Kumai-
Gaviota
Wed 12 Oct 2016 08:08
Morning
dawned and we motor sailed across the shallow sand banks in the huge mouth of
the Sekonyer River and dropped anchor and had a decent night’s sleep before
sailing up the river to Kumai the next day.
It was 12
miles up the river to the busy port of Kumai (gateway to the Tanjung Puting
National Park – home of the Orangutans).
We
dropped anchor in the river and next morning went in search of booking a trip
to see the Orangutans.
Kumai is
a typical busy Indonesian Port, very uninspiring and all along the waterfront
are giant concrete cubes which resemble communist style housing blocks – they
are in fact home to the thriving ‘bird’s nest soup’ industry and are home to
the Black and White nest Swiftlets that create the nests used in this dubious
delicacy. Eating the nests is believed
to provide health benefits such as increasing ones libido, aiding digestion,
strengthening the lungs, alleviating asthma, cough prevention and an overall
improvement in ones life force (impressive!).
The sound of birds was overpowering
– that is until prayers started and we realised we had never truly heard the
full brunt of Moslem prayer. This area
is 75% Moslem and prayers happen 7 times during day and night. It could only be described as a cacophony on
the grandest scale – nothing vaguely tuneful as the whole population seemed to
be singing in different keys! Our first
thought was ‘let’s see the Orangutans and escape as quickly as possible’!
The Rally
suddenly announced that we were to be invited to 2 days of festivities and
ceremonies in the nearby City of Pangkalan Bun – these 2 days turned out to
totally change our initial feelings about Kumai. We were treated like celebrities. We joined in the huge carnival in the City as
guests of honour and were greeted by the Mayor of the City, we were then taken
on a walking tour of the traditional markets and on long wooden boats along the
river to see the boatbuilding on the riverbanks. We had lunch in a restored wooden palace
hosted by the grandson of the original King.
We were taken by coach with a police escort on both days and on the
second day visited the Junior High School where the children performed dancing
and music then bombarded us with questions.
Everywhere people wanted their photographs taken with us and were so
excited with our visit. It was an
amazing experience and we were made so welcome by these incredible people. The second visit included a traditional
ceremony where we were invited as guests of the Mayor and treated to a buffet
lunch with music and dancing. Pangkalan
Bun is trying very hard to get tourists to visit as most visitors fly in and go
to the National Park to see the Orangutans then fly out again. It would be worth anyone spending an extra
couple of days there just to experience the warmth of the people.
In
between all this celebrity status we booked a day trip by speedboat to visit
the Orangutans. Most people opt to go on
the wooden houseboats (klotoks) for between 2 and 4 days meandering slowly
through the jungle. We decided that as
we spend all our time taking forever to travel such short distances we did not
find the prospect of a long slow trip up the river in the vaguest way appealing
so we opted for speed!!!! Great decision
and we had a wonderful day with our guide Dian and his driver. We had told them we liked to go fast and
zooming up the windy river at high speed started to resemble a scene out of a
Bond movie. The trip became even more
‘Bondlike’ when we came across a narrow part of the river which was blocked by
tangled weeds. This was no problem to
these intrepid young Indonesians, they turned and took a run at it, one stood
on the back and lifted the outboard as the little boat launched itself across
the reeds. Dian, his driver and Syd all
leapt out onto the mat of reeds and hauled the boat over and on we went. Impressive or what!
The
Orangutans were totally amazing, we visited 2 camps including Camp Leakey for
feeding and were treated to a close up view of nature in the wild – nothing is
scripted here and anything can happen.
One of the highlights was while we were sitting at Camp Leakey, Dian
tapped us on the shoulder and told us to move – Tom was on the way!!!! Tom is the King and does not always make an
appearance – we were lucky. We leapt out
of his way and he sauntered in centre stage, glowering at everyone (no, you would not have argued with him!) He was huge and commanded respect, all the
other Orangutans who had been happily feeding hastily took to the trees and as
King Tom ambled into the feeding area one baby Orangutan who was clinging to
his mother in the trees cried out uncontrollably – Tom gave him a look! Tom sat
there on the platform stuffing bananas in his mouth then appeared to get bored
and sauntered off into the jungle.
Another
highlight of our day was spending time close up with a female Orangutan aged 48
years called Saskia. Our guide Dian who
had worked at Camp Leakey for years and knew most of the Orangutans told us she was lazy and liked
to hang around where the visitors arrived.
She was lying on her back fast asleep with a leaf in one hand and her
other hand holding her foot. It was
amazing watching her so close and she opened her eyes and watched us but was
quite happy for us to be there.
On our
trip back as the sun was setting over the beautiful jungle the trees were
filled with monkeys and we got to see the rare Proboscis Monkeys swinging in
the branches – a perfect end to a perfect day.
We left
Kumai Friday, 7th October after stocking up with fresh vegetables at
the traditional market. We motored back
down the river and anchored in the river mouth to get a good sleep before the
dawn start on Saturday.
