Tanjung Harapan Feeding Station
Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Sun 14 Nov 2010 14:08
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Sunday 14th November
Our final stop, Tanjung Harapan feeding
station. We were shattered by this point. We felt we'd walked our socks off but
at the end of each walk we were rewarded with one amazing experience after
another. We needed to remember this one final time.
So off we set into basically a swarm of
mosquitos, they were everywhere! Even the guides were swatting them away with
branches and sticks. It was quite unpleasant. But yet again, we were in for a
treat, Yanni was waiting for us at the feeding table. Yet another huge male but
with different characteristics again. We started off wondering how the guides
could tell the orangutans apart and how they knew all their names. You soon pick
up on it and realise that they all have distinguishing features that are
different from the next.
The others didn't seem afraid of Yanni as
they'd sit at the table and eat with him, instead of grabbing what they can and
making a run for it. The little one in the picture to the right still attempted
to see how many bananas he could fit into his mouth though, greedy!
 Standing up on his legs was an
impressive sight. Looking at him hunched over you think he is big and then he
stands up, doubles his size and you are shocked. This is a beast right in front
of our eyes!
He then went on to prove his
strength when he decided he'd had enough of bananas and fancied a bit of
something else. He grabbed a female who happened to be close by and she had no
choice but to participate. It didn't last for long and she was allowed to
continue eating her bananas and get on with what she was doing. Another female
then braved the table and he liked the look of her too. It seems being the
dominant male he really can do what he likes.
    Time to head back
Amy had a drive and found the
bottle of whiskey that we'd given the crew the night before almost empty and
beside the steering wheel....tut tut!........Paul and Jack watching out up on
deck
And so that was it, our last
image of the orangutans was of Yanni engaging with the females. I'm sure I've
repeated myself throughout the last few blogs and I hope you haven't been bored
by the amount of pictures of these orange hairy beasts but really words can't
describe the experience we have shared over the last few days. The highlight
probably being when we woke up to Tor and Tut with no one else around but the
other animals of the forest.
I'd like to think things will
change and that the orangutans will no longer be endangered but I'm not sure how
things will pan out. Reading another blog the final comment was about a small
village in the jungle where illegal loggers had already moved in and destroyed
the forest behind the village. A 'secret' film was shown to them at the
information centre.....they saw the Head of the Tanjung Puting National Park
standing astride a massive illegal logging operation directing
operations.
I'll leave you with that thought.
Is there any hope?
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