Up a creek without a paddle
Casamara
John & Susan Simpson
Sat 26 Oct 2024 07:52
There are times during our travels when I realise that my school teachers were right about Geography not being my best subject. If you’d asked me to point to Borneo on a map I’d have been looking somewhere down the east coast of Africa and I was a bit surprised to find that we’d be stopping there during the Sail 2 Indonesia Rally! Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is divided amongst three countries: Malaysia and Brunei to the north and Indonesia to the south. After the height of the steep sided volcanic islands further east in Indonesia, Borneo was a surprise. We would be anchoring in the Kumai river, almost in the middle of Borneo’s southern coast. As we approached the river estuary the depth of the sea shallowed to 10 metres or so but we were still unable to see any land. On previous islands that depth would have had us almost on the beach! Eventually we could make out flat, low-lying land either side of the wide river mouth and we edged our way up the entrance channel with only a couple of metres of water under the keel.  Approaching Kumai, Borneo - no wind, shallow water and low-lying land Kumai is the gateway to the Tanjung Puting National Park, the largest protected area of swamp forest in SE Asia and home to Bornean orangutans. We anchored to one side of the river, across from the main part of the town and close to the bank edged with the impenetrable swamp forest. Strangely, all of the bird noise seemed to be coming from the town side of the river; we heard nothing at all from the forest. Looking across to the town we could see many tall, grey concrete buildings with narrow slits for windows and we wondered whether these were industrial buildings or perhaps a prison. Later we discovered these are purpose built houses for Swifts and the noise of birds we could hear was broadcast to encourage Swifts to nest in the buildings. Swift nests, made from the birds’ saliva, are the key ingredient for bird’s nest soup, which is an expensive delicacy in China. The birds thrive in the insect rich wetland area around Kumai and Indonesia is the world’s largest exporter of Swift nests.  Kumai skyline - Swift houses on the right We were a little nervous about anchoring in Kumai river as it is tidal and the current flows strongly up and then down the river as the tide turns. Swampy jungle plants break away from the banks of rivers flowing into the Kumai river and debris of quite significant size can be carried with the river flow. We set our anchor with plenty of chain and tested it well with the engine to make sure we were well attached to the river bed and going nowhere before we went to bed. It’s normal for anchored boats to move around the anchor as tides and depths change but we always set an anchor alarm that will sound if Casamara moves outside the radius of our expected anchoring circle. At about 3.30 am the anchor alarm sounded and we jumped up to see whether this was a false alarm. It was clear immediately that it wasn’t as Casamara was moving quite steadily. A huge island of jungle plant debris had drifted around Casamara’s bow and had made itself fast to the anchor chain. The island was longer than Casamara’s 17 metres and stretched all along her port side. The weight of the island added to Casamara’s 33 tons was too much for the anchor to hold and we were drifting backwards up the river in the dark towards some anchored barges. We tried lifting the anchor but the weight was too heavy for the windlass; and we tried motoring backwards, forwards, sideways but nothing made any difference. We were stuck fast and completely without steerage. Our friends on ‘Mary Doll’ launched their dinghy to come to our assistance and they tried cutting and dragging the debris away to free us but to no avail. Fortunately, we drifted towards the bank and into very shallow water so that with about 80 metres of chain down in 4 metres of water the anchor finally held again. At this point we had managed to alert the local agent to the situation and she came out in her boat with some local guys to assist. One of the guys hopped out of his boat onto the island to hack it away from our anchor chain with a machete! After much chopping the island finally floated free, we were able to lift our anchor and motor back into position again. Of course, what goes up the river must come down so we spent several nervous hours waiting for the return of the clump of debris we christened ‘Isla Casamara’. Fortunately, its down stream course took it over the other side of the river and it caused no more issues. The following night we set up a watch system with Mary Doll so that we could both be alerted to any more potentially damaging debris on a collision course, and when we left the boat for 12 hours the next day to see the orangutans one of the local guys kindly sat on board all day to keep watch.  Isla Casamara alongside and carrying us upstream Our trip to see orangutans and proboscis monkeys in the wild made up for the difficulties of anchoring in Kumai. We were collected from Casamara and taken by fast speedboat up the Sekonyer river to visit two feeding stations for orangutans. I do have mixed views about so called ecotourism and having feeding stations where people can sit in rows to gawp at the animals ‘in the wild’ doesn’t feel quite right. However, it was explained that some of the orangutans were released into the wild from captivity at these sites and the fruit provided is to supplement the diet of these animals and their offspring. I can’t deny that it was a great way to see the orangutans at close quarters but the highlight for us was when we happened to see from our tour boat a group of orangutans playing in the trees close to the river bank. There were also plenty of proboscis monkeys around the river banks so we were able to see those in their natural habitat too. Orangutans and humans share 97% of our DNA and we could see similarities in mannerisms and behaviours, from the mother giving her baby a loving cuddle to the young adult orangutan who seemed to enjoy showing off to get our attention. The proboscis monkeys looked just like humans dressed up in furry costumes as they lounged about in the trees. The Indonesian name for the proboscis monkey means ‘Dutchman’. Indonesia was colonised by the Dutch from the mid-seventeenth century until just after World War II and the long nose of the monkeys was more reminiscent of the colonisers than the noses of local people. We got the impression our Indonesian guides quite enjoyed the unflattering comparison!  Tour by fast speedboat  Mother and baby orangutan  Look at me - I can swing from telegraph wires as well as trees!  Long-nosed ‘Dutchman’ proboscis monkey  Scores of these cruise boats chug up the jungle rivers  Lunch with Barney and Lori aboard their cruise boat (Letitia and Derek also pictured) |