Yet another early wake up - a very nice canopy walkway needed to be explored. There was enough moody mist for gorillas but alas no simians from any continent put in an appearance. Instead lots of bird calls, not so many birds and a fantastic walkway. There are five spans on this walkway - some trees had stairs connecting different spans. Wood platforms bear on radial wood blocks that are strapped to the trunk with steel cables. On some trees it looks like these blocks have been absorbed by the tree - the bark has scabbed over much like the openings in the Toraja baby burial trees. Spans are steel suspension supported like the platforms with a steel cable tension ring. The walking deck is plank with short cross pieces of wood every metre or so. Some trees have steel cable guy lines to the ground stabilize the sway but the whole thing is quite bouncy necessitating breaking stride...and hanging on tight!
The breakfast buffet was equally decadent to the dinner buffet - everything from congee to scrambled eggs. There was bacon, beef bacon(!) but as Sarah said put enough nitrites and salt on thinly sliced meat and you have bacon. Loving the fruit: FRESH mangosteen, mango, red flesh dragon fruit is a new one for me and the mountain apple which Sherree and I first encountered in Hawaii last Xmas.
Morning hike was a 1.2 km climb up to the lookout over three lodge. Jules tempted leech-fate in shorts and T-shirt whereas I had long pants, leech socks, Adidas kampong shoes, neck gaiter, long sleeved shirt and hat. Again, lots of bird calls, a few birds and a flying lizard who flew a couple times for (away from) us. Lots of colour, texture and patterns in the plant world to keep me amused...
An off shoot to the main path near the top took in a cliff/cave burial site with human bones and remnants of coffins. Not unlike what I'd seen in Toraja.
...and we hadn't gorged on a buffet in about 5 hours so, lunch!
Jules returned this morning leech-less so I decided on shorts in the afternoon. Besides, with my hyper-white skin, it would be easy to spot any freeloaders!
Since there was a dearth of mammal sightings in the morning I think our guide took it upon himself to wind us up a bit to make things interesting. He feigned, we decided, concern over the presence of elephants and then kept saying how he didn't like the trails he picked for our hike. (Ta, ever so!) I got tired of this and dropped back with Jules. She was telling me about her and Candy's attempt to cycle from Mumbai to Katmandu when in their 20's when a wild boar cam scampering along the river edge - it was so fast couldn't get my camera out! How cool is that?!
Tarantulas, owls, frogs and the tiny mouse deer featured in the night walk. Sarah and Claire were trying to make out how to survive a night in the rainforest without a 5 star resort. They say layer a bed and cover of leaves in the crux of strangler fig roots, a say stay awake all night standing up in a clearing!
At all three resorts one could not just wander off on any trail at any time. You needed a guide or a ranger with you. (Lest we forget the tourist trampled by elephant...)
The canopy was entered from the main access road as so this was one was that could be done unaccompanied. At 6:30 on our last morning the five off us headed off for another misty walk.
Lovely!
Just as we returned Sarah though she saw some serious tree movement (sure sign of monkeys,) but nothing materialized. We still had time for one last trail after breakfast though.
Jus in the nick of time a few gibbons but in an appearance at the head of the hornbill trail. Fuzzy, cute and energetic. They chose not to pee and throw monkey poo at us as the ones at Tabin had done...probably because we were standing in the road and not under their tree. Phew!
The resort offers a blood donor certificate to anyone bitten by the Danum tiger leech however all the talk was seemingly for nought. Half way through the walk the guide found one heat seeking little bugger. They hang their elongated wormy bodies off of leaves innocuously but when heat is sensed they writhe and ""inch-worm" around hoping to hook a ride with either end of their body from a what I could see. Ronald offered his hand to our solo leech so we could see how they move saying his skin was too tough for it to grab onto...
...but there was a definite wince when it made its way to his delicate wrist! They sting a bit when they latch on then stealth feed. The problem is the anti coagulant they use makes the bite bleed a long time. Medically they are used on reattached appendages to draw the blood through and jump start the circulation.
Given the how energetic this one was, had it been rainy season there could have been trouble shorts or not.
Definitely got my money's worth at this lodge :-D
The ride back to Lahad Datu was uneventful but we did get to drive across the river bed at the suspect wood bridge. Haven't done that since our Australian outback adventure :-)
The tiny airport barely had enough room for the luggage scanner. The posted forbidden articles sign included nunchucks, fire extinguishers, stone mortar and pestles and, hockey sticks (!) I couldn't see where the sign was printed but I'm fairly sure it wasn't Canada. Makes you wonder what has transpired in this equatorial country's airports to prompt such a ban...
Flying in over KK one could see every little hill top grooved with concentric steppes in preparation toe oil palms - looked like hundreds of fingerprints across the landscape. At least it's going to be green eventually. The palm trees have a life span of 10-20 years depending who you talk too. As the tree approaches the end of its use a new tree is planted beside it to take over. One wonders what is going to happen when the market falls out of favour with this product - they, Indonesia more than Malaysia, have a lot of eggs in this not so healthy food basket.
In Rantepao at the beginning of my trip I had been talking to a research biochemist at my guest house about alternate energy and he said that bio fuel from algae had lots of promise, more so than palm oil. Tending an algae bed need seems a little easier than displacing the oldest rainforest on the planet. Let's hope that something shakes up and wakes up the market to this folly.
KK seems like a booming metropolis now. On my first night here I noticed this in a window. It looked like a creepy science experiment. The mantis prawn is known for being able to slice open its prey with its razor appendages. The farmed ones are raised in pop bottles to void the farmers loosing fingers and from eating each other before people can. Looked cruel but I had wanted to try one before I leave. Alas between the worms and Chilli Vanilla I have been thwarted yet again. My KK farewell meal was a less daring pasta dish and another chilli garnished cocktail!
Selamat Tinggal!
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