The breakfast buffet was all set up on
the floating dining pavilion at 5:30 AM this morning, and we set off at six in
two quite comfortable motor boats. We
sped up the river turning off onto the Menanggul tributary. The boats switched to small, very quiet,
electric motors and we put-putted up the river.
It was just getting light and with the mist rising off the river,
everything looked very beautiful. The
river flows through a wide swath of wilderness with lots of species of birds
and several monkeys. Moving on the open
water kept us relatively cool and we had a pleasant morning, returning to the
hotel at 11:00 for a little rest.
Everyone else went for a quick walk
around the hotel boardwalk, but I knew it was too hot for birds to be out and
napped until lunch. After lunch I tried
to post the blog, but I couldn’t upload pictures and gave up. At three, tea was served: egg salad sandwiches (instead of the promised
banana fritters) and tea and at 3:30 we took off again in the boats upriver
this time to the small side Temangang River where we were looking for
hornbills (large birds with
extraordinarily large bills) and maybe a Proboscis Monkey. The water temperature was 87 degrees and I
was tempted to jump in!
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| Long-tailed Macaque |
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| Blue-eared Kingfisher |
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| Sukau Rainforest Lodge |
There were many boatloads of tourists buzzing
up and down as this is a favorite spot to show people various monkeys that can
be seen by those without binoculars. We
saw a large Reticulated Python coiled up on a branch that has been there
several days digesting something. We
saw a large female Orangutan with a tiny baby clutching her fur as she swung
from limb to limb very high up in a tree!
And we saw large groups of Crab-eating Monkeys scurrying along the muddy
shore and some Pig-tailed Monkeys
lounging on the banks. We also glimpsed
a Silver Leaf Monkey high in a tree.
Finally we came upon a family of Proboscis Monkeys with one large alpha
male watching over his harem. The
females have little upturned noses but the male have huge long dangling
noses! Quite amazing!
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| Pig-tailed Monkey |
We got back at 6:30 and I quickly
showered before the 7 PM dinner call. I
grabbed two glasses of rum at the bar and met Bob at dinner where he had ordered
two Cokes…so we were finally able to have our traditional tropical drink! We had a good buffet of soup, rice and bok
choy and some lamb stew. We met in the
lobby for the List and then we were to meet immediately at 8 for yet another
boat trip, night-lighting mammals and birds.
I opted out as I could see an opportunity for an actual 8 hours of
sleep! So we’ll see what wonderful things
I missed… RRZ back at 9:30...great views
of Horsfield’s Tarsier…sigh!! A small
long-tailed primate with a quite human face, large eyes, quirky smile, slender
fingers with pads on the ends and claws on the hind feet. They leap from tree to tree and feed on
insects. I guess I won’t miss tomorrow’s
evening trip!!
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