Our route up the river in red.  We entered at the top of the map and exited at Dewhurst Bay on the right

Making our way up river

Our first night on the river we anchored at Kampung Abai, a small village where the river tuns right back on itself.  During the afternoon here the current picked up and debris began to come down river, some bits getting caught on boat’s bows and needing to be dislodged with boat hooks.  Then the thunder started with long low rumbles and it began to rain.  This was a real rainforest downpour with everyone able to top their water tanks right up with more to spare.  We didn’t realise the further consequences of this until the next day.

Kampung Abai.  Small village, big phone aerial.

We were up early the next morning in order to carry on up the river in the cool of the day when wildlife was more likely to be seen.  We were rewarded immediately by a pair of Proboscis monkeys in the tree next to where we were anchored.  The male was a big animal with the characteristic long nose.  Proboscis monkeys are endemic to Borneo so it was a real privilege to see them in the wild.  We were the first boat away from the anchorage and on the first bend we spotted a crocodile.  We only saw it because it had a piece of water hyacinth plant on its back and was moving against the current. We were still talking about it (and still on the outside of the bend) when the river bed came up to meet us and we were in the mud.  Luckily it was soft and by reversing hard Phil got us off.  We broadcast the location to the rest of the fleet, but two others still managed to find it after us. 

Egrets were everywhere along the river's edge

and we saw a couple of hornbills.  The kingfishers didn't stay still long enough to be photographed

A bit further up we came across a tourist boat and the guide called us over to see the troupe of long tailed Macaques they had found and then a group of Proboscis monkeys appeared in the next tree.  As the rest of the fleet caught us up we carried on, speeding up as the day got warmer and the chances of seeing anything got less.  It was quite challenging looking for the signs of animals on the banks while also avoiding big logs in the river, and staying afloat, but we did see a kingfisher and a hornbill flying by.

Macaques

Manuel, on Anima, had arranged an elephant hunting trip for 3pm so once we were happy with our anchor position at Sukau, we launched our dinghy for the trip up river to the Borneo Nature Lodge which was our base.  Due to cables across the river we couldn’t get Serenity up close to it.  The current was running strongly again and bringing debris down with it, and it took us half an hour to get to the Lodge.  While we were waiting for our trip one of the group spotted an Orang Utan in the trees above us.  Lovely to see one in the wild.

Elephants had been seen by the river near the village in recent days and our boatman took us to where they had last been seen, but there was no sign and despite his best efforts we weren’t to see them.  As we were driven around we realised how chancy a thing a sighting would be as the forest was so thick they would not need to be far from the river to be invisible.  We did get to see LOTS more monkeys as we cruised a couple of tributaries.

A male Proboscis monkey.  The bigger the nose, the more sexually attractive

Female Proboscis monkey with a baby.  Females don't have the pendulous long nose

As we were waiting for dinner at the lodge Manuel got a call to say that Anima was dragging its anchor.  In fact logs had built up across the bows of another catamaran and the weight had caused it to drag, it had hit Anima and the two boats together dragged into a third catamaran.  Luckily this one held but it took a long time to get the three disentangled and re-anchored.  Multihulls suffered worst from the build up of debris but when we got back to Serenity there were logs across our anchor chain, being held there by the force of the current, and most crews had a sleepless night checking and clearing wood away.   Sazli, the rally organiser, said he had not seen the river in this state on previous rallies and it was due to flooding up stream. In the morning, with a forecast for more rain and flooding in the catchment, we realised we would have to leave for the safety of our boats.  Sad about the experience we were missing we lifted our anchors and retreated back to Kampung Abai.  We spent a day there recovering from lack of sleep and going on a fruitless crocodile hunt (one had been reported by one of the other boats) before carrying on out of the river down a different branch to exit at Dewhurst Bay about  20 miles south east from our entry point.

On our way back to Kampung Abai we stopped to have a look at an Oxbow Lake, taking a dinghy ride up a tributary to get there.  School geography lessons made real, and it was pretty as well

Debris floating down the river.  Some of the logs were several meters long and very thick.  Once one caught on a boat's bow it would gather up more making it increasingly difficult to clear

The debris was in the fastest flowing and deepest water, so we followed down just outside the line of logs, cutting across to the other side on bends

Even when we got to Dewhurst Bay the vegetation was still a problem and boats had to lift anchor and move to avoid some big floating islands like this one

It was disappointing to have to cut this part of the trip short, and we would have liked to see more wildlife, but it was a fantastic experience to be in the middle of the rain forest on our own boat, experiencing the jungle sounds and scents.  It was a reminder that we were in a remote and untamed wilderness area where you can’t fight against nature and occasionally have to retreat from its superior power.