Wherever you go, there are always going to be places that will feel especially close to your heart. You’ll follow the news about its fate as you would do it with a close friend who is experiencing some serious troubles – with concern, frantically searching for ideas how you could help, and feeling devastated when it turns out that not much you can do will change the situation.
For me one of these places is Yasuni in Ecuador.
Years ago I had the privilege to visit this extraordinary place a few times and had the chance to experience its beauty and diversity first hand. If there is a place that needs to be preserved and protected (and there are oh so many!!!) this is it. I felt especially hopeful when in 2007 the Ecuadorian government proposed an initiative not to open up certain areas of the park for oil drilling if the international community can pay the country half the amount of the price of the untapped oil (around 3.6 billion dollars). Unfortunately the world failed to step up to the plate and the initiative was cancelled last year after only 13 million dollars was delivered.
So I read it with a heavy heart yesterday that Ecuador approved oil drilling in the ITT blocks and exploitation will begin in 2016.
Whenever I have the feeling that this moment should have been preserved some way (on pixels, on a piece of paper, burnt into my memory…somehow) I like to remind myself of one of my favourite scenes of the Measuring of the World by Daniel Kehlmann, when Monsieur Daguerre attempts to take a picture of Humboldt and Gauss. Monsieur Daguerre was a protégé of Humboldt, “who was working on a piece of equipment which would fix the moment on a light-sensitive silver iodide plate and snatch it out of the onrush of time.” Gauss of course cannot stand still for fifteen minutes and pulls himself free.
“Daguerre stamped his foot. – Now the moment had been lost forever!
– Just like all the others, said Gauss calmly. – Just like all the others.”
I rarely carry a camera on my daily forest walks and with good reason. If there is a camera hanging on my shoulder my mind immediately starts categorizing, dividing the forest into pixel-worthy and not-worthy images. Everything becomes filtered through the question: Would it make a good picture? In the futile attempt to “capture the moment”, the timeless, meditative quality of the experience is lost.
But maybe our intention is not so much about “capturing” rather than sharing. Showing others. Look. This is what I see. This is what I experience. This is me. This deer. This flower. This forest.
If you want to leave the well-paved roads of the headquarters behind, you have different options to spend some time deeper inside the park. You can spend some time at Camp 5 and either venture out to the Head Hunters’ Trail or climb up to the Pinnacles, or climb the Mulu Summit. We didn’t feel like climbing too much, but definiately wanted to get away from the Disneyland atmosphere for a while.
First we signed up for 2 nights at Camp 5. To get there, you need to hire a boat. It is a half an hour boatride to the trailhead and from there you have to walk almost 9 km through the forest to get to the camp. If you are not in an organized tour, you also have to carry your own provisions – the camp’s kitchen is well-equipped with pots and pans, but you need to bring your own food. The trail is quite easy to follow, although you have to step on small stones that can be quite slippery. I managed to scare away a bearded pig that was munching on some leaves next to the trail. This was the only time that I saw a big mammal in the area. As we heard, hunting is still taking place around and inside of the park, which puts quite a pressure on wildlife.
As you arrive, the surroundings of the campsite definiately make up for the long walk. The Melinau River and the Benarat cliff offers a breathtaking view:
The camp itself looks like this (from the other side of the river):
And not far from your accomodation you can find a small pool, where the river slows down a little bit and it offers a refreshing dip (trust me, after your long walk, you will love it!) The sunset, combined with some clouds over the gorge produced some spectacular colors:
The night walk also proved to be quite successful: peacefully sleeping geckos, otherwordly looking, spiky insects, spiders and gracefully coiled up snakes…On our second night, after some heavy rains, the raging river even washed up a huge python on the shore.
Most people visit Camp 5 to climb up to Gunung Api to see a unique limestone formations called the Pinnacles. The hike is only 2.4 km but there is a 1200 m change in elevation. The last section is basically vertical. Climbers have to follow strict time limitation – the hike is divided into sections and there is a time limit alloted to each section and if you cannot keep it, then you have to turn back to the camp, because youwon’t be able to make it before dark and it would be too risky.
The Head Hunter’s trail also starts here at Camp 5, and you can walk as far as to Limbang. We only covered the first few miles and visited the Karangas Forest with our guide, Eugene. This is a special kind of dry forest, and its name means (in Iban) “land that cannot grow rice”. The nutrient poor soil means that the vegetation here is different – the trees are smaller, more scarce, and there are at least three different kinds of pitcher plants.
First we came upon a salt water lake:
Then, on top of the hill, the pitcher plants:
Camp 1 is actually the first stop towards Mulu Summit, which is a 24 km hike. The summit is 2400 metres above sea level and you need at least 4 days for this climb. Our plan was just to spend two night at Camp 1, and look around in the forest there. We started out in the morning with our guide, Lucas, and took the trail towards Paku Falls, then followed it deeper into the forest. Beautiful, huge trees all around us, although the only wildlife we saw was a colourful lizard on the ground.
To reach the camp we needed to cross over two rivers – no bridges around here.
By the time we reached the second one – with huge boulders and rushing water – the rain had got serious and not long after we crossed it I heard some deafening rumbling sound – a flashflood was coming, with amazing force. Not the first time of a close call – on our first day a tree fell into the river just a few meters from us, and in Brunei lightning struck a bare few seconds later that I got out of the river. Nature has countless of ways to remind us to the fragileness of our existence.
The campsite itself is a lot more basic than Camp 5 – not really a pleasant place to stay at, but I guess it serves its purpose as a stopover towards the summit. It provides shelter against the rain, but not much more. Inside it looked like this, after we prepared our “beds”:
In my eyes, Gunung Mulu National Park is a strange blend of relatively unspoiled wilderness and a Disney theme park. Yes, there are magnificent caves, breathtaking views and trails, that not long ago were used by headhunters, but also miles and miles of wooden or concrete walkways through the forests, daily tours being announced through a loudspeaker, and guides in uniforms sharing the same jokes over and over again.
Despite its remote location – it is only accessible by plane or by boat – it is still a very popular tourist destination (it is highly recommended to book your accomodation inside the park well in advance!). From Miri we took a half an hour flight with MASWING and landed at the small airport of Mulu (the boatride is supposedely a lot longer – it can take a full day, and several different longboats on different rivers). Of course, if you are in an adventurous mood you can also access the park on foot, via the Headhunters Trail, from Limbang (you gonna need a licensed guide to do that).
Since we did not book our accomodation well in advance, we did not get a room (or a bed) inside the park for the first four nights. We ended up in Benarat Inn, which is one and a half kilometer away from the headquarters. They provided transportation for us (for a small price) each morning and evening to and from the park, but it was definiately better when we finally got a room inside the park. There are not many stores in the village and even those only carry some basic supplies, so if you need something special, make sure you get it beforehand.
We spent the first few days on the self-guided trails. The Paku Waterfall Trail is almost 9 kilometers long, and it takes you through some very nice forest. If you start out behind the headquarters, you will walk on a concrete walkway that runs along the Melinau River, and it can be quite slippery (not to mention the fact that you will feel again as in a botanical garden, not in a real rainforest). But as soon as you leave the concrete behind you will be surrounded by an amazing landscape – beautiful rock formations, trees growing straight from rocks, small rivers winding through the forest.
lantern bugslantern bugs
Around halfway you will come to a nice waterfall (Paku waterfall) where you can take a refreshing dip.
Paku waterfallPaku waterfall
We also signed up for the “mandatory” Deer and Lang Cave tour. Even if you are generally not too interested in caves, you shouldn’t miss this tour. From the headquarters it is a 3 km walk (on plank walkway). You start out with Lang cave, where you will find lots of beautiful karst formations. Then you walk over to Deer Cave, which is simply breathtaking. It is part of one of the larges cave passeges of the world. (A tip for photographers- you will need a tripod, since it is almost totally dark inside, but you need to get a special permission from the office beforehand).
the entrance to Deer Caveentering Deer Caveinside Deer Cavethe garden of Eden
There are around 3-5 million bats (mostly wrinkle-lipped bats) living in the cave, along with some swiftlets (that means quite a lot of guano also). The bats leave the cave usually between 4 and 6 p.m. (except when they decide not to). They can be best viewed from the Bat Observatory. I had this image in my mind, that millions of bats swarm out of the cave at the same time, but they actually leave in smaller groups. First they circle around at the opening of the cave – supposedly to confuse the bat hawks that are waiting for them – then they take off over the forest – like a smoke-signal.
bats leaving Deer Cave
On our first visit we witnessed their exodus from inside the cave. On the second day the weather was perfect, except that around 4 p.m. there was some loud thunder, and a storm was getting closer. By six it was clear that the bats wouldn’t come out. I wondered if they made a collective, conscious decision – Guys, the weather doesn’t look too promising, let’s just go back to sleep! – or what. Since there is no guarantee that they will leave the cave on a particular day you might have to check back another day.
Borneo, the second time around – first stop: Brunei
Visiting Brunei was on the top of our list because supposedly it has some of the most pristine rainforests on Borneo. With the incomes provided by the huge natural gas and oil-reserves, there is no pressing need to sell off the forests or turn them into vast oil-palm plantations (come to think of it, I haven’t seen any in Brunei). The tiny country is located on the Northwest part of Borneo, and is wedged between the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak. The population is only around 400,000, and most of the inhabitants are Muslims.
Already upon arriving I get the sense that we are entering a strict, conservative country. There are many signs warning about the death penalty for smuggling drugs – when I was packing my bags, I even left out my usual herbal stomach medicine because the little capsules had no marks on them, and I was afraid they might be mistaken for some kind of designer drugs (watching too many emotional movies about innocently jailed young tourists – played by Nicole Kidman or Claire Danes or Joaquin Phoenix – can do that to you). Then I happened to notice a sign with a warning that said: anybody bringing plants into the country can be sentenced to five years in prison. I was looking around desperately to find a place where I could get rid of my one remaining apple. I started to feel really paranoid when I noticed the cleaning staff checking the waste-bins in the bathrooms. We fumbled with our papers for a long time and I was certain that we raised everyone’s suspicion, but we were waved through the customs and nobody bothered to look at our bags.
The first two nights we stayed at the Terrace hotel in Bandar Seri Begawan. The hotel was described on one website as “dowdy” – and yes, it was a little rundown. Although there was a bathtub in the bathroom, and the room had a fridge and air-conditioning, the sheets had holes in them, the toilet did not flush, and they just had a small flooding in the reception area. But the staff was friendly, the little courtyard was charming and the soups were delicious.
Somehow we managed to time our arrival at the time of the Hari Raya which made the organizing part a little more difficult. First of all, it is one of the biggest holidays in the country – that means, nobody is working and everybody is travelling home to their families -, and second: nobody knew for sure when would be the exact date. As I understood, the end date of Ramadan is determined by the lunar Islamic calendar, so we were told to watch the evening news on tv and see if they announce it. This year it happened to fall on August 9th – the day when we were supposed to go to our campsite.
On our first day in the capital city, we walked from the hotel to the big mall to do our shopping for the trip (only a ten minute walk). The city was quite subdued during the day (no drinking or eating allowed, of course), but became a little livelier after dark. Generally, it felt safe wandering around. The series of strict signs continued, though – a thousand dollars or 3 months prison for littering, for example. It seemed to be effective – at least in the capital, but in rural areas trash was piled up next to the roads or in gardens.
On Friday we had to take a 45-minute boat-ride from the capital to Bangar. Our luggage and bags took up half of the water-taxi – we did the grocery shopping in the capital, but it turned out later we could have done it in Bangar, since there were quite a few stores there with all the supplies we needed. In Bangar we were picked up by car and taken to Batang Duri, where we climbed into a long-boat for our last boat-ride to the camp.
two younger brothers of our boatdriver
We saw a few tree-houses alongside the river:
a small tree-house
It only took us half an hour to get to our campsite, even though the water level was quite low. The campsite looked quite well-equipped – a covered kitchen area, two toilets (although some giant ants already claimed them as their home). We set up our tent on a wooden platform overlooking the river and were hoping that no big branches would fall on it during a storm.
our campsite
In the evening a generator provided enough electricity to use some lights and to re-charge batteries. We used two small gas-cookers to cook our rice, pasta and vegetables, and washed our plates in the river.
During our ten days we spent most of our time exploring the forest around the camp. On our side it was clear that the forest is secondary, but on the other side of the river it was in really good shape, and on the ridge it was one giant tree after another. Still, the lack of wildlife was disheartening. Of course we heard some hornbills, and saw a group of macaques and pygmy squirrels, but there are no orangutans in this area and we only heard gibbons on the last two days. I guess the daily boat-traffic (sometimes 15 boats in an hour in the morning and the same number after lunch) does not help, either. It seemed that most tourist visit the forest on a day trip – that means they got there around 10 o’clock, climbed the stairst to the canopy walkway and left and hour later. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) the toursits can only visit about 1 square kilometer out of the 550 square kilometers park area, the rest is strictly protected. On the other hand, the forest is a perfect destination for even the most squeamish tourists since there are virtually no mosquitoes and definately no leeches around.
On our second day we ventured into the national park. The canopy walkway can be reached only by climbing 1300 stairs (I haven’t counted it, but it definiately felt like that many, if not more). The walkway itself looks like this from the ground
and from the top
up in the tower – photo by Ralf Darius
There was one more trail that we were able to check inside the park. After a twenty-minute boatride we embarked on the trail which took us to two waterfalls. The first one:
To get to the second one we had to climb some steep parts, but there were ropes that we could hang onto. The forest itself was really beautiful along the trail.
We got to the second waterfall and were just about to take a dip in the cool water when our guide called us over. – Big snake! – he shouted. First we kept our respectful distance, but realizing that the python probably had just had a big meal (it looked like the picture from The Little Prince – the hat, which is actually a snake that swallowed an elephant) we inched closer and in the end stood almost on the snake’s tail. It did not seem to mind.
After taking a hundred pictures from all imaginable angles we slowly made our way back to the riverbank, to our boat.
The trip to the Kinabatangan River was born out of necessity. Visitors can only stay two weeks at the DanumValley Field Center, so our days were numbered and we had to find a place to go to where we could wait for the permit to maybe return to the Center. We spent many hours at the library trying to get some information about some possible options. One alternative was to go to Mabul and spend some days with snorkeling. Gulung Mulu was also on top of the Plan-B list. I always wanted to see that cave – Deer Cave, if I remember correctly- where the bats swarm out of at dusk. But the logistics seemed a bit complicated (at least 3 domestic fligths and still a ride after that). I found Bako National Park attractive – mostly because it is a home to a large number of proboscis monkeys whom I desperately wanted to see. And as a compromise, finally we settled down on the Kinabatangan River.
Now, we were fully aware that the area is far from “untouched”. Already in 1888 Dutch tobacco plantations started to pop up around the river. In the 1950’s logging licences were issued and in the 80’s the first oil palm platations were opened and natural habitats were destroyed. But, as I argued, we – as visitors – have a certain moral obligations to witness even the destruction, and not just spend our time in beautiful places. (I am not sure that I managed to convince even myself).
From Lahad Datu I called a few places (I found the phone numbers in Lonely Planet) but they either did not pick it up, or were fully booked. Finally, Greenview Bed and Breakfast were happy to provide us with a room. The bus station was only a few meters from the Field Center’s office. We bought a bag of snakefruit from a little girl (she was maybe five but was able to bargain as a mature businesswoman) and left Lahad Datu at 3 p.m. The view from the bus, as we made our way towards the river was one of the most depressing sights ever. Miles and miles and miles of oil palm plantations. Basically NOTHING ELSE just oil palm plantations. The magnitude of this type of destruction (and I am sorry, I cannot call it anything else) leaves you feeling helpless and hopeless. What can an individual do against this type of destruction? I don’t think it is enough to say that from now on we do not buy anything that has palm oil in it (according to some surveys, 7 in 10 of all products on UK supermarket shelves contain palm oil). The demand for it seems to be growing and while we heard that along the Kinabatangan they would not issue any more licences for plantation the damage has already been done and other places are still in danger. Even WWF admits it in one of its book about orangutans: “Attempts to halt expansion of oil palm plantations are very unlikely to succeed.” Oil palms produce high yields of oil (an average 4 tonnes per hectare per year) for little financial costs.
After an hour and a half ride the bus dropped us off at the junction where we got a taxi that took us to our hotel. Sukau is still 42 km away from the junction and along the road there is still nothing else just oil palm plantation. (Although, now that I think about it, how is it really different from our endless wheat or corn fields? Monoculture rules. )
Sukau is basically a few houses and motels. The roadside is covered with trash – I am not sure if only the macauques raiding the trashcans can be blamed for it. At the hotel (well, there is a kitchen area and some bungalows) we are presented with a price list. Seems like most tourist only stay for one, max. two nights. There is a night-tour on the river, a morning boat trip to the oxbow lake, and jungle tour (jungle?? has anybody seen a jungle around here??) included in the price. And obviously all the other lodges have the exact same plan, because the next morning we are heading toward the oxbow lake with twenty other boats, full of tourists.
Of course by the time your boat (which, let’s say the 15th in line) gets to the tree where supposedely a proboscis monkey family is feeding, you only see a few branches moving as the monkeys disappear in the back trees.
The next day, learning from our experience, we rent a boat for an afternoon (300 ringit). A huge black cloud is looming over the horizon, but we manage to outrun it.
And then suddenly, Ralf spotted an elephant on the river bank. It was a small group, with six or seven elephants.
One of them came down to the river to feed – providing an excellent opportunity for us to take some pictures from a safe distance.
As for a lot of other species, the main threats for the Bornean pygmy elephants are habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation. They sometimes move into the plantations in search of food and each year hundreds of elephants are killed because of such conflicts.
On our way back we spot a beautiful hornbill and a few probiscis monkeys.
The storm has passed in the meantime:
Next day we took a short boat trip up one of the small tributaries of the Kinabatangan river, and saw groups of pig-tailed macaques. Some of them were using the fire hose slung across the river, which is supposed to help orangutans to move around in isolated forest patches.
Some of them were busy grooming each other:
and some of them were simply curious:
It was already late afternoon when we met some proboscis monkeys:
The hotel had a very nice library – WWF and Nestlé has a small office there and I guess they supplied most of the books. I find No Impact Man by Colin Beavan especially inspirational. (If you have never heard of him, check out http://www.noimpactman.typepad.com ). Just a few quotes from his book (that I wish I had written).
“Our system makes it virtually impossible to get the things we want and need without leaving behind a trail of trash and pollution and greenhouse gases”
“How much of our consumption of the planet’s resources actually makes us happier and how much just keeps us chained up as wage slaves?”
“I suddenly realized that my problem might not actually be the state of the world. My problem was my inaction. I was worried sick about something and doing nothing about it. I wasn’t sick of the world. I was sick of myself. I was sick of my comfortable and easy pretention of helplessness.”
And most importantly:
“I want my work to align with my values. I want to write about what’s important. I want to help change minds.”
The Field Center is basically a research facility that provides accomodation, permanent research plots, well-equipped labs, and necessary equipment and staff for international and Malay scientists. It also accept visitors – although a little grudgingly. For example – for some unfathomable reason – they impose a two-week limit on tourist visits. (What are they afraid of, what would happen to a tourist after two weeks there? Fall irrevocably in love with the forest?) Although, I have to admit, most of the visitors stay only for 2 or 3 nights – which is definiately not enough time to explore the area.
Visitors can choose from a few different types of accomodation – the guest house provides a comfortable room with two beds, overhead fans and shower. There is electricity running for most of the day, and the walkway to the dining area is covered with a roof so you don’t have to get soaking wet if dinnertime coincides with a heavy rainstorm. (Those staying in the hostel are a little bit less fortunate – they have almost a ten-minute walk to cover each time they are hungry.)
The dining area provides one of the biggest attraction – you have the chance to chat with the scientists who do research here and get an insight into their work. (Seems like an awfully lot of investigation is going on concerning dung-beetles). It is the best place to have serious discussions about serious subjects: – Should environmental protection be based on the intrinsic value of nature or on the “economic services” it provides? Can we – should we – put a price tag on nature? Can we – as individuals or let’s say consumers – have any influence on major political decisions that have serious environmental consequences? etc. Or to be entertained with some horror stories that sound like urban legends – like the scientist who carelessly wiped his forehead and managed to get a tiger leech on his eyeball. (on his EYEBALL!! ahhh!)
Mealtimes also provide a nice opportunity to strike up a conversation with other guests. The visitors fall into some quite distinct categories: first, there are the “bird people”, crazy fanatics, who can come back from a long hike all disappointed (even after they run into a rare rhino), just because they did not see the blue marbled chested trumpleteers (the name is used fictitiously, any resemblance to actual birdnames is coincidental) which was the last one on their list. Yes, they arrive with a list, and they methodically work they way down this list and they seem to be blind to any other animals that do not have a beak, two wings and feathers.
Then there are those tourists who only come for a night or two to get a fleeting impression of the forest and a glimps of the orangutans. They usually disappear early in the morning on one of the trails (after the first hike they usually visit the little store in the reception building to purchase a leech-sock) and finish the day with a night-ride, just to cram as many animals as they can into a 2-day visit.
And of course there are some people who’d rather be on the beach. They might have been dragged into the forest by their enthusiastic spouse or parent. It is quite easy to recognize them, since they do not even leave the dining area. They settle down in one of the comfortable armchairs with a Kindle or iPod or any other electronic devices, and only look up to check if the dinner is already on the table or not.
The area around the Field Center is quite easy to discover on your own and can provide some amazing discoveries.
The self-guided Nature Trailtakes you around the secondary forest. We lucked out and on our very first walk we met an orangutan mom with her baby who were crossing the trail just in front of us. Then, a few days later we were able to follow them for three hours as they munched on different types of leaves at a leisurely pace showing no signs of fear whatsoever.
The suspension bridge that crosses the Segama River is one of the best places to hang out. Each part of the day provides a different spectacle. Early morning, as the fog slowly lifts, you might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a group of macaques as they swim across the river.
Later, you might cross the bridge just to bump into one of the young orangutans feeding on a tree.
A young orangutan feeding on a tree next to the bridge
Looking down you might be able to spot a monitor lizard in the water as it is skillfully maneuvers around the rocks.
monitor lizard swimming in the Segama River
In the afternoon you can get up close and personal to a whiskered treeswift sitting on the bridge.
And of course, as the cicadas launch into their evening concerto, you can witness a giant squirrel as it climbs up to the very top of the tallest tree on the right side of the river (where the buildings are) then glides over the river to the other side. Of course, as the news spread among the visitors (Flight schedule: Take-off at 6.45 p.m) the sign on the bridge (max. 8 people) got largely ignored, as at least a dozen of us gathered together with cameras at the ready, eyes fixed on the tall tree. (Sorry, no good pictures to show for all this effort. But to see a squirrel flying more than 50 meters across the river – priceless.)
There are two observation platforms around the camp, although the one close to West trail looks a little bit frail. But both worth the climb – at 40 meter high you have a totally different view of the forest.
view from the platform
Spotting an orangutan on a branch that is lower than you, or watching the red leaf monkeys at eye-level gives you a whole new perspective of the forest and its inhabitants.
Red leaf monkeys seen from the observation tower after the rainRed leaf monkeys on the treetop after the rain
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