18th Oct 2012

Got up early again today and caught a taxi to sepilok. We were glad to be leaving the Sea View Hotel!

Went to uncle tans B&B and caught the shuttle to Sepilok orang-utan sanctuary.

There is a raised walkway through the rainforest that led to a platform where they fed the orang-utans. The trees were so high! Loads of bugs about, must put insect repellent on! A guide was showing leeches but none on us, thank goodness!

At feeding time 2 big orang utans showed up and hung about for a while, both had wise old faces, no babies unfortunately! We were surrounded by lots of loud ozzies (a sign of things to come?!).

Then we watched a programme about how the sanctuary works, presented by an English news reader! Lots of cute orphans orang-utans on the film!

Now on to uncle tans!

Uncle tans wildlife resort was an hour and a half drive, followed by an hour in a boat down the very brown Kingbatan river surrounded by very dense rainforest.

We saw lots of Macau's, nicknamed 'jungle mafia' because there are so many of them and they steal peoples possessions!

When we arrived at the resort we were told to expect basic and it definitely was, huts open to the jungle with mattresses on the floor and a mosquito net full of holes, you has to put all food, smelly stuff and plastics into a lockable bin outside the hut to stop rats coming into your hut and gnawing through your bags!

Lights only from 6-12 at night. No running water, water to wash yourself was pumped straight from the river- no shower for us then! And no flush on toilet had to put a bucket of river water down the toilet instead. So very basic!

After a brief talk from our guide and sorting the mosquito nets out we had dinner and went on a boat for a night safari.

It was very spooky as it was pitch black and just a bright torch to look for wildlife. The boat we were in also was very low and you had no idea what was next to you in the river!

We saw lots of owls and kingfishers- different kinds all brightly coloured. We also saw promoscus monkeys with there massive noses, and more Macau's with little babies! Also saw the 'little tiger' which is actually called a sevit cat. We saw a lot of eyes shinning back from the light but when we got there they were gone!

Then it was bedtime, saw a huge green spider in the toilet! Then lights out and pitch black, surrounded by sounds of the jungle!

We had a good group of people, and have actually made a friend from Australia!Läs mer