27m high, and it was quite exiting but we didn't really see anything of interest. Our guide was pretty useless, he was more like a baby-sitter than a guide, he didn't explain anything to us about anything much.. be it plants, animals, etc. So this blog is going to be pretty boring. I did read up on leeches though, because they call the Danum Valley 'Leech City' and Roberto got 'eaten' 4 times.... but remained cool as a cucumber, bless him. He was like 'no point being OTT about it, if you don't like leeches, you don't come to these places'..(said with an Italian accent, of course). We were told that they are actually very good to regulate the blood pressure and all and that 'to know them is to love them' (hear that, Janet?). The longest one in the world is indeed from Borneo (30cms / 1 foot) but doesn't like human blood, thankfully, only lives on worms. Oh, Roberto also got his photo taken with a 20cm millipeed (spelling?).
After our hike we enjoyed a lovely walk by the river and at night we had a nocturnal safari drive where we managed to catch a glimpse of a civet... they are BEAUTIFUL creatures... they have the face of a kangaroo / mangoose, and the body of a cat (striped below the head, spotted nearer the tale). No time to take a photo but I was SO excited. The leopard cat is the one I really wanted to see too, with the clouded leopard, the latest species of cats to be discovered, here in Borneo, just last year ! They've captured it, checked his DNA and it is a different species and has a different coat. I've seen pictures and it looks glorious - I'm sure there's heaps of coverage on the internet as it was big news at the time.
We can rent binoculars here which is great, though we haven't had the chance to see much with them, sigh. I think Roberto is a bit disappointed in that sense, he was hoping it'd be a cafarnaum of sounds and sights and it's relatively quiet actually. But for the sound of the river that sounding like pouring rain in the middle of the night... hence, we slept in and skipped the 6:30am hike as we assumed it'd be cancelled, ooops. They saw 5 monkeys so Roberto was gutted.
Today, we had a trek up the burial site, in intense humidity. We got soaked in no time. Roberto was the first to reach the top (true to his energic self), I was panting behind... as was our guide. We got to a view point that was quite worth it though. Trees as far as the eye could see with a river meandring through it.
Our guide told me that when the first explorers ever came to Borneo they assumed that the orang utangs were the tribal men and they went back to their respective lands stating that the 'man from Borneo is orange and hairy'... he also said that the reason Borneo is called Borneo is because when a later expedition found the actual tribes and asked them 'what is the name of this island?', as they didn't speak English / French / Dutch, they assumed they were asking them 'What are you eating?'. As they were eating coconuts, they said 'Bo eeo', or something to that effect that means 'coco nut' in their native language. The explorers wrote down 'Borneo'... :)
On the way back, we stopped at a natural jacuzzi pool with a water fall to supposedly cool us down, but I didn't have my swimming costume with me as I thought it would happen after lunch... Roberto, as always, was prepared and went in for a dip. I was gutted till he had to flick off 3 leeches as he tried to change though and then I felt better! My guide said that he'd qualify for a 'Blood Donor Certificate' that they issue to all tourists who got 'done' by a leech ! :) There is at least a humourous side to everything I guess.
Righteeo, I must sign off, I've been trying to convince him to go water tubing. The river is more muddy today as it did rain quite a bit last night and so our guide was going to check if there were any risks of getting injured by floating dead wood, etc. I really wanted to do this, so I keep it crossed. I think that if we wear pants and long sleeves and water shoes, we should be protected against most scratches ? We might accumulate a few leeches on the way though... that won't be as much fun.... but not enough to deter me totally. To be cont.
posted by Sylvie at 7:07 AM
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