Expedition and Bye Bye Sipitang

The arrival of the newly modified car meant that we could get March’s expedition underway, the objectives for the month we to check cameras in Sapulut Forest Reserve and Maliau Basin and to take down all the remaining cameras in Sipitang forest reserve as our study period had finished.

We started off with the seven hour drive from our base in Lahad Datu to Sapulut forest reserve where we stayed for a few nights. Here we stay in a contractor’s camp with electric, beds, fans, running water, a toilet, a tv and even internet! Luxury accommodation!

For the first day of expedition I always feel like a drunk person, wobbling and tripping all over the place, while my jungle legs come back. Our first day was 10kms of walking along old logging roads and also replacing some cameras which were stolen in February. An early start meant that lunch was eaten at the typical 11am and we were back at base camp by 1pm!

The next day of walking wasn’t as successful with 2 of our 3 stations of cameras having been vandalised, the camera cases had been bent and the cameras removed and burnt.

After 2 days in Sapulut we headed for Sipitang Forest Reserve. Enroute to Sipitang we stopped for lunch in Keningau and whilst Jo and I were waiting for the boys the shop in front of us was receiving its rice delivery, the workers were being stacked up with 10x 5kg bags on their shoulder and on top of their head and moving them into the shop, no hands needed!

We arrived in Sipitang in muggy damp weather and left the nice new tarmac road for the dirt tracks, arriving at the plantation workers camp in the late afternoon.

The first day in Sipitang was a dry day, so we decided to head to the cameras across the river, when we set these cameras up the river level was really low but the rainy season has prevented us accessing them since. Luckily some tree trunks had become lodged across the gap between the river bank and the broken bridge allowing us to cross, just. The boys braved the walking across while Jo and I went for a lady like crawl along the trees! Some of he camera traps were put high up in the trees to get a better view of the area but this made it very difficult to get them down, especially as a colony of ants had made their home in one.

On day 2 we split into 2 teams, Rusdi and I went off on the motorbike to collect in 2 camera stations and Jo, Lee and the 2 SFI staff headed to another area to take down the cameras there. Rusdi and I had a 10km walk along narrow paths with steep landslides on the side and over the top of a crest and then down the other side of the hill and back, with some great views out over the hills.   

On other days in Sipitang we had to negotiate big landslides and broken bridges. Some of the broken bridges had been precarious in previous months but heavy rain and the digging out of the ditches turned a fairly short walk into a long day. The walking starting with a 2km uphill climb with a 300m gain in elevation, thankfully at the end of the day when our rucksacks were full of cameras it was all down hill.

A few days later we had to go back into the area with the broken bridges and ditches to access some more cameras, this time we managed to get in on the motorbike preventing an 18km walk. Rusdi and I managed to negotiate 3 ditches, the steep hill full of ruts and the remains of 2 bridges in order to get to the point where we leave the bike for the 6km round walk to collect the camera traps. At the final ditch the mud was really slippery and we had to push the bike up the bank, Rusdi asked me to push it from the back while he steered the front, this ended in a comic scene moment when the back tyre spun mud all over me!.. but we got the bike out of the ditch!

The Banteng teams long days of walking proved too much for the SFI staff who were following us, as they both fell asleep in the car journeys on the last few days.  After many long hot day of walking, carrying heavy rucksacks and pushing the motorbike out of numerous ditches Sipitang was done, all cameras removed and all our stuff packed up. Goodbye Sipitang, high altitude chilly nights, getting the car stuck in the mud, interesting encounters with hunters but lovely days walking with great views of the mountains and great camera trap photographs.

We headed back to Sapulut to stay for two nights and to go to Maliau Basin and check the cameras there and for me to assess the plants at the banteng foraging sites for my project. When expedition was done it was time to head back to Lahad Datu, from Sapulut its about 6 hours drive and after some lunch in Tawau the only way to top of another great expedition was with MacDonald's Icecreams!

Expedition might be over but my project involved surveying all Banteng foraging sites, this included revisiting previous foraging sites. So as I had a free day  after expedition we decided to head back to Tabin to revisit some sites. The first site was meant to be about 45 minutes walk up a hill, but the site was last visited over 2 years ago and the vegetation was extremely overgrown making a 2 hours walk. When we arrived at the site the site was too overgrown to be of any use to my projects, very frustrating. Luckily the other 3 sites that I visited that day provided some great information for my project.

Whilst in Tabin one of the boys, Lee, wanted to visit his brother at Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA). The Sumatran Rhino is critically endangered but the arrival of a newly captured female Rhino from Danum Valley had been an exciting event for the BORA team during the previous weeks. Whilst we were visiting at the BORA site I was extremely lucky to be able to see this gorgeous new rhino in her mud wallow, they have her called Iman, meaning Faith.

What a busy month, I had one day off before heading back into the jungle and on the top of my to do list was Sleep!

Here are a few more of my expedition pictures.
6am starts are not bad at all when this is the view from the kitchen.

Right- A view from the motorbike along the valleys
Below left- A great view whilst walking.
Below right- I'm glad Rusdi has good balance, I would have fallen off that plank!