Leeches, Cockroaches and Bird Shit

The ticket collector

Leeches

Monitor Lizard

 So it was off again to the Kinabatangan River to show Naomi the jungle corridor where last April Gen and I were lucky enough to see elephants and orangutans. We arrived and the French people staying had been lucky enough to see two orangutans very close, the day before. We went out on the river at dusk, then the night cruise and then the dawn cruise and nothing except macaque and proboscis monkeys. I do feel sorry for the other monkeys as no one really cares about them when we all want to see are the stars of the show! The next trip was the jungle trek to the ox-bow lake when Tanya and I had been lucky enough to have a close encounter with Olga the orangutan last October. Maybe this would be our lucky time but no instead we were attacked by leeches. I've never seen so many and they all were out to get on us and suck our blood. We thought we weren't touching any and yet they somehow found a way to get on us.If you have never touched a leech before they are very sticky and the only way to get them off is roll and flick but if you don't want to touch them then it is a problem. We had them down our boots, on my camera, in our hair, on our backs, up our arms and all over our legs- ugh! We set off again on the dusk cruise and then finally the dawn cruise and still nothing except macaque and proboscis monkeys. Never mind, we were going on to Sepliok Rehabilitation Centre afterwards although seeing them in the wild is very thrilling.

Proboscis monkeys

 We decided to stop off at the Gomontong Caves on our way which is famous for the harvesting of birds' nests and of David Attenborough gagging from the suffocating smell of bat and bird shit on the TV. We arrived and there at the entrance of the cave was a wild female orangutan  and toddler sitting looking like they were collecting tickets. We couldn't believe it and they seemed very happy sitting and watching what was going on.How lucky were we except we'd left our cameras in the car. Anyway we went into the cave which was very different to the last time Patrick and I visited as they were harvesting and there were rope ladders and ropes hundreds of feet in the air with these men taking the nests. The smell is really overpowering and there are millions of cockroaches running all over the bird shit.The swallows were flying around frantically and although the nests are supposed to be harvested before the eggs are laid there were smashed eggs everywhere and we both managed to get either ? or ? on us. Oh that is why everyone is wearing protected hats we realised! Fortunately the orangutans were still there when we came out and I ran back to get my camera but of course missed all the perfect shots. Anyway, it didn't matter as we will have that memory forever.