Rivers

We are staying in the same lodge David Attenborough stayed in whilst he was here!! Gracious, what a thrill to know he stayed in our room in 2014 when he came to film the bat caves in inland Borneo (I remember that episode… looked so smelly and horrible which is why we’re not visiting there!) apparently he was lovely and spoke to all the staff in Malaysian and they remember him fondly.
Anyway we had another good sleep, although we had to be up early for a departure time of 6.30am. We were going for a dawn river cruise and it was a spectacular morning….blue skies as they emerged from the darkness and a mist hanging over everything (extra). It was magical to be moving quietly down the river as the mist lifted, with all the haunting sounds of the forest around us.
We spotted a peregrine falcon first…a huge one…sitting in a tree, and the. Several other birds sometimes in quick succession. In total I think we spotted: Storm storks (very endangered), rhinoceros hornbill, oriental pied hornbill (extra), blue eared kingfisher (extra), oriental darter (snake bill, which we saw yesterday), black-red broadbill (with a blue and yellow beak…amazing!), white egret, little green heron, dwarf kingfisher (which we saw yesterday), swallows and swifts. At some points our heads were whipping around trying to see everything (let alone trying to photograph and/or video them!) and we were all getting quite good at being the lookouts, but then checking with our guide Remjam what it was we were looking at!
At one point the cry of ‘croc’ went up and V stiffened, but was pleased to see that quite a big one was over at the riverbank about 10m away from us….lots of excitement from the rest of us, then Remjam spotted a much smaller one on the bank the other side of us (and nearer!). Before we had chance to react much, they were both gone underwater….off to hunt something!
We stopped for some tea and biscuits in the boat and watched as fish popped out of the river, presumably catching flies, and a kingfisher and small heron walked around or sat on branches managing not to catch any of them! Fascinating to watch though.
We continued along the river, the sky now clear and the temperature mounting…we’ve been so incredibly lucky with the weather it’s bound not to last!
We enjoyed a good breakfast back at base….served out on the spacious deck overlooking the river. We had freshly made omelettes and toast…tasty!
I did a bit of photo editing whilst V started writing a chunk of journal…she’s two days behind and there’s so much to remember! Once I was finished I went for a lovely swim and a relax by the pool. Once again crystal clear warm water all to myself to swim around in as the others all sat in the shade reading….bliss!
I went back to join V who had seen this stunning butterfly as she sat on the deck…it’s apparently a Malaysian birdwing butterfly and huge!…then we got changed for lunch as we were going to a house in the next village to eat. We weren’t sure what to expect but it was something she clearly does often, and was set up a bit like a buffet restaurant in an immaculately tidy house on a sort of balcony overlooking the river. We had some fried fish (sardine-like), fried chicken, vegetable spring rolls, fried aubergine, rice, vegetable stir fry. All delicious, and a large bowl of papaya to finish. The hostess, Rose, insisted on showing us her kitchen (spotless) and taking photos of us with her in her lovely sitting room. All very jolly and friendly and it was lovely to see the gaggle of young children swapping shifts for the school day opposite her house…all waving to us as they walked along the road.
Back to base and we headed to the pool again for swimming and some reading…so relaxing here! It wasn’t wholly sunny as there were some high clouds, but very warm and lovely.
We then got changed (again!) and headed for our second and last river safari here, this time up to the oxbow lake and along a tributary where they filmed the documentary about hornbills nesting, with their loyal approach to parenting and lifelong coupling. We saw lots of different types of hornbills (including the colourful wrinkle hornbill) and got very good at recognising them when flying and their call. We also saw macaques and proboscis monkeys again (extra), the latter as usual mainly sitting as if in armchairs surveying their surroundings whereas the macaques are always on the move and chattering and squabbling with one another. Once we entered the oxbow lake it was interesting to see how swathes of water hyacinth are clogging it up and gradually taking over the shallow water, letting grasses and, eventually, forest encroach across the whole place. More birds everywhere, many of the ones we’d already seen plus bee eaters, a fish owl and a (huge!) fruit bat. I ended up giving V the camera and just watching and soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the views. We once again saw the boatful of birdspotters, all dressed identically and all pointing the same hugs camera lenses in the same direction….somewhat hilarious, especially since today they were sending out a somewhat mournful hornbill call simulator to try and attract a particular one they wanted to capture.
We set off home in the sunset and fading light, which was very atmospheric, and arrived back at the base in darkness with not long til dinner. As usual a rather lovely buffet…with chicken rendang and lamb curry, pumpkin in coconut milk, cabbage and mushroom stir fry and rice, followed by lovely mango pudding, orange cake and juicy pineapple. We sat with our group from the river safaris and V and I chatted about future adventures we’d like to go on, the pros and cons of group vs private travel, and also chatted to the group about how to get e-sim cards and packing cubes. Seems we’ll see some of the others at various other parts of our trip, but two are going to a different Malaysian island tomorrow.
Said farewell to our guide and found out when and where to meet tomorrow for our next transfer….here we go again!