Up close and personal with Borneo
By STEPHEN SOOLE - Dargaville News
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When daydreaming about the perfect tropical island escape, images of palm trees, white sand and beautiful sunsets may come to mind.
But for active travellers Stephen and Carolyn Soole it was not the idyllic images akin with the tropical islands of Fiji or Samoa, but the wild jungles of Borneo that got them excited about having a real holiday adventure.
The couple went to United Travel Dargaville to put a holiday plan together, and in October they were away.
"We wanted to experience another country’s culture and natural beauty, and we didn’t want the usual run-of-the-mill holiday. Borneo fitted the bill entirely.
"For us the highlights were getting up close and personal with the jungle wildlife on their terms watching monkeys, crocs, lizards, snakes and birds in their natural habitat.
"This was a real experience," says Stephen.
The holiday started when they landed in the capital city, Bandar Sri Begawan of Brunei a small country within Borneo.
About 350,000 people live in Brunei and 10 percent of them in a village on the water, having done so since 1521 when it was first discovered.
It is accessable only by boat, the houses are built side by side on stilts, the village has everything from schools, police stations, fire brigade and shops.
From Brunei they travelled north to the state of Sabah and the capital city of Kota- Kinabalu before moving further north into the mountain region around Kinabalu park, home to Mount Kinabalu – the highest mountain in Asia, at 4100 metres.
"The mountain rainforest is truly amazing with many trails to explore and a botanist’s paradise with thousands of species of orchids, numerous different rhododendrons and pitcher plants, which attract and catch insects," says Stephen.
Leaving the park and travelling east overland they ventured to the Gomantang Cave and Kinabatangan river area to experience the large cave system where the bizarre birds nest soup is harvested, a tradition that has been done for hundreds of years.
"An Asian delicacy, one which we could never afford at $400 per pound."
The Gomantang Caves are also home to more than a million bats, which in the evening turn the skies black as they leave the cave every night to feed on insects and fruit.
"Visiting the cave is not for the faint-hearted as the smell combined with heat, cockroaches crunching under your toes, and the darkness was overwhelming at times," says Stephen.
"Staying on the Kinabatangan River we were taken up a small side stream by boat to see wildlife close up – from monkeys everywhere to crocs, snakes and numerous different species of birds.
"A highlight was the proboscis monkey, found only in Borneo, the male of the species has a large pendulous nose, fat belly, thick white tail and webbed feet.
"Another highlight was being covered in leeches when walking through the swamp, you just couldn’t avoid them and had to continually be picking them off."
Travelling on they left the coast and headed to the district of Sandakan and a boat trip out to Libaran Island, in the Sulu Sea, home of a small fishing village.
"The water was almost too hot to swim in, you couldn’t cool down in the water like you can here, being just as hot as when you got out of the water."
An overnight stay at Selingan Turtle Island was next, the most important turtle breeding marine park in south east Asia.
The couple watched as huge green sea turtles lumbered ashore in the evening, dug a hole with their flippers and layed about 100 eggs.
"This was a once in a lifetime experience for me, but sobering to know that only about three percent survive to return to that same island about 20 years later to breed and repeat the cycle," says Stephen.
Rangers transfer the eggs to a hatchery for incubation.
"Seeing the rangers releasing about 90 young turtles into the sea was another highlight."
Next was a trip back to the mainland and the Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre for orangutans.
"Going to Borneo without seeing the orangutans would be like going to Africa and not seeing the lions in their natural environment."
Founded in 1964, the reserve is set in one of the last remaining areas of virgin rainforest. At the centre, captive orangutans learn to adapt to the wild by fending for themselves in the jungle, with the hope of returning to the wild.
"To stand and watch them only inches away from you as they walk graciously past, a humbling experience, it was just sad to know that, like the kiwi here, these orangutans are truly endangered and could be lost for good in the wild in the years to come, losing habitat to the changing land use in Borneo with clear-felling of the forests to make way for palm oil production," says Stephen.
The Sooles agree it was one eye-opening experience from start to finish and an adventure they wholeheartedly recommend doing if voyaging off the beaten track is what you’re after.
