Leaving Ourselves Behind

The Kinabatangan is Sabah’s longest river and the second-longest in all of Malaysia. It is a wide, muddy, fast-moving stretch of water that begins in the mountains of southwest Sabah and spills out into the Sulu Sea 563 km. later.

While the upper reaches of the river have been severely affected by logging, the areas near the coast have survived and are protected. This is one of the world’s richest ecosystems and home to Borneo’s Big Five: Saltwater Crocodiles, Borean Orangutans, Proboscis Monkeys, Borneo Pygmy Elephants and Rhinoceros Hornbill.

There are dozens of other species of animals and birds in the area, but most tourists come here for at least a couple of days, stay in one of the lodges and set out on as many jungle treks and river cruises as they can, with the express purpose of bagging the Big Five.

If the idea of falling asleep to cicadas and jungle sounds, and waking up in the very heart of a damp, earthy, slightly mysterious, slightly dangerous place is your cup of tea, then you would love the Kinabatangan River.

We certainly did, which left us wondering what on earth we were thinking when we only booked for one night? We made the trek to Borneo for the animals, not for the nightlife. Borneo – even the name conjures up images of, I don’t know… headhunters? Crocodiles? Great stuff that we can’t get back in Canada.

Somehow in the planning, when it came time to book the jungle stay, we thought, “sure, just one night makes perfect sense.” I would love to say, “lesson learned“, but we know there will be more trip planning missteps in the future.

So… with just 24 hours to tell you about, here’s how our jungle adventure went. We booked with Borneo Jungle Adventure Tours, in part because they did not have a minimum stay requirement, and in part because of price point.
For $375 CAD, we got round-trip transfers (2 hours each way from Sandakan to Kinabatagan), our accommodation, three meals and two river cruises ( early evening and early morning). We thought that was exceptionally reasonable and compared very favourably with a lot of other lodges that were close to double that price.

But, you get what you pay for and it was very basic. This is the entrance to the lodge ( approached by a 15-minute boat ride from the jetty).

The building we stayed in.

The dining hall (visited by macaques; one of whom jumped up and stole a piece of bread from our table).

Our bedroom was comfortable enough, although we just had an overhead fan, and our showers were on the cool side. Our meals were wonderful and the staff were all as sweet as could be. But the resort is in dire need of TLC, and I think that they fight a losing battle with the elements to keep everything functioning well. Also, it is still low season – there were just four of us there.

We were in great company with Constantin, from Germany and Jorge from Spain. Both men were on the tail end of extended travels and both of them had already been at the lodge for a week. They had seen everything from whole herds of elephants to a python sunning itself on the railing.

We set out that afternoon full of anticipation and excitement.

The guides are amazing – they can make out a teensy snake camouflaged on a branch and just zoom right in.
This one would be about two feet long and perhaps a little thicker than a pencil. I forget the name, but it “won’t kill you, just hurt you.”

Every lodge has the same objective – to try and find as many animals as possible for their guests. A few times, we had a bit of a logjam, but honestly, it never felt annoying or intrusive.

We got word there were elephants in this area; a freshwater swamp forest where they typically hang out.

Our guide peered through his binoculars for about five minutes, but no luck.

We carried on, and soon came upon the rhinocerous hornbill. We had seen them in Langkawi, but from a distance, and this time we were able to really observe them. The photos of the birds and the orangutan (coming up) are courtesy of Stephen, whose phone has a much better zoom.

It’s quite a large bird and so beautiful to watch.

We also saw an Oriental Darter, which posed for the longest time with its slender neck lifted high and its wings outstretched. Just as we were all poised with our cameras, it took off.

And then, the craziest thing happened. We were just idling close to the riverbank, when not ten feet away from our boat, a huge tree simply lifted up from its massive roots on the shore and plunged into the water, with a resounding crash.

I screamed and Stephen and the two other guys started laughing, as you do when you’ve had a close call. Our guide was completely and utterly unperturbed, as this sort of thing happens all the time, with shallow root systems on tall trees so close to the water’s edge. The consequences of the tree hitting our boat seemed lost on them.

Interestingly, there are often signs on boardwalks cautioning people to be aware of falling branches (as though there was a single thing anyone could do to prevent that from happening).

We carried on, turned a corner and saw this guy. He had a couple of buddies with him, but he was the most visible of the lot. It had been a thrill to see the orangutans and the proboscis monkeys in their sanctuaries, but both of those sightings were orchestrated and dependable.

This one was ideal – just wildlife doing their thing in their own home, on their own terms.

And that was it for that early evening cruise. It was a wonderful experience and just being on the river was a treat, but we were missing a few trophies. We did not see a crocodile, although the river is literally teeming with them. We did not see the elephants. We did not see the proboscis monkeys.

Maybe the cruise the next morning at 6:30 am…

A contented Stephen, fortified by a cup of Nescafe and high expectations.

If we didn’t see so much as a squirrel, being on the river with that early morning light and the mist rising off the water was worth it.

Another lodge just waking up.

Our guides took us into an oxbow lake, entered through this dreamy forest.

Now this was a whole other ecosystem; attached to the river, but away from it. We crept through, ducking our heads to avoid low-hanging branches and vines. It was magical.

We came out into the lake and our guide yelled out,”proboscis monkeys“. Well, yes, we did see them. If you look at this tree, you will see the outlines of a number of monkeys and we saw only slightly more than that. We saw them leaping on branches. Our new friend Jorge, who had not yet seen them was a bit crushed that he wasn’t getting a closer look.

Still…we could sit in our boat and know that we were deep in the jungle of Borneo, with crocodiles most definitely in the water around us and proboscis monkeys right in front of us. How lucky we all were.

If you do plan on heading to Borneo, allow yourself the luxury of unstructured time to let the animals appear. It might require a few days and it will be unforgettable.

We’re still in Borneo. We flew to the state of Sarawak and the city of Kuching last night. A whole other side of this quite amazing place.