Monday 7 October Tanjung Puting, or Orang utans, Day 1

The reason to come to Kumai is to take a river boat trip, known as a keletok, into the Tanjung Puting national park to see orang utans. Although there are also Proboscis monkeys, long tail macaques, gibbons, crocs and pygmy hippos in the park too, it's the orang utans which bring people here. Together with Dick and Tricia from Geramar we've hired a keletok with captain, cook, boat boy and Yosi as our guide for a three day trip to visit the three sites where they feed the orang utans each day.

off on our adventure

relaxing aboard

Our keletok, the house boat, is big enough to take 10 people; we got lucky and have it for four so plenty of room. These traditional boat are designed with crew quarters, galley and engine room on the first level and above them an open plan deck, with roof for the guests. This is where we'll relax in our deck chairs as we chug up the river, sit at the table for our meals and at night our mattresses and mosquito nets will be brought out for us to sleep. The heads and shower are simple affairs though it is a western toilet, at the rear of the boat so the 'heads' become the 'afts'.

Mr Poseur

Our pick was only one hour later than arranged so a good start in island time terms. Last night I was putting together the kit and clothes we'd need and then David helped and we suddenly had more his philosophy being we don't have to carry it far so let's take it all. All includes cameras, binoculars, books, a golfing umbrella and two folding deck chairs (for comfortable observation) which was passed over to the boat when it came alongside to pick us up. The first leg is a two hour motor down the main wide river and then a left turn into the tributary which forms the northern boundary of the park.

After I'd done packing last night a did a quick internet search for some information on the park and found it is not the rain forest I thought it would be but low level heath land with marshes, most trees 30m tall with a few at 50m and it would have been slashed and burned to grow palm oil trees and to mine coal until protected as a park a mere 40 years ago. A lady professor from Germany put the place on the ape ma when she came here in '71 to study the apes in the wild. Eventually Camp Leakey was established as a research and rehabilitation centre fro rescued and orphaned orang utans. Borneo and Sumatra are the only places in the world where orang utans now live and the Borneo animals are smaller than the Sumatran ones. A female is smaller at 45- 50kgs, grows to a little about 4 feet tall has the strength of 4 men. Males are grow to 5' with an arm span of 8' and have the equivalent strength of 8 men.

Our first encounter with the red women and man (less males come into the feeding stations) was at the park entrance when the rangers lay out a tea of bananas and sweet potatoes on a feeding platform at 3pm. These are orang utans that have been rehabilitated so more used to humans. It had been raining earlier so a wet trek through the forest for ten minutes to the first spectacle – thirty tourists behind thirty cameras chattering away and watching two females and a baby quietly eating their food. Once the chattering tourists had enough pictures they left and quietness returned. Now more females came swinging through the tree tops and down to the feeding station with their babies clinging on and sometimes an older child joining them. While were quietly watching there was a commotion behind. We turned to see the big male coming down the path, no tree tops for him, straight in towards us pausing only for a photo op while he stretched himself between two small trees, looked at us as if to say 'I'm here' and then on to the feeding platform. What a fine first encounter – such intelligent faces and eyes. They do watch us closely.

It was late afternoon when we got back to out house boat and Petrina the cook had tea and fried bananas waiting on our feeding platform. A couple of hours later and she turned out a wonderful dinner of chicken, prawns, tofu and vegetables from her small galley. I took a look at it – not enough height to stand up, she cooks sitting on a small stool in front of two gas burners and on this she was preparing food for 8 people including the crew and always with a smile.

Night time was dark, really dark save for a few fireflies dotted around. We could hear the occasional bark of macaques and the tiger like roar of Proboscis monkeys. Perhaps we'll see some tomorrow.