Thursday, November 24, 2005

Kota Kinabalu Jungle Trip


Last weekend in Kato Kinabalu I went on a Jungle Safari, it was actually pretty cool.

Most of it involved a trip down this river in the heart of deepest darkest jungle, as you can see from the first picture the jungle was pretty dense, there were seven of us on the trip so the boat was not too crowded. After a short talk about the do’s and don’ts o while on the trip we set out.

The first wildlife we saw were Long Tailed Monkeys, these were the size of a Cocker Spaniel, I would like to say they had a wild free look in their eyes, but it was more of a look for food from the tourist’s. One tried to jump on the boat but missed and got very wet, it wasn’t amused.

We saw loads of Water Buffalo, these suckers are big, we were told not even to engage in eye contact as this would piss them off. When they are pissed, they’ll come in the water after you, and at over a ton are capable of over turning it.

The main idea of the trip was to get a glimpse of the Proboscis Monkey. These Labrador sized monkeys have long noses and some of the males we saw also had other large protruding members! They were fairly cute, but very shy. The light was failing, which is the best time to see them. This meant it was very difficult to get a good picture.

As darkness fell we made our way on foot to the Lodge were we had a very nice Malay Buffet, full of spicy curries and fried meat. Very Good.

The trip back to the bus was done on boats and at night, this was well spooky, it also proved to be the highlight of the trip, as we were in a real dense part of the jungle there were lots of fairy lights in the trees. I thought it was a guide for the boats. Actually they were fireflies, hundred’s of them. I put out my hand and one landed on it. About the size of a bib moth, but at the end of its tail it gave out a luminescent glow. Amazing! All the way back to the Bus we were treated to a natural light show.

Well worth the fee, a good way to spend eight hours.

No comments: