Jungle Preparations
Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Fri 12 Nov 2010 03:12
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Friday 12th November
Our reason for heading
to Kumai is to visit the Tanjung Puting National Park, the world's best
place to see the orangutans in their natural habitat. Tanjung Puting guarantees
plenty of the irresistible auburn primates close up but what sets it apart is
the journey on the Sungai Sekonyer river by 'klotok'. A klotok is an 8-10 metre
house boat that serves as transport, accommodation and restaurant all rolled
into one.
En route to Kumai we had been
communicating with a gentleman named Gilang who had been recommended to us by
the Blue Water Rally. In our correspondence he'd quoted us for a 3 day trip and
provided the suggested itinerary. As we had no comparison and he'd come as a
recommendation we thought this to be ok but maybe a little
expensive, we didn't make any final arrangements with him as we planned to
do this when we arrived.
However, once anchored in the
river we had a visit from a very friendly Mr Bain, who was offering his
services, a 3 day trip on his 15 metre klotok. The bonus was that he quoted
considerably less than Gilang, in fact it was 50% less, of course we were
cautious as we were fully aware that the conditions on the boats varied
significantly so he took us over to the boat to show us. He was obviously proud
of the boat and so he should have been, the condition was fantastic, better than
any others we'd seen pictures. Mr Bain won! Gilang was out to fleece
us!
  Paul and myself off to view the
klotok...............Jack returning from his 20km trip on the back of Mr Bain's
scooter to go to the ATM
 Mr Bain
The night before our departure
the boat looked like a bomb had hit it, we were in actual fact trying to pack
for our 3 days in the rainforest.........what on earth to take! Our extensive
list included: sleeping bags, sheets, pillows, first aid kits, blood pressure
tablets, malaria tablets, scrabble, crosswords, books, fly swat, 4 cameras with
multiple batteries and lens', batteries, beer, wine, cans of pop, water, sweets,
crisps, mosquito repellent, wet wipes, pacamacs, backpacks, insecticide, sun
cream, torches, hats, walking shoes, changes of
clothes and presents for the children, such as milk powder, frisbees,
books, hair accessories. The only thing we didn't need to take were mosquito
nets as they provided them. We decided to turn our fridges and freezer off and
keep Jackamy locked until our return as there was no need for anyone to
turn the generator on, so there was also the task of sorting through what needed
to be eaten or taken with us so as not to waste anything.
Morning came and at 08:00 our
klotok 'Garuda Ratu', meaning 'Princess Garuda', came alongside and we began to
transfer the bags across, the crew found it highly amusing as to how much we
were taking on a 3 day trip!
  Garuda Ratu
alongside................Leaving Jackamy under the watchful eye of our yacht
guard, who will be on board for the duration of our trip
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