Great Esc-Apes
Great Esc-Apes
by G. Nibor
by G. Nibor
For a number of years I had saved my small change, in the hope that one day I could afford to take a few weeks off the ‘chain gang’ and travel. At the end of each month I would pick up my piggy bank (although in my case it was a rotund purple and yellow polka-dot covered orangutan rather than a pig; a 30cm high monstrosity with a stupid red-lipped grin on its face given to me by a distant cousin when I was about 10 years old) and test its weight. Slowly as the years passed the orangutan’s belly filled and one day, I couldn’t slip another coin inside.
The time had come I decided, to break it open and count my ‘millions’.
‘Millions’ it wasn’t, but it was certainly enough to get me to a foreign shore and back.
Not knowing quite where I was going to travel to, as for some reason I thought ‘the day’ would never come, I grabbed a dart from my flatmate’s dart board, turned to the large torn world map we had hanging in the study, spun around and threw the dart.
“Bl**dy monkeys”, was all I could mutter when I saw where the projectile had hit, slap-bang on Sabah, the location of the Sepilok orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. I glanced at the now shattered remains of my spotted specimen and decided fate had obviously played a role here and the destination choice was out of my control.
Thus I found myself, a month later, winging my way to this far-flung place; my mosquito repellent, sun hat, new sunglasses and other tropical necessities tucked safely into my overnight bag along with umpteen spools of film, my camera and the ever important folding umbrella and torch.
On arrival in Sabah I expected to see jungles stretching as far as the eye could see; dripping with exotic creepers, fly-traps (pitcher plants), monkeys swinging in the tree tops and a plethora of insect life straight out of a science fiction book.
However, it was not quite like that and there was a certain roughness where man’s greed had played a hand and the jungles were in part reduced to balding mountainsides where bulldozers had ruled the day and logging had denuded a number of mountain slopes or unchecked fires had run their gauntlet.
I made my way to Sandakan, a small town with hilltop Buddhist temples, wooden houses and narrow walkways stretching along the Sulu Sea, and boarded a mini-bus bound for the rehabilitation centre and other adventures.
On arrival at the centre, set in a well conserved 43 sq. km tropical lowland rainforest sanctuary, I was pleasantly surprised to find how well run it was. Following the advice from a fellow traveller I had met coming over on the plane who had visited the refuge a year earlier; I watched the documentary about the ape at the visitors’ centre before wandering around the place and was glad I did. It proved well worth it and gave me a better understanding of how complicated returning these primates to the wild and caring for them in general can be.
They may look like hairy, henna-coloured humans, but that’s only the beginning of the story. Besides orangutans, the sanctuary also houses highly endangered Sumatran rhinos and, occasionally, other animals such as elephants.
Noticing it was 10 a.m., I followed the crowds across to the orangutan feeding platform where at least a dozen or so animals had emerged waiting for their morning feed of milk and bananas. However, the hordes of tourists got a little bit too much for me and I decided to heed my flight pal’s advice further and meandered off to find the Mangrove Forest Trail he’d told me about as this gives one the opportunity to see the apes in their natural environment prior to being released into the wild.
After all, I had travelled halfway around the world to see an orangutan (damn the piggy bank) in the wild or at least in the semi-wild, and one of my best chances for an encounter was here in the confines of the reserve and hand-fed (or in this case orangutans feeding off platforms), wasn’t really what I wanted to remember on my return home.
As I set out I wondered how difficult it would be to spot one of these ‘wild men of Borneo’ (orangutans) en-route.
With males weighing in at around 200 pounds, sporting a perpetually orange, bad-hair day coiffure, they blend in about as discreetly as a scarlet ornament on a Christmas tree. Thus I assumed it wouldn’t be too difficult.
This proved correct and before long I was rewarded as a loud rustling sound reached my ears and on looking up, I discovered I was being watched by a young mother clutching her baby. We stared at each other for a few minutes and before long, I realised there were others nearby. As orangutans normally live alone, except during mating season (or so I had just learned) I supposed the close proximity of the apes on that day was due to the animals being housed in a sanctuary rather than in the wild.
Two big males were sitting on a branch with their legs crossed facing each other. At one glance, they resembled a couple of men sitting together, chatting away as if discussing the oddity (me) below.
I responded by snapping off a few shots of the group before they got bored and leisurely swung off into the jungle’s inner sanctities.
I responded by snapping off a few shots of the group before they got bored and leisurely swung off into the jungle’s inner sanctities.
The walk proved interesting and as I strolled I passed a scenic stream swarming with water-boatmen in slow moving sections of its rippled waters, water-holes, mangroves and transitional rain forest areas. Whenever I paused I was rewarded by the sight of exquisitely coloured butterflies, weird and wonderful stick insects and other specimens of nature and all up the 5-6 hour amble was the perfect introduction to this, the land of our redheaded relations and is one, I would recommend to all who visit.
Although I saw many other areas in Sabah this proved to be one of the most worthwhile experiences I had while on holiday and for those of you who are thinking of visiting, it won't break the (piggy)bank to get here.
Note: The centre is 25km northeast of Sandakan, which has good air links from Kota Kinabalu and local transport. Sepilok where the rehabilitation centre is located can be reached from Sandakan town by public bus (daily services depart from the central mini-bus terminal in front of the Nak Hotel. Inquire for the Sepilok 'Batu 14 line'). From the airport, the most convenient way to reach Sepilok is by taxi.
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