Day 7 - Sepilok Nature Reserve and on to Sukau

Another pre-six o’clock alarm call and after confirming with the neighbouring Danes that they had not had a call during the night it was back to the boat and the crossing back to Sandakan.

Ten minutes out of the island and, to a certain extent, it was payback time as we viewed a mating pair of turtles. For us this was for our eyes only as we said when neither of the cameras could get close enough for a good shot. But Jules with her super length lenses managed to get a great shot. She took email addresses so the picture could be passed on. It will be published here when it arrives.

After breakfast in Sandakan we made our way to the Sepilok Nature Reserve. In comparison with Rasa Ria this is a huge area of protected forest. At peak times I can imagine this becomes a real bun fight and today there must have been in excess of a hundred people vying for postion on the viewing platform. But also like Rasa Ria, it is not a circus with animals performing tricks and it is up to the animals themselves whether they come down to the feeding station. In fact, in some way, they are discouraged from attending by the mundane nature of the food that is left for them, thereby encouraging them to find more enjoyable fare in the forest.

We were fortunate that a mother and baby and three other orangs visited the feeding station and another one appeared before we left and walked around the front of the platform. He was pursued as if he was a celebrity and the public the paparrazi. The monkeys, long and pig-tailed macaques are kept away from the food until the orangs have finished, but once they are allowed they quickly hoover up the remains.


Sepilok is a last stage rehabilitation centre and a short film is shown that culminates in the release of one of its “graduates” into a safe area of the natural rainforest.

The previous night we had made a decision with Joanne to travel down to Sukau by boat rather than road and what a good decision it turned out to be.

As the boat sped its way down river Joanne was pointing out various birds, swifts swooping and a trio of hornbills flying overhead. Then about an hour in, Joanne excitedly pointed to the forest at the riverbank’s edge and there was our first sighting of a orang-utan in the wild. We were so thrilled. We had understood the reality that we would not see one, but we had broken our duck really quickly. We watched for some while as first it was sat seemingly watching us, watching him and then he swung from one tree to another and out of sight. If we had not been handed the river option the opportunity would have been lost.

Twenty minutes or so from our destination, the Melapi Lodge, we could see that there was some rain upfront. We were quickly engulfed by the storm and as ever in Borneo, it is never drizzle. Within seconds it was clear to the boatman that the canvas sides needed dropping and securing. The windscreen wipers struggled to cope with the rain, Ann sitting upfront said she could not see a thing. On the way we had seen a couple of logging rafts being towed. These are absolutely massive in length, no exaggeration to say they were half-a-mile in length. They also cause a considerable amount of flotsam as huge logs become detached from the main chain and in conditions where the visibility becomes limited these can be very dangerous. We thought that the logging companies should be made to clear up their mess, perhaps they are. As we progressed a bit more sedately the weather cleared and the sides were rolled up, but no sooner this was done down they came again as the monsoon returned.

It was still raining when we arrived at the Melapi. A welcome drink and we were shown to our stilted chalet overlooking the river. We found it very nice, in fact Audley’s classification as simple is a bit harsh. They have effective air conditioning, a hot shower which after the previous night on Turtle Island was absolute bliss.


It was straight out onto the river, even though the rain clouds still threatened. This afternoon cruise produced an unbelievable three separate sightings of orangs including a mother and baby. Our guide said that it was estimated that along these banks there could be 1,000 orangs living in what is secondary forestry - we were feeling so lucky we could see them all. Admittedly one of the sightings was much easier seen with the naked eye than through a camera lens. We also saw mother and baby macaques amongst a family as we returned to the Melapi once again exhilarated by our good fortune.