Sunday, November 21, 2010

Sungai Kinabatangan

I'm finally getting around to finishing posting my pictures from my trip to Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia from back in August.
After leaving Sepilok, I headed to the Sungai Kinabatangan (sungai means river) for a few days in the hopes of spotting some wildlife along the riverbank. Due to the vast tracts of palm trees throughout Sabah, the remaining wildlife flock to the areas that still remain virgin forest. Much of this area is along the banks of the Kinabatangan so it's one of the best areas for seeing rhinos, elephants, orangutans as well as proboscis monkeys (pictured below, the males have huge noses).
I found a fantastic place to stay on the Internet, the Last Frontier Resort Lodge, so I'd arranged to spend 2 nights there. The Lodge is perched up on a hill overlooking the river, and is quite small with only 4 rooms. It's owned by a Belgian guy and his Malaysian-Chinese partner. They were both fantastic and did their best to ensure that the guests had a great time. Both nights I was there, all of the other guests were of different European nationalities, mostly Dutch.
I went out twice on river trips, but unfortunately I didn't see any of the big animals (elephants, rhinos and orangutans). I saw hundreds of proboscis monkeys, though, as well as many of some other species of monkey. I was quite excited to see the proboscis monkeys as I've wanted to see one ever since I saw a picture of one in a newspaper several years ago. The weather wasn't really cooperating, however, and so I didn't get any great pictures.
I don't even remember taking this picture, but I think it's a butterfly.
A little lizard of some kind checking to see if the coast is clear.
This is a leetch. Funny, I'd always thought of them as being black and fat.
This is a hornbill I saw from the eating area at the lodge. Apparently there are a few in the area that occasionally come by.
I went for a hike through the hill and came across this crazy furry caterpillar. It was huge.
This wild boar approached the fence on the edge of the Lodge. They have a small garden and apparently he comes by sometimes and tries to get at the vegetables. This was the first time I'd ever had a clear look at a wild boar.

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