Return to Kudat

After farewelling Peter who was off to Oz we lay around the pool for a few days R&R. The resort with wi-fi and swimming pool is right next to the lovely protected anchorage.


Normally dragon flies herald the start of the dry season but not so in Kudat. In between rain storms we managed to get a few jobs done - one of them being patching the dinghy cover with some left over curtain fabric - damn we really look like cruisers now... I also finally found a hair dresser by asking all the girls in town with nice hair where they go - and entrusted her to chop it all off!

Our evenings we spent with the locals enjoying some social snooker in town. The Navy also came over to visit - very surprised at how "complete" the boat is, this being the first Kapal Layar (yacht) they have ever been on.

Unfortunately there was also an accident during our stay where 2 women and a child were tragically killed in a fishing boat explosion. Simon was there to capture the aftermath.

Smoking in Sandakan

Our arrival back in Sandakan was filled with the usual tasks, fuel, gas, and groceries. Being only a short dingy ride from the markets, it was also a good place to get long term, hard to carry stores.

Being the second largest town in the state of Sabah, Sandakan also had a “Giant” supermarket. Out the front some guys were doing the hard sell on Zero Gravity chairs, supposedly designed by NASA. For a joke I convinced Amanda it might be a good idea to take a rest before the trip home.The whole thing somewhat backfired on me when I found myself carrying the chair home on the bus.


We visited the bird park in the hope of seeing some of Borneo’s exotic birds and we rewarded with a couple of sightings of the colorful brown sparrow. Even that was while walking from the bus stop to the park. I’m not sure what the story was, maybe it was to hot?


The evening before our departure back to Kudat, I came across a very cool power tool. It’s a rat killer that sounds like a leaf blower when running, shoots a flame out the front and injects a diesel and who knows what combination of chemicals at the nozzle. The end result is lots of noise and smoke.

Someone I spoke to said that they had seen a similar device used in India to kill rats after a small outbreak of the plague. I think it’s a stretch of the imagination to think Sandakan has a plague outbreak but lets weigh the anchor anyway. Can’t be to sure about these things.

The Mighty Rajang River

After a 4am start (groan) we reached the mouth of the Rejang just catching the beginning of the ebb tide. Moving at walking pace into the river we anchored ASAP. The following morning at the far more civilized hour of 8.30am the tide began to flood and off we went to Sarekei, the first of our riverside towns.

This friendly bustling little town had all we hoped for, me getting a new pair of sandals incase I have to climb Mount Kinabalu and Amanda finding both Internet and a steamboat restaurant. Beer at 4RM almost made us stay another day but the tide was turning and our next stop Bintangor beckoned.

After visiting the local market where your chicken starts off alive at the beginning of the purchase process, we got a few supplies (biscuits for the kids)and headed up to the Rumah Lidam Longhouse.


The longhouse is off the main river, and was recommended to us by Crystal Blues, another Ganley cruising boat who had first explored here in 2006 and made regular visits since.



They invited us over for dinner so we thought we could maybe take something a bit different. After some serious thought we hit on the idea of pizzas and bloody Marys. Bet they don’t have that often! I can’t say it was a huge success; especially as it turns out they don’t really like spicy food. They at first thought the bloody Mary was sauce, and it almost ended up on the pizza at one point. I think maybe 1 out of every 20 people thought it was drinkable (it made the baby cry). The pizza topping was fairly popular but the base was only a means of getting the topping to your plate. It was a good night, lots of laughs.



We made plans to come over the following day for a look around. The monkey pot, a type of pitcher plant was worth a look.



The kids made plans to come out to the boat and demonstrate the Iban bomb technique.

Bugs, Turtles & Monkeys - Setang Besar to Bako

Much to the disappointment of the local mosquito population I’m sure, it was time to leave our safe haven in the river to start moving north again.

Not getting to carried away for a start we decided to do the 10 miles to Palau Setang Besar, an island where they have a breeding program for turtles. The idea is to wait for the turtles to come up the beach at night and start laying their eggs. The Park Rangers then tag the turtle, measure it and remove barnacles etc. Once the turtle has gone, the eggs are dug up and relocated to a fenced area out of harms way. After anchoring and lunch (Jungle fern – the local specialty) we headed over to find out what the deal was.




The Rangers informed us that the previous night 3 turtles had come ashore and after encountering problems during the hole digging process had headed back to sea without laying. We were welcome to come over at 10pm - high tide. By the time 10pm rolled around it was raining and the waves made it feel like we were trying to sleep on the back of a rocking horse. After discussing the pros and cons we bit the bullet and went over anyway.

The ranger greeted us on the shore with the news that a group of Hawks Bill turtle eggs had just hatched and we were welcome to take them down to the shore and set them free.

The rain then stopped and 2 Green turtles came ashore and started digging. One hit a log in it’s first hole and roots in the second, so went back to sea however the second one laid its eggs.




The laying went smoothly after a long and protracted hole digging. After being tagged, etc it headed back to sea.




After a sleep in we donned our snorkeling gear for some barnacle removing of our own on Thyme’s hull. A last stop at the beach revealed our Green Turtle had laid 114 eggs which were now safely buried in a chamber under the sand. In 60 days from now hopefully these baby Green Turtles will scurry down the beach to start their life at sea!




Next on our nature hit list was to find the Proboscis monkey, so we headed further north to the Bako national park. Once anchored we could see them in the treetops on the mainland. The following morning we set out on our search but surprise, surprise it rained forcing us back to the boat.




The next plan was to try our luck on Palau Lekei, the island we were anchored next to. Again the Proboscis could be seen in the treetops but we couldn’t get close. The island did have some nice short walks through different varieties of Pitcher plants and down to a creek. Here the myth has it that an ancient warrior engraved the script in the creek bed with his finger 100’s of years ago. Nobody has been able to translate the writing.




Our next stop will be the mouth of the mighty Rejang, Borneo’s jugular, and the main trade artery for all of central and southern Sarawak.

National Parks - Sarawak

We decided Gunung Gading National park, home of the Rafflesia was to be our first visit being the furtherest away, a 2.5 hour scooter trip.

The endangered Rafflesia is the worlds largest flower found only in this area, takes 9 months to mature and can be over a meter in diameter. It flowers for 4-5 days and gives off a smell similar to rotting meat to attract fly’s and other insects for pollination.

After the flower we found a near by waterfall to wash off the road grime. Some of the local inhabitants considered us possible food, nipping at our feet if we stood still for too long.

Absorbed in all the wild life living around the stream we didn’t notice the clouds rolling over until it was to late. It appears to be called RAIN forest for a good reason. It pissed down leaving us with no choice but to ride back to the village to purchase raincoats for our trip home. Maybe an early start would be a wiser move tomorrow when a visit to Semenggoh Nature Reserve to see the Orang utans was planned. It’s not guaranteed that you will see them, but if there is not much food in the jungle they will come to the park for an easy meal.
We were in luck.

We were told that it’s best to only stay in the feeding area for a short time as the Orangutans get annoyed and have been known to throw sticks and snakes at the tourists. With that advice, and having seen the pictures of some of the wounds inflicted by bites we were only too happy to move along when told.

Detouring through town to pick up some charts for the Rejang River system and lunch we slowly made our way back to the boat before the afternoon rain.

KL

We were warmly greeted at the Port Klang marina by the resident baby monkey who had just lost it’s mother. We fell in love with his cheeky antics and were soon spending hours playing with him, emptying our vege stores into his bowl and cuddling him to sleep.


Being so far out of town, a complex plan of cars and trains was devised ensuring an early arrival to see Petronas towers. Unfortunately as it was a public holiday, the towers were closed so we settled with looking from the outside.

In between meals we managed to take in some of the sights of KL.

After the cultural portion of our tour we squeezed in another meal before heading to the Botanic Gardens for a dose of nature. At the butterfly farm we found more than just butterfly’s.

We walked through the hot sun, much to Trevor’s disgust in search of some mosque. The mosque turned out to be the Royal Palace. All this walking is working up an appetite!

With the day coming to an end, dinner in Little India sounded good. What trip to Little India would be complete without the purchase of Sari? I hope this comes with an instruction manual.

We finally limped back to the marina at 9pm. Being a tourist is exhausting, can we find some quiet island somewhere?