November... rainy season is upon us

After Thailand we headed to Danau Girang for the night, it was lovely to have another catch up with the other PTY’s and her about what they had been doing and what they had decided to do for their placement projects. The next day we met Mark from the field centre who was going to test our driving in Sabah on the lovely, civilised roads!! Naomi went first and drove us safely on the two-hour trip to Sandakan although here sense of direction was entertaining, once there we had a few bits and pieces we needed to collect before lunch. For lunch Mark took us to a little English tea garden, where they had a croquet set laid out on the lawn and English country decorations, we didn’t have any tea but we had amazing pink lemonade, gooey chocolate brownies and cheese cake. On the way home it was my turn to drive, despite the roads looking lethal with cars over taking and under taking everywhere and big holes in the road, it was quite nice to be driving again and I got my sleeping passenger back to Batu Puti safely!

The next few days we spent at the house in Lahad Datu sorting photographs and seeing how many of my itunes songs we could play, I think we made to 140 songs in one day. After a few days Naomi and I headed back into the forest. Whilst in the forest we went to clear some vegetation by one of the salt licks, I went ahead in the car with one of the boys to clear vegetation at the end of the road. As we got to the end of the road, I looked up and disappearing into the vegetation at the other side of the clearing was 3 banteng! A male, a female and a juvenile! It was amazing and my first sighting of banteng in day light but my second sighting of these very elusive creatures, am I the Banteng whisperer?!

The beginning of November meant that it was time to take on Dad in the Plank Challenge! You can’t put a challenge in front of Naomi and I and not expect us to complete it, so starting with a very easy 20 seconds of plank and building through the month. We finally managed 4 minutes 33seconds on day 30, I think you won dad. As rainy season is now upon us, torrential rain and spectacular thunder and lightning are a daily occurrence, sometimes so close that the floors in the house shake and the night sky lights up just like day time. When we were not working, and in the evenings when we were escaping from the lightening, we had time to get on with our project proposals. I have decided to look at the foraging behaviour and the diet of the banteng. In order to do this I am going to use the camera trap pictures of banteng eating that we have collected. From these pictures I will look at when and where banteng forage ad then try and identify what they are eating! 

In the evenings between work I also had time to do some running, which was a nice change from walking around in smelly jungle clothes and a great chance to see the wildlife, which one night included Bobby the resident one eyed pig that lives around the house and a snake which was crossing the track.

A photograph of a misty sunrise in the jungle.

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Phuket Visa Run

After 3 months of jungle life Naomi and I headed to Phuket, Thailand for a much-needed week off. We had arranged to meet my dad, Lisa and Katie in Phuket and Dad had booked the hotel, arranged an airport pick up and forwarded the information, as we were in the jungle, so all we had to do was to get ourselves there, thanks Dad. We caught the bus to Sandakan in the north of Sabah, the bus was nothing like I had expected, with two levels, a tv and complimentary water, we even had extra entertainment from a little girls playing peek-a-boo through the seats. The taxi to the airport was a bit more like I had expected, the car was like an old Nissan, but in red with a white bonnet and boot. The driver’s seat was so low it looked like he should be scraping on the road, but the car ran perfectly and we made it to the tiny airport safely and checked in at the desk for our flight.

After a ten-hour stopover in Kuala Lumpur Airport, where we used the internet to catch up with the world, we hopped on another flight to Phuket. The plane was very empty but in the flight of just over an hour Air Asia still managed to serve us a fantastic meal, yes I ate aeroplane food! We arrived in Phuket at 4.50 am and went to find our hotel transfer whilst avoiding the other pestering taxi drivers.

We were welcomed into the hotel's huge lobby where we were given complimentary cookies J before being shown to our room. Having been up since 6.30am the previous day we thought we’d catch up on some sleep and then head out to get some brunch, but after 2 hours of trying to sleep we were both wide awake, so got up and went for  walk to the sea front. After rice and noodles for 3 months, we were very glad to find a little restaurant on the edge of the beach that served fresh juice and pizzas and had the bonus of free wifi. After this we headed back to our room for an afternoon of making the most of more internet, aircon and an amazing hot shower, before heading back out to the beach for gourmet burgers and a beer!

With body clocks still on jungle time Naomi and I were awake with the sun and excited about the buffet breakfast. The breakfast was amazing, we had pancakes and bacon, pastries, juices, fresh fruit, cereal and bread and butter pudding! Later in the morning Lisa, Katie and the Birthday Boy arrived, they were not quite as alive as Naomi and I after there long haul flight so the rest of the day was spent by the swimming pool.

The next morning the beach and the sea were calling and the Ironman wanted to show me his swimming, so we all headed down to the beach for a swim in the sea and a run on the beach before another monstrous breakfast and the heat of the day. In the afternoon we headed across to Phuket town to do some shopping and get some dinner, yes breakfast kept me full until dinner!

On Wednesday there was a scuba diving taster session in the hotel swimming pool, being a person who likes to try everything and a lover of water I was keen to give it a go! It was amazing and resulted in us booking onto a day of scuba diving for the Friday, this I was very excited about. In the afternoon we thought it would be rude to go all the way to thailand and not to have a thai massage on the beach front, mine was soo nice that I struggled to get back off the bed once the lady had finished!

On Thursday after our morning exercise on the beach and breakfast, Naomi, Katie and I decided to do some sight-seeing so headed to the south of the Island, guided by our lovely taxi driver. We first went to the Chalong temple a huge Buddhist temple covered in intricate red, green and gold detailing and colourful murals showing the life of Buddha. The temple is said to have a piece of Buddha bone in the top of the high tower and is very popular with tourists who go to pay the respects to the monks who have protected the locals in the past. After the temples we headed to the Big Buddaha, this is an unfinished 45m tall monument of Buddha that was started in 2004 and is built primarily from donations, it is situated on the top of a hill giving a great view out over Chalong bay.

On the way back to the hotel the taxi driver suggested we should visit other places like Fantasia- the elephant circus show, and Tiger Kingdom, little did he know that he was trying to persuade Ecology and Zoology student to pay money to go and see elephants and tigers locked in cages and on chains... i think not! He did however suggest we went to see the Simon Cabaret show which is where we headed that evening! The lady boys of the Simon cabaret show were scarily feminine and left me a little bit shocked and confused, how could guys look so girly?! After the show we went to into a nearby town for dinner and to look around the evening market, we ate in a busy little restaurant, where Lisa ordered a glass of wine and one of the young waiters accidently poured her a glass of fruit syrup! Whoops!

Friday was the day of Scuba diving, we were picked up from the hotel and taken down to the boat in the south of the Island. Once on board we met Simon our diving instructor and he went through the basics of diving with us! We went to two dive locations around the Racha Island and on the first dive we spent 45 minutes at 11.5 meters! When we came up and Simon told us this I was amazed as I thought we’d only been in the water about 10 minutes and I thought we were only just under the surface!!  The water was very clear and the plants and sea creatures were incredible, on the first dive we focused on regulating the pressures in our ears and trying to swim in a straight line.. not as easy as you think.. but on the second dive we were able to look around more and we saw a sea snake, rays and thousands of fish. The boat went to a third dive site where we had the chance to go snorkelling, dad and I thought this would be fun, until I jumped in and got stung by jelly fish! Ouch! On the boat the wonderful staff kept us fed, with breakfast, lunch and amazing pineapple and banana fritters. We also met a lovely couple from Australia who were holidaying in Phuket and when we got talking we discovered that ‘Tegan Jones’ was of welsh ancestry; well she had to be with a name like that!

Saturday was our last day in Thailand, so we decided to have a relaxing day by the beach and the pool. After a game of water polo we headed for the water slide... on the water slide there was a Chinese lady wearing denim shorts, these shorts were not slippery at all so she gave up trying to slide down the slide and walked down it instead. After she’d gone around the last bend of the slide Katie and I waited a while before racing down, as I got near the last bend I caught a glimpse of the lady still walking.. uh oh.. but I was going soo fast that I couldn’t stop and before either of us knew it I knocked her legs from underneath her and took her flying off the end of the slide with me, unfortunately getting her hat wet!!

In the evening we headed to the weekend evening market just outside the old Phuket town, the market was bustling with locals and tourists wandering the lines of stalls selling clothes, CD’s and food. Dad was quite content when he found himself a little bar that sold beers and had a tv and fan, so we left him there while we girls shopped! As this was our last night in Thailand dad thought it was only fitting that we tried one of the delicacies.. deep fried insects! I opted for a grasshopper and it just tasted like any other crunchy deep fried food really, it was just the thought of ts little legs that creeped me out!  We finished our holiday with dinner and cocktails by the beach before packing up, saying goodbye to the family and heading for the Airport.

We landed in Sandakan Airport on Sunday at 12.15pm and the last bus back to Lahad Datu was at 1pm.. it was going to be tight! The airport is tiny so we thought it might be okay but the bags took an age to come through and the taxi queue was long! When we finally got in the driver looked at us as if we were crazy as it was 12.50! eek. We arrived at the bus station and the bus was still there Phew.. but now we had another problem as there as only 1 seat left! The guys on the bus must have felt sorry for us as they let me sit in the seat on the steps and Naomi sat in the one empty seat at the other end of the bus. Time to head back to work!

That was meant to be a brief summary of our week but so much happened that it turned into more of an essay. oops!

A few of my favourite team pictures

Me out on expedition at Sipitang forest reserve (September)

Lee and I sitting out a thunderstorm under an old water trough!

Lee and Rusdi on the Canopy walkway at Maliau Basin (August)

Check out the muscle as the Banteng girls put their weight lifting to good use!!... ok maybe we got the car stuck by trying to go around a lorry that was stuck (Maliau Bain September)

Naomi still managing to smile and navigate while knee deep in mud on expedition in Malua Forest Reserve!

11am = lunch time in the jungle! 

I spy with my little eye,..

So... each month i’ve been keeping a record of the species that I have seen, once they are listed I don’t put down every single time see them!

August

White Crowned Hornbill... very rare sighting we were lucky enough to see a family at Tabin Wildlife lodge

Rhinocerous Hornbill.. no as rare but still beautiful

Storm Stork-a scarce resident but I have managed to see a few mainly in oil palm plantation trees

Buffy Fish Owl.. down by the river while we were washing the car.. Grandma I thought you’d like this one!

Orang-utan.. a large male sat in the tree behind the house

Bornean Elephant... many!

Sambar Deer

Muntjac

Bearded Pig Family

Monitor Lizard

Rat Snake.. on a branch right above my head whilst out walking!

Mosquitoes, rats, geckos, sandflies- these seem to think they are our housemates!

September

BANTENG.. I actually saw them!! J thought I was going to have a heart attack with excitement and trying to keep quiet, but it was amazing. I no longer think they are mythical!

Egret

Male Crested Fireback-a member of the pheasant family with amazing colouration

Swifts

Long Tailed Macaque

Leopard cat... not to be mistaken with a clouded leopard, these are house cat sized!

Common Palm Civet

Banded Linsang

Tarsier

Terrapin..we saved it from being run over

Malayan Banded Wolf Snake.. luckily only a juvenile, it was in the shower and the boys caught it!

Fish...i’m sorry but we may have eaten some of you!

October

Coucal

Pacific Swallow

Raffles’ malkoha- after much deliberation and sitting watching through my binoculars this is the conclusion we came to!

Male Oriental Magpie Robin

Red Leaf Monkey.. swinging in the trees!

Malay Civet- See October’s blog post for the full story of this little devil!

Yellow Throated Marten.. a pair crossing the road while we were walking

Short tailed Mongoose

Flying Lemur- actually saw it flying

Thomas’ Flying Squirrel

Flying lizard

HUGE snake in the river.. I was with Lee who is terrified of snakes which was quite funny!

November and December
Due to the extensive list above, actually seeing a new species is become less and less frequent, however there have been a few!
Water Buffalo- I didn't know they were even here until I saw them!
Ranee Mouse- a cute little mouse made a nice change from big rats!
Crested Serpent Eagle- I've probably seen lots of these but I didn't know what they were until now

October- The expedition of getting stuck and hunting activity

Maliau Basin and Sipitang Forest Reserve

The expedition of getting stuck and hunting activity. At the beginning of October we (Penny, Jo, Elena and I) headed back to Maliau Basin Conservation area to check on the camera traps that had be set their in previous months, once again we stayed in Belian Camp in our hammocks under the gazebo, but this time not under the table! We only spent 2 nights and one day in Maliau Basin but in this time we managed to make friends with a Malay Civet who was first attracted by the smell of guava and jumped on the table right next to me whilst i was using my laptop and then decided our empty cups on the table made a great toy and lots of noise o scare the life out of us when we were sleeping in the middle off the night! The photos from the camera traps revealed the very rare Bulwers Pheasant, a pangolin and some gorgeous photos of a large male banteng who stood and posed for the camera for us!

From Maliau Basin to Sipitang forest reserve it is another 7 hours drive, this was made longer because a full diesel lorry had got stuck on the track out of Maliau Basin and when we went to go around it the bank gave way and we ended up stuck too! A Maliau Basin staff truck tried to pull us out from the front and ended up getting stuck too so in the end we had to be pulled out from the back and then put rocks out to drive over in order to get our journey to sipitang under way! We dropped Elena off in .... on our way and arrived at Benthes camp in Sipitang forest reserve just before dark.

Benthes camp is a forestry staff contractors camp and is at about 1100m in altitude, unlike the rest of the places I have visited in Sabah I didn’t take my jumper off the whole time I was here, it was probably around 20 degrees but this still felt like the arctic compared to the usual 35!.. yes, I am going to freeze when I return to the uk! The camp has long wooden buildings with the long sides open, there is an open kitchen and sitting area at one end and then back to back bedrooms two rooms wide filling up the rest of the building. We stayed in one of the little room which was just big enough for the 2 bunk beds that were in it, the showers and toilets were in a little block. The first night dared a cold shower but after that we boiled the kettle and made warm water to shower with!! We stayed at this camp for 4 nights and the 3 days of walking we did nearby turned out to be extremely interesting!

On two days of walking near the first camp we encountered 2 groups of 6 hunters out hunting, one group ended up having to help us when our car got stuck on a rock the size of a coffee table! Thankfully there were no banteng signs at the locations with the hunters, although 2 of our cameras had been stolen so we don’t know what pictures these contained. On the other day of walking we did find some old banteng dung, so we are still hopeful to see some of the Sipitang herd on our cameras. On this day we also visited a site that was meant to be an old deserted village, but it contained two manmade wood buildings, one with clothes and a padlocked trunk and the other on silts full of bags of some kind of grain, so wasn’t so deserted after all. This day turned out to be a very long day of walking, some of it along a river and some of it climbing up and down very steep forest, ending with a pitch black trek back to the car!

After four nights in camp we moved onto another compartment of Sipitang Forest where Sabah and Sarawak meet and the logging is actively going on around you. We spent 2 nights here, staying in the contractor’s camp cafe on the floor! The family that ran the cafe we so welcoming and provided us with plenty of meals, mattresses to sleep on and they had a tv, it was luxury! At this location the team planned to walk to the Sarawak border to see if there were signs of banteng, but of course the best place for borders are the ridges of mountains so it was a climb to 1500m for the team!..Altitude got the better of me and sent me straight back to my bed!

The full final day in Sipitang took us to yet another area, this time where the team saw more recent dung and are hopeful of getting pictures, although the area of forest is a 1km wide stretch of wildlife corridor which is surrounded by secondary replanted forest that was being logged as we were driving through. The final night was spent at another contractor’s camp where my height became apparent when I went for a shower only to realise that the wall was only up to my chest, thankfully I’d turned my torch off and the water was soo cold it was only a quick wash anyway!!

The next day we set of before dawn in order to reach our house in Lahad Datu before dusk, 600km (14 hours) of half tarmac and half track with pit stops at lots of bakeries to keep us stocked up on food. Half way through our journey we were flagged down by a man standing by his car on the side of the track, so we assumed he’d had a puncture, when we stopped we were very shocked to find out that his friend had chain-sawed his wrist and needed a lift to hospital, which was over 2hours away. So the injured friend jumped in the car and, with a very grimaced face, endured the next 2 hours of journey along the rough track with a gaping wrist not covered with any bandage just held to his body with a make shift sling! At 6.30pm we finally arrived back at the Lahad Datu house.

So all of that only takes me to October 11^th(!)

On October 12^th I went back into Malua to go on Banteng watch duty with Lee until the 25^th. There wasn’t a lot of banteng watching to be done thanks to the daily thunder and lightening, but this time the forest house had water so showering and washing could be done at the house and the river just used for swimming.

The end of October means the end of our first 3 months and time for a week’s break, so Naomi and I are off to Thailand for a week of hot showers, a proper toilet and relaxing!

September

Firstly every month Danau Girang Field Centre make a newsletter called the Jungle Times, as part of the Banteng team Naomi and I wrote last month’s Banteng report for it, the Banteng team will hopefully have a monthly update in it. The Jungle times also shows all the other research projects and current news for Danau Girang Field Centre.. check it out http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/biosi/facilities/danaugirangfieldcentre/index.html 

I spent the first 2 weeks of September with Rusdi on night time Banteng watch duty. During this time we spent the days at the forest house in Malua and the night times keeping watch for banteng. At the forest house we showered and washed our clothes and dishes down at the river because the water pump to pump the water from the river to the house was broken, when it finally got fixed I believe it was just a slipped belt that was stopping it working!!! We also played dominoes (thank you YFC indoor sports!), the boys played the guitar and we sat in the hammocks underneath the house chatting and reading... i would joke its a hard life but 17 hour night shifts are quite hard!! On September 16^th was Sabah Independence day so the forestry staff went home for the day, returning on the 17^th was a feast of fresh fish and lots of biscuits! One of many, many meals of fish that I ate in my time at there... fish caught from the river made up most of our meals over the 2 weeks. 

At the end of September I went on expedition to collect the sd cards and change the batteries in the cameras on the 2 grids of camera traps in Malua. On the first day I walked with Rusdi and we walked 2 transects of camera traps, 9km in total and were home by 1.30... despite me getting ants in my nose and falling down a bank, all in one go! The next day we all (Jo, Lee, Rusdi, Elena and I) started walking together and then split off into groups to check different transects, unfortunately the cameras from 3 of our stations had been stolen by hunters, despite them being padlocked in metal cases that were bolted onto the trees. At the next grid the boys decided that they could walk faster without us girls slowing them down so they went off to walk on 3 days while Jo, Elena and I sorted pictures from the previous grid and only walked on one day. One evening we went down to the house by the river where Rusdi climbed the tree to cut down some fresh coconut for us and dinner contained fresh mushrooms which the forestry staff had picked. I was very good at eating the coconut but pretty bad at cutting them open, I wouldn't survive very well on a desert island!  

Below is a photo of Rusdi up the tree, I missed him climbing it the first time so he had to climb it again for the photo!!

New House

We have moved! We have spent the past week and a bit moving and sorting everything out in our new house in Lahad Datu. It only took us 3 trips in the car to empty our house in Tabin Forest Reserve and to fill our new house with all our stuff! The new house is on the edge of town meaning we can walk to the shops and to the cafe to get internet, there is 2 twin rooms a kitchen, bathroom and a living room/office/store room but no tables and chairs!! We have perfected our plumbing skills by fixing all the broken pipes, putting in a shower and stopping the kitchen tap dripping , we have also repainted the bathroom and kitchen and hung the pictures and mosquito nets... this placement is definitely giving me more than research skills!!

Along with sorting the house out we have downloaded and sorted all the pictures that we collected from the expeditions in Malua Forest, there were some great shots of Sambar Deer and Elephants along with 6 photos of a male Banteng. We have been using the tables and chairs in the

This week we have also been and spent the night at Danau Girang Field Centre. This is the university research centre out here and is where the other 4 Cardiff PTY’s are based. The centre is about an hour from our house in Lahad Datu and is only accessible by boat. I was lovely to see the other PTY’s and see where they are living as well as meet all the other researchers and learn about their projects. 

Today I am heading into Malua Forest where I will be based for the next month, so you won’t hear from me for  while!

Forest checking Station

This is the forest checking station.. they are all identical just in different places and are where we were staying on the malua forest expedition.

Maliau Basin Bedroom!!!

This is my sleeping quarters from Maliau Basin expedition. We were staying in a camping site but there were no trees for the hammocks so we strung them out on the floor of the gazebo so we could use the mosquito nets but then it rained and the roof was leaking through so we moved mine to underneath the table! It was out of the way and dry but I kept forgetting and sitting up when I woke up!!

Malua Forest Expedition

I have just returned from expedition to Malua Forest Reserve where there are 2 grids of cameras that needed checking, the SD cards changing and new set of fully charged batteries putting in them. The cameras are laid out in grids of 6x6 cameras and are there is 500m between each camera, so the past week and a bit has involved a lot of walking.

We spent 3 days checking the first set of cameras and staying in a field checking station on the edge of the forest next to the palm oil plantations then four days at an identical looking forest checking station but at a different side of the forest by the Kinabatangan river! The stations are little green bungalows on stilts, they have 3 little bedrooms, a main living area, a kitchen, a wet room and a lovely balcony on the front where Naomi and I have sat and watched the lightening and attempted to take photographs!! The first one had a generator so we had electricity at night but at the second one the generators was broken (it has been for 6 months apparently) so it was torch and candle light only after 6.30pm. We also ran out of water at the second station so washing was done in a little shower room on stilts at a house down by the river, the shower used water which was pumped from the river but it had a great view out over the river and the forest so running out of water had its perks!

The forest where the cameras are set is all secondary forest and has been logged in the first grid terrain had lots of vines, roots and thorny plants on the floor, this made finding a month old trail difficult at points but meant my parang-ing skills improved. Some of the cameras are set on the old logging road which was easier going on the legs but very hot out of the canopy cover.  The second grid was more entertaining with the first day spent walking two transects of the grid through knee deep swamp land and crossing a river that was meant to be shallow but actually ended up being waist deep for me but shoulder deep in one part where Rusdi tried to cross (photo to follow!!), the other days were back in the thick forest but with some steep slippery slopes to climb up and down... or crawl and slide!!

Whist we were on expedition the other boys from the team phoned to say there had been more cases of hunters and that some more of or cameras had been stolen after assessing the sites of the missing cameras we returned to Lahad Datu to where our new house is, the new house is on the edge of town on a site with other wildlife staff and researcher’s houses and it means we can walk into town to get shopping and use the internet instead of having to wait until we pass through town in the car, it also means we get ‘mains’ electric, although i’m not sure what is more reliable a generator or Malayan mains!! Last night we had pizza hut for dinner... its only just made it to Lahad Datu along with KFC which serves chicken with rice!!

Currently i’m sat in a cafe in town going through the photos that we collected on our and so far there are no Banteng but some gorgeous photos of a clouded leopard, a sunbear and her little cub, lots of elephants and small calves and lots of very playful baby pigtailed macaques, which think our cameras make great toys.

Maliau Basin Trip

I have spent the past 5 days on expedition in Maliau Basin Conservation Area, this is a huge basin of primary and secondary forest with a buffer zone between the forest and the plantations. MBCA is 7 hours drive from our main base at Tabin, mainly on tarmac roads following the coastline and meandering through the oil palm plantations, which cover any land that doesn't have rainforest on it. On the way we passed some huge lorries full of logs and yards packed with stacks of logs that had all be chopped from the surrounding forest. I was on expedition with Penny and two of her workers Di and Lee, we were checking camera traps that were set in June by teams on another expedition. We managed to capture some great pictures on the cameras and had pictures of 8 Banteng individuals at 3 different sites :D. We also had photos of Malay badgers, banded palm civets and sun bears along with lots of pigs, deer, macaques and some rats! We were staying at a camp site but sleeping on the decking under a big wooden gazebo in our sleeping bags, a bit hard but the sounds of the jungle are amazing. There is an amazing canopy walkway just by our camp which we did on the last evening and made a nice change from hacking our way through the thick jungle floor...I now have my own Parang (jungle knife) and a lovely dirty pair of jungle rubber boots!! My paddling came in useful when we did a day in a blow up raft on the river looking for signs of hunters, in particular their camps along the river. We found loads of signs of the hunters and lots of camps full of their litter but luckily I didnt see any! We are going on another expedition to check two grids of 72 cameras tomorrow so i'll let you know how that goes!

Week 1

I’ve been here over a week now, and i’ve learned that the mosquitoes love me!! Our journey in Borneo began last Thursday we made the 10 hour journey from Kota Kinabalu by jeep over the mountains by Mount Kinabalu and across Sabah to Tabin. The first 7 hours were with Benoit (in charge at Danau Girang- DG) in his car, mainly on tarmac roads but a few gravel roads too, and then we met Penny (Banteng PHd Student) at the DG boat crossing point and she drove the rest of the way to her house in Tabin. Her house is on the nature reserve and is an hour and a half from the nearest town of Lahad Datu. It has 2 bedrooms, an office, a living room, a wet shower room (an actual shower and an actual toilet!) and a kitchen. The house is run completely by a generator, which luckily runs nearly 24/7 here. There is running water in the house which is pumped up from the river and its used for washing and cooking, any drinking water has to be collected from town.

This first week we have just bee settling in and learning how to set up and use the camera traps and GPS. We have been charging batteries for the 2 grids of 72 camera traps in Malua Forest reserve, each camera trap holds 12 batteries so it’s been a never ending process since last Friday to get enough charged ready to go!

I have seen 2 orangutans up in the trees outside the house and a family of bearded pigs out on the road when we went for a walk at the weekend. When we went down to the nearby safari lodges we saw a pair of very rare white crested hornbills and their juvenile feeding in the trees. Today we are heading to Malua forest reserve where the Banteng camera traps are set up at the moment, it’s 3 hours drive from Tabin so another chance to have a good look at the landscape and try and see some more animals. :)

We've Arrived

We've arrived! 25 hours after leaving home we are all checked into our little rooms for the night, having successfully negotiated Heathrow, Hong Kong and Kota Kinabalu airports and found ourself a taxi to the city centre. The aeroplane food was interesting, the evening meals were nice but not sure about minced chicken for breakfast! Very glad my welshcakes didnt get taken by customs so I had them to keep me going :D. Been for a wonder around a lovely night market and had food in a seafood food hall this evening.  This place is soo cheap, it cost 11 british poumds for our airport transfer and our bed and breakfast...With all then luxuries... air con, wifi, hot showers!! Heading to Danau Girang tomorrow, not sure how much internet there is there... may be proper jungle living! X

4 days to go

My Borneo adventure begins on tuesday, so tonight I am having drinks with my friends and family! My bags are nearly packed and my last bits of shopping are done.... excited doesn't cover how I feel :D