Dinner and overnight on the boat. simple mattress, pillow, fine meals, bottled "mineral" water, mosquito net, kitchen, simple western toilet and shower available on boat besides the familiar - helpful guides and boatmen. (L, D)
DAY 02: ORANGUTAN REHABILITATION CENTER – CAMP LEAKEY – CROC LAKE.
After breakfast board the klotok to travel up river for about 2½ hours boating and then up a side creek to Camp Leakey where the older orangutans are reintroduced into the rain forest and also known as research canter for Orangutan. Soft trekking surrounding Camp Leakey.
Back to the boat for lunch then witness feeding time at 14.00 pm for old rehabilitation orangutan given additional foods. After feeding, back to the boat and relax in the lake while waiting the sun goes down and sometimes you may see birds and primates. Overnight on the boat. (B, L, D)
DAY 3: CROCK LAKE – PONDOK TANGGUY CAMP – JUNGLE FULL DAY TREK – REFORESTATION PROJECT CAMP – BOAT.
The Breakfast will be served while the boat slowly head up to Pondok Tanggui. Arrived at Pondok Tanggui, we directly do jungle trekking across from Pondok Tanggui to Pesalat re-plantation camp. The experienced Local guide will give you the information during the treks and the full day jungle trek trail will be passing through the wilderness of Borneo including swamp and mud area – Challenging. You will see big old trees which is still lining very dense. Sometimes you will see many kinds of wild animals of Borneo including Wild Orangutan, Sun Bear, Deer, wild Boar, Hornbill, and other great Borneo creatures. Lunch is already provided before by our cook, fresh lunch box in the mid of Borneo jungle. Arrived at Pesalat Camp in the late afternoon and directly heading to boat – rest and relax. Over night on boat(B, L, D)
Day 4: PESALAT RE-PLANTATION CAMP – VILLAGE – TANJUNG HARAPAN CAMP - KUMAI
After Breakfast in the tropical rainforest of National Park Tanjung Putting, enjoy morning in the tropical rainforest then sightseeing in the village, visit first camp tanjung harapan before we directly proceed to Kumai. Tour End. B.
NOTE: THE ITINERARY ROUTE CAN BE CHANGE ANYTIME REGARD TO FLEXIBILITY IN THE FIELD
PRICE: Please DOWNLOAD HERE for details prices etc.
Including:
• Local Speaking English Guide
• River transportation called wooden boat KELOTOK 12M length - 4M width
• 3 Night’s accommodation on boat
• Police permit (copy of the first page of passport, visa are required and other Document)
• Entrance fee/park permit
• Full boards meals during the trip as per itinerary
• Fruit
• Mineral water (aqua)
• Soft drink
• Cook
• Snack
• Tea/coffee
• Local porter who really knows about the trees and some herb for malaria anti-dot
• Guard of yacht (sleep on cockpit 1 person/s.v)
Excluding:
- Domestic Airfare
- Insurance
- Laundry
- Health services
- Alcoholic Beverage
- Other personal expenses.
3 DAYS / 2 NIGHTS Orangutan river safari and Adventurous in the tropical rainforest of National Park Tanjung Putting – Centre of Borneo, Indonesia
ITINERARY
DAY 01: KUMAI – ORANGUTAN TOUR – PONDOK TANGGUY CAMP
Leave kumai to Orangutan Reserved Park, you will be picked up and meet by our local staff and on board your boat, called a Kelotok, and meet your crew. The boat is a traditional Klotok wooden river boat about 12m by 2m with a roof which forms the upper deck where you can view the rain forest as it glides by. The guide's team includes the boatman, a cook and expert guide. In the peaceful afternoon we will slowly explore the quite river by the kelotok while observe the monkeys along the riverside. Dinner and overnight on the boat. simple mattress, pillow, fine meals, bottled "mineral" water, mosquito net, kitchen, simple western toilet and shower available on boat besides the familiar - helpful guides and boatmen. (L, D)
DAY 02: ORANGUTAN REHABILITATION CENTER – CAMP LEAKEY – CROC LAKE.
After breakfast board the klotok to travel up river for about 2½ hours boating and then up a side creek to Camp Leakey where the older orangutans are reintroduced into the rain forest and also known as research canter for Orangutan. Soft trekking surrounding Camp Leakey.
Back to the boat for lunch then witness feeding time at 14.00 pm for old rehabilitation orangutan given additional foods. After feeding, back to the boat and relax in the lake while waiting the sun goes down and sometimes you may see birds and primates. Overnight on the boat. (B, L, D)
Day 3: PESALAT RE-PLANTATION CAMP – VILLAGE – TANJUNG HARAPAN CAMP - KUMAI
After Breakfast in the tropical rainforest of National Park Tanjung Putting, enjoy morning in the tropical rainforest then sightseeing in the village, visit first camp tanjung harapan before we directly proceed to Kumai. Tour End. B.
NOTE: THE ITINERARY ROUTE CAN BE CHANGE ANYTIME REGARD TO FLEXIBILITY IN THE FIELD
PRICE: Please DOWNLOAD HERE for details prices etc.
Including:
• Local Speaking English Guide
• River transportation called wooden boat KELOTOK 12M length - 4M width
• 2 Night’s accommodation on boat
• Police permit (copy of the first page of passport, visa are required and other Document)
• Entrance fee/park permit
• Full boards meals during the trip as per itinerary
• Mineral water (aqua)
• Soft drink
• Cook
• Snack
• Tea/coffee
• Local porter who really knows about the trees and some herb for malaria anti-dot
• Guard of yacht (sleep on cockpit 1 person/s.v)
Excluding:
- Domestic Airfare
- Insurance
- Laundry
- Health services
- Alcoholic Beverage
- Other personal expenses.
HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE TRIP
Optional Trip:
• 2 DAYS 1 NIGHTS Orangutan Yacht Tour
• 5 DAYS / 4 Nights Special Orangutan Tours
• 3 Days / 2 Nights remote destination program by Speedboat
we provides services:
•Water
•Laundry
•Fuel Diesel solar & Petrol/Kerosene ( we suggest you fill it out the fuel/diesel in Bali - price better in Bali
•Mechanic man / Machinist
The instructions for yachts wanting to sail upriver to Kumai are as follows:
Using Admiralty chart 1964, proceed to the green buoy at 02 57’ .5 South,
111 41’.0 East. As you approach the buoy, look for the leading marks (white
Triangle) on the shore, bearing 023 True. Leaving the buoy to starboard, steer 023 True, parallel to the shore, for about 3 NM to Tanjung Keluang point, avoiding the shoal that extends from the shore. At Tanjung Keluang, alter course towards the next leading marks, which bear 335 True (small white post in front of white triangle on the far shore). These marks are difficult to see. After about 1 NM on this heading, you will see leading marks on your port side (white post and triangle) – when these are in line bearing 023 True, alter course to 030 True.
Ahead you should see the next set of leading marks (two tall white posts) on this bearing, but they may be difficult to identify. Continue upstream for about 3.5 NM, towards the leads, then continue further upstream, staying mid-channel, to Kumai. There are no other leading marks or buoys. Do not anchor opposite main harbor of Kumai, just anchor down or up from the harbor. Big ship is coming often from java. Anchor opposite the town, close to the eastern bank of the Kumai River. Also just up from main harbor of Kumai, there is a office of national park and they have a jetty where you can put your dinghy
ORANGUTAN BOAT SPECIFICATION:
Most of Wooden boat made in years 90's and Semi Modern Tourism Transportation
Length : 12 meters
Width : 4 meters
Height : 2 meters
Capacity : 4 persons max
Safety : Life Jackets
Facilities : Kitchen, Electricity, Western Toilet, Shower, Mattress, Pillow and Mosquito net.
Propulsion : This boat is powered by Kobota /or Yanmar engine.
We had a wonderful trip thank you Gilang - this is what I wrote
03.00.598S 111.39.067E Friday 31st October We woke at 4.30am this morning and lifted our anchor at 6.00am having successfully filled up with diesel last evening. We organized for cans to be filled for us and Glendora and brought to the boat: thankfully it was very clean and free of water. We ordered 250 liters in total and paid 2.000.000 in local currency which was pretty good as it included the excellent delivery service.
Our four days in the heart of the Borneo jungle I would describe as a life enlightening experience and for the first time since beginning to write this blog I feel a real personal responsibility to 'get it right' - to 'get it wrong' would somehow be tantamount to aiding and abetting man's greed and the sure destruction of the wild orang-utan ape (pongo pygmaeus) on this planet, probably within the next ten years. Massive tracts of jungle are being destroyed every day - the ironwood timbre is valuable for boatbuilding and furniture - but more importantly the trees planted in its stead provide the largest and most valuable export the country has - palm oil. Know we in the 'Western World' have been bombarded all our lives with pleas for monitory aid - so much so that animals threatened with extinction, insects facing crisis, humans enduring starvation and deprivation, oceans emptied of fish and mammals, even global warming and the repercussions don't really make the impact on many of us that they could or should. They are things that most of our generation see on T.V. - like war and famine or floods and earthquakes. yet when you get up close and personal you do feel awhile lot different!
Borneo is the world's third largest island and home to some of the most unique eco-systems and creatures on the planet including the Proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) only found here. Kalimantan is one of the world's last, vast wilderness areas offering the very last refuge to wildorang-utans and home to ancient civilizations including Dayak tribes that struggle to balance modernity with their traditions.
In 1971 Canadian Dr. Birute Mary Galdikas (mentored by the legendary anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey) began, with her then husband, to research the only great apes living outside Africa, founding a research and rehabilitation station named Camp Leakey within the Tanjung Putting National Park on the banks of the Sei Sekonyar (Sekonyer River). Her purpose included the study of orphaned orang-utans and at the same time she oversaw their nurturing and training so they could be released to re-live in the wild (sometimes known as referalisation). Her discovery relating to the ape's eight year birth cycle confirmed the species is highly vulnerable to extinction. However, orphaned orang-utans, many with a traumatic past and hideous memory of their parents being murdered, before being kept in caged captivity themselves for years, - and with a genetic blueprint 97% equal to man, grew so close to their rehabilitators they never fully integrated back with their wild cousins. Flitting between their two lives they spread man's diseases, to which they are high susceptible, into the wild populations and the whole project came under closer scrutiny. The controversial Camp Leakey centre is consequently being phased out now but the grown up orphans remain, many with babies clinging to them, and their whole family social structure, including the role of the dominant male and female, is played out daily to small fascinated audiences at specified feeding times in the heart of the jungle. The males build up their testosterone levels at puberty until their cheek pads become huge - all part of the quest for dominancy. As few as15,000 orang-utans, mans third closest relative, survive today, compared to250,000 a century ago. Who knows the answers? - four days of exposure certainly can't make us experts but awareness is a heavy weight.
When we arrived at the mouth of the Kumai River on the 26th with Glendora we both ran aground - our electronic chart plotters were not reading true and even paper charts can't predict the moving sand banks and bars in that shallow estuary. No matter, we made breakfast and readied ourselves for our four day adventure whilst the tide ebbed and flowed. We finally made it up the river, a two hour journey, at sunset anchoring just opposite Kumai town- the first of the Blue Water Rally yachts to arrive. The banks of the river were alive with boat building, children playing, residential homes and businesses seemingly sinking into the river. We were puzzled to see dozens of very large grey buildings with no windows (resembling prisons); these we found out are 'rumah walet' tall dark buildings housing thousands ofswiftlets whose spit produces the high priced nests (worth hundreds of US $per kilo) savoured in Hong Kong and Taipei but fuelling fear and debate locally with regard to the implications of developing bird 'flu. Despite millions of birds producing their spittle, not one bowl of birds' nest soupcon be found in Kalimantan! Apparently the birds are extremely aggressive and bird nest collectors enter the buildings in full body armour and helmets which protect the head and eyes.
We all had a good night's sleep before being collected by our two traditional river boats - Klotoks - powered by diesel engines - at 8.00amthe next morning. With room for four on one boat and three on the other we teamed up with Glendora and our children followed separately. Our painted ironwood crafts were around 12 meters long and 2 meters wide with a roof which formed the upper deck - it was where we lived and slept for four days and three nights. The crew lived and worked and slept inside the boats -six on ours (our guide Kris, the Captain, two cooks plus two assistants) -three on the other. We all harmonised happily in very close proximity; the children travelling and eating with us but sleeping and conducting ablutions on their own boat. The days and nights passed seamlessly in our new universe which we soon became acclimatized to. The loos cum showers were challenging- a high sided wooden box on the back of each boat with no ceiling - which everyone could peer over from the jetties or the top floor of the boat -but again we all managed, even enjoying a number of 'river showers'. Mushrooms, fungi, spiders and crew knickers pegged onto nails jostled for aplaee in the cubical but surprisingly it all seemed very normal very quickly. Slightly more challenging at night of course but candle light hida million truths. The breakfasts, morning snacks, lunches, teas and suppers included a delicious variety of scrambled eggs, Spanish tortilla, fish, chicken, shrimp, vegetables, noodles, rice, potatoes, home made vegetable crisps, pineapples, banana fritters, mangos and oranges. We brought our own beers, wine and milk plus a few nibbles - they provided bottled water and soft drinks. At night two single mattresses were placed for each couple under a large square mosquito net 'box' - thank goodness I remembered sheets, pillows and towels. Our mattresses were the only let down - it feltas though we were sleeping on twenty year old ex army issue bags full of small lumpy rocks...needless to say the children had brand new plumpy pink ones six inches deep!
Chugging slowly up the Sekonyer River - a very small narrow tributary leading into the Kumai river - was incredible - the light and reflections in the dark water, the dense yucca like vegetation all around us - the Proboscis monkeys swaying on branches just above our heads screaming and chattering before throwing themselves into the river right in front of the boats for a cool swim - babies attached (they wait anxiously, knowing that the noise of the engines will scare away the crocodiles partial to their plump flesh): none of this prepared us for the shock of seeing our first wild orang-utan..awesomely huge! Dwarfing the tree she was standing up in -red with the sun behind her burnishing her long hair like a hallo of glowing fire - she watched us go by - as much fascinated by us as we of her. These apes build nest platforms to sleep in, high in the trees - a new one every single day! We thought the river would be full of tourists but there were surprisingly few - small rowing canoes with villagers fishing and the occasional local speed boat were our only human companions. We were told the Kumai River was full of mercury but it was unclear whether this small tributary was affected.
There are three camps along the river; we arrived at Camp Leakey just after lunch and walked around fifteen minutes down a a very long ironwood jettyand entering the jungle to find a rough platform where the orang-utans who have re-entered the wild gather for a daily hand out of bananas. The Campfavourites - Princess (the brightest) with baby Percy, Unuk (the naughtiest), Samson (gentlest) Thomas (the show off) were there to meet the Klotok on the pier - eyeing up the guide's backpacks for treats...they still stay close to camp and some have learnt to open doors with keys, row canoes, bail out when necessary as well as all sorts of other human behavior. When a orang-utan looks you in the eye there is a high level intelligence there; they have facial expressions like ours and they can read your mind as you can theirs. It's a haunting experience.
Over the four days we visited all three camps with Kris our wonderful guide, often more than once, and observed the apes for hours, spending extra time alone with them when other visitors had departed. They discourage human contact for obvious reasons including the spread of our diseases but Samson followed us persistently and eventually with her ranger's consent reached out voluntarily and held our hands in turn...the hand holding had meaning -she had a firm and friendly grip and she was reluctant to let go! It was not done for reward - just companionship.
Our evenings were great - emotional even - sitting there just a few feet from the monkeys we could see with our infra red telescope. Candle lit dinners for the seven of us, cross legged around the low table, discussing and debating until Lee would get out the guitar and play long into the night. Our cohabiters, namely our crew, loved this addition as much as we did and we ritualistically lit and shared our joysticks and beer, drank our wine and marveled at the sheer wonder of it all: WE HAVE SAILED 18,000MILES IN OUR OWN BOATS AND WE ARE SITTING IN THE BORNEO JUNGLE whilst the monkeys screeched and chattered in competition with the deafening bullfrogs.
Bugs?...... We had a few.. too few to mention...no actually there were a lot of bugs - particularly drawn to the candles at night. Day two began at5.00am and included quite a long walk (nearly three hours) through the' woods'. We saw a good dose of fire ants, python holes, tarantula habitats, wild boar, hornets, ..and one leech...yes just the one.. which Kris kindly picked up and placed on his arm to show us how it attached itself to him and drew blood. I had in my imagination a sort of tick with lots of little legs which would attach and suck...in fact this leech was (without any blood inhim) like miniature slinky.. once suctioned on his long wiggly tail acted asan ever moving probe searching for a new blood source.. quite disgusting! Anyhow, after tramping through the swamp and experiencing lots of close encounters and getting very hot and sweaty we unanimously voted not to do the ten hour trek the next day which would entail waist high swamplands filled with hundreds of hungry leeches. We already felt like pioneers.. enough is enough.
So! Instead, we lazed our way down the river, visited an extremely poor but extremely happy village, read our books, listened to the BBC World News which was pretty incredible in our location, painted a picture, watched arrow boat being hand made and generally congratulated ourselves on narrow escape. We moored up beside the village overnight and buckled down the tarpaulins when the heavens opened at the start of the monsoon rains.. evenall enjoying a shower in the cubicle with extra water pressure!
The next and final day we were invited to visit the village school which we were all slightly reluctant to do (voyeurism?) but then found it an absolute treat when the children found us as interesting as we did them. Vic gelled his hair into a pointy bit and wore his cool sunglasses and the children might as well have seen the pied piper...they followed him and giggled and laughed, running back and forth to tell their friends about the apparition which had arrived in their midst - it was all highly entertaining; the kindergarten children (maybe fifty?) all wore a smart uniform of red shorthand white shirt with emblem emblazoned on their top left pocket; they looked clean, intelligent, happy and very healthy.. And why not? The little village had water, simple electricity, satellite dishes in most of the pretty flower and herb filled gardens, cows, chickens, dogs and cats in the yards and many wooden boats mainly used for fishing in the little estuary. There were two schools, junior and senior with an attractive play area in front of each.
Worryingly the forest behind the village was gone - the illegal loggers had already moved in and in a film shown to us at the information centre we saw' secret' film clips of the Head of the Tanjung Putting National Park standing astride a massive illegal logging operation directing operations...what hope can their be for Borneo's future wildlife?
Anyhow, we eventually returned to our Klotoks and made our way back to Kumai- where the captain of our boat squished us all into his people carrier and took us to the nearest supermarket to replenish stocks. What a place! What an adventure! We said a sad goodbye to Kris - he is a very special man -who quietly looked after us and tended our every need, giving Lee and Paul a Dyak woven ring as a memento - and a temporary 'goodbye' to the Glendora sour jungle poddies.. before being taken back to our yachts in time for the diesel delivery. and normality (?) Written by Hurriet S/V Anahi - 31st of Oct 2008. |
