Andrew in Borneo

      Andrew arrived on Friday the 21st of October and we've had quite an action packed 10 days. The first destination after the airport was this idyllic little resort that someone told me about and then later I learnt that it is in The Lonely Planet so not really a secret! However it was just perfect even though it took a long time to find and I could see Andrew wondering where on earth I was taking him! We were met at a tiny fishing village by our boatman and then brought to the Manana Resort which was about 10 minutes away. It has about six chalets on the beach and a small bar/restaurant. Electricity is on between 6-10 pm and there is no hot water but it is a great way to get over jet lag and I would highly recommend it as a get-away- from- everything destination.
     I had to do a couple of days work and then it was a holiday for Diwali and we went to visit Poring Hot Springs up in the mountains. We did the canopy walk which is a series of suspension rope bridges at the top of the huge trees in the primary forest. The views were spectacular and apart from a very heavy tourist that rocked the bridge rather suddenly when she got on, we felt very safe. On Thursday we set off again and drove 5 hours to the other side of Sabah to Lahad Datu where we spent the night with a lovely Sabahan family. We then were collected at midday and set off on a gravel road for over an hour and a half and driven to the Tabin Wildlife Reserve. Our accomodation was something like a filmset for a colonial jungle adventure and I felt that Harrison Ford might suddenly appear! Anyway it was beautiful and our lodge was situated beside a river with a balcony to watch the wildlife. We had an action packed few days which included several trips in a 4 x 4 and a few treks into the jungle, a swim in a huge rockpool and a visit to a volcanic mud pool. We saw many animals and birds that we had never even heard of before and our guide was constantly  listening, smelling and looking for the tracks of animals in the mud but Andrew spotted the lesser and greater mouse deer before he did! The final evening we went out again to try and locate the pygmy elephants that were apparently seen in the vicinity. The guides were following the dung and tracks and deciding on how fresh they were and then just before dusk we got a sighting and although we have no photographs to prove it we did see a mother and baby and a young male who was being very defensive of his mother. It was all very exciting and even though our wildlife photography will not win any competitions we had a great time. Some of the animals and birds we saw were gibbons, pig tailed macaque, (no orangutan but smelt the urine of one!) deer mice, leopard cat, marble cat, civet cat, pygmy squirrels, flying squirrels, hornbills, storks, eagles, owls etc.......

    Andrew still has 5 more days left so the next episode will be published shortly.