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 11th(!)
On October 12th I went back into Malua to go on
Banteng watch duty with Lee until the 25th. 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!
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