Camp Leakey - Trek
Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Sat 13 Nov 2010 00:11
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Saturday 13th November
We'd survived our first night in the jungle!
When lying in bed it was as if we were listening to a CD of jungle noises,
except of course we were there experiencing it for real. It seemed to come alive
as darkness fell, there were more noises than you could have imagined. Jack and
Amy were trying to name all the animals that they thought would be out there, my
guess is that they didn't even scratch the surface! Who'd have thought 5 years
ago that we'd be able to say at this point in time that 'We have sailed 18,000
miles in our own boat and we are sitting in the Borneo
jungle'!
The boat was pulled back over to the dock
without having to start the engine so we didn't disturb the peace and
tranquility of the jungle at 06:30. As we tidied away the bedroom and Topik
cooked our breakfast Paul ventured onto the dock. Before long he had a
friend.........Tut (Thomas' mother) and Tor, her less than 6 month old
baby. Who knows why it was our boat that was allowed to stay at the camp that
night but I thank whoever it was that allowed us to have the following
experience.
It wasn't even 7 am and we are sat by
ourselves with a mother and her baby in silence apart from the sounds of the
jungle. For a while Tut just sat with her hand on Paul's leg, doing nothing,
making no sound, just sat there perfectly content. It was when he stood up that
she grabbed both of his legs, as if to say 'where do you think you're going?'.
She was hungry! She began rummaging through Paul's pocket as she was very aware
that he had something in it, unfortunately it was only sweets. I say
unfortunately, but that isn't quite true, as it turns out orangutans like
sweets! Paul could feel her fingers searching deep into every nook and cranny in
his pocket, working like a humans finger would do. Eventually she was satisfied
and released her hold on him.
 Tut and Tor
 What a picture!
She then continued to sit there
on the pontoon and edged ever closer to the boat. I think her second favourite
was Amy, as she began by sitting and just resting one hand on her left leg, she
then shuffled along a little bit closer and stretched her arm over both Amy's
legs and gently squeezed her thigh. Such a gentle, kind gesture from this big,
strong semi-wild orangutan.
   
 We had to tear ourselves away
from our new found friend as we were summoned for breakfast but I think we will
all always remember that special moment we shared as we woke up one day in the
Borneo jungle.
 Breakfast with a
view
Today's schedule began with a 3-4
hour trek. Non of us were particularly keen on this idea as we weren't expecting
to see much, but I have to say it was fun. We set off through the camp and
slowly ventured deeper into the forest. For the first hour we had to clamber
along ironwood planks laid out a few inches over the swamp below, sometimes with
planks missing our feet would get a dip, but it was all part of the fun. We saw
a good dose of ants, termites, tarantula nests, tree mushrooms, huge trees and
lots of leeches.
 There's just no getting around
it: if you want to experience Borneo's magnificent tropical rainforests, you're
going to encounter leeches. The one that we came across is the common
ground-dwelling brown leech. You can't feel the bite of this leech; you'll only
realise you've been bitten when you actually see the leech and notice the
blood seeping through you clothing. All this caused a lot of laughs, mainly
because Amanda had been the one panicking before she came away and wondering if
she needed to buy leech socks, we'd convinced her that they wouldn't be
necessary but although her arms and legs were completely covered up it was
Amanda who the leeches liked best - she obviously has sweet blood. They had a
thing for Jack too and myself and Amy had a few takers. Paul was complaining and
worrying that the leeches had gotten inside his shoes that were full of holes
but we all dismissed him. It was only when we stopped for a break that he
removed his shoe to make a closer inspection and he found a big juicy one
inbetween his toes. Guessing from the size of it and how full of blood it was
he'd been in there for a while. You'll notice that the other ones are thin, like
worms. This is because they haven't had a chance to suck on our blood
yet.
Leeches are horrible, vulgar
creatures. But there are almost completely harmless. We found that the bites
might itch and bleed profusely for a few hours due to the anticoagulant that
they inject but other than that it was all quite amusing. Particularly when Joe
shoved a wad of tobacco inbetween Paul's toes. We thought he was having us on,
but it turns out that this is a method used to keep the leeches out
although some people have reported that it actually attracts the little
creatures.
 New leeches that haven't yet
sucked any blood
 Paul's toe................The
huge leech in the centre and I think that is a small one alongside it on a
leaf
 One of Amanda's
socks
It wasn't all clambering up and
over trees and navigating swamps we were also learning about the flora all
around us as well as the bees that create a honey which is a favourite of the
orangutans. Our ranger even chopped down a Liana tree to show us how you can
drink the liquid (funny flavoured water?) that runs through the centre of the
tree. It's the real Bear Grylls!
 We'd almost completed the trek
when we could here a funny noise that was getting louder and louder. It sounded
like rain hitting a corrugated iron roof. But in actual fact it was rain getting
closer and closer hitting the canopy above us. The noise was fascinating and the
rain welcome as it was a hot and sweaty job trekking through the forest. Once
out of the forest we could still here the rain in the distance, it sounded like
a stream or river gushing along.
 We found this monkey on the
feeding table
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