Kutai National Park

I am now sitting in the “hot spot zone” for internet in Sangata… to be sure it is an improvement on the last internet, I’m glad the images loaded- although there was supposed to bea couple more images which I am currently trying to include… we shall see.

We are entering the leg of our trip where we travel north, where the description of the word ‘road’ will become blurry. Apparently they are going to become small mud-rivers more than roads. Our drive up to Sangata from Samarinda was the last bit of road we are expected to be able to drive on without the 4x4s that we will be getting tomorrow. From Samarinda we drove up to this hotel in Sangata to drop off our big bags and gear, and pack a small bag for an overnight in the Kutai National park ranger station.

This area is a tragic example of the failure of the National Government to maintain this as a park- the local Government has been encouraging settlement within the forest, as well as logging both illegally and legally.
The coal mine in Sangata is (according to our guide) the biggest open-pit coal mine in the world. And it’s operating beside what was once some of the more incredible rainforest in the world, seeping chemicals down the rivers and into the water-system, and destroying vast amounts of this incredible forest.

Getting to the research station required a short 25 minute boat-ride up one of these heavily polluted rivers. For much of the short trip up-river one bank was cleared of trees, while the other side had much denser forest. One of the longboats ahead of us encountered a cobra swimming across the river, and I guess their boat-driver did not see it and he apparently ran into it mid-water. The cobra flared out it’s hood and reared up over the boat, and I can only say how odd everyone here thinks it is that I would have just LOVED to have been in the boat to see this. There were no injuries, and everyone was quite excited about the encounter. I am filled with cobra-envy haha.

The research/ranger station was quite a cool place, built all on stilts which is typical of the buildings by the river. The walkway and buildings were made of ironwood, the incredibly strong (and very valuable we found out 1000 USD/1cubic foot locally, and 3000 elsewhere) There were beautiful butterflies everywhere, and gorgeous tropical hibiscus flowering along the path up to the main building. We ate delicious forest rambutans which grew beside the path, and were fed some of the best food we’ve had from the amazing cook the rangers brought in for us.

We spent just two days trekking through the forests around this ranger station and had some pretty amazing experiences, for example; we saw three wild orangutans (a mother and her baby, and a male right beside the station).
We came upon the mother orangutan early in the first trek, I think we all surprised each other, she was close to the ground just resting with her baby. We looked at each other for a minute or two before she collected the little one and went swinging up higher to feed on some of the leaves and fruit in the upper canopy.
It was a rare and very beautiful experience to see this animal in the wild, and especially since most of us assumed that after samboja we were not likely to see any more orangutans. So imagine our surprise then, when after an incredible hike through the rainforest for a couple of hours, we return for dinner and there is a beautiful male in the top branches of a rambutan tree right beside our dinner-tables!!! It was surreal actually, and as we watched him devour these delicious fruits (they are very similar to lycce, but they have ‘hairy’ red skin on the outside when they are ripe) we were rained on by the shells. The efficiency of his eating was incredible to watch, he was able to devour hundreds of these in a very short period of time, using all four of his ‘hands’ to shell and then deposit the pale juicy fruit in his mouth.
I am quite certain he swallowed all of the pits, which of course helped him to eat faster. As it was becoming dusk, we were sad to see him swing off into the trees. A couple of our group followed him a short way, and then reported back excitedly that he had just made his nest for the night very close to the building we were spending the night in. I was not there to see it, but apparently when the orangutan made his nest, he just pulled two trees together and broke a bunch of large branches to lay down beneath him, and finished with some smaller twigs. He was done in less than a minute! We went to check it out, and he was happily perched way above us, looking down every once and a while to see if we were still watching him.

I was tired after all of the hiking and so in the morning some people got up early to watch him wake, but I sadly slept through this experience. Jesse was up early enough, and even though he did not wake me, he told me that the orangutan woke, stood up, peed for-ev-er, and then had a gigantic poop, before swinging off into the forest. We felt a little bit intrusive, but extremely privileged to observe these animals go about their ‘routines’.


Aside from Orangutans we saw some wicked bugs,
amazing trees, vines and plants, and had an awesome time walking through deep clay banks and swinging on cool vines. Our ranger guides were sweet, and got lost a couple of times while we hacked through wet fronds with their machetes blazing a path. Hundreds of bug bites, and big smiles were the result of this overnight in the small part that is left of this once-expansive incredible rainforest. The next place we are going (tomorrow) is called Wehea, where we are staying in homestays for several days (for my birthday), in forest that is much more pristine and well preserved. I am very excited. I hope everyone is well, and look forward to telling you about the cool creatures and things that we see next!!


Cheers!! Darwyn

The last two weeks have passed so quickly it seems. We have also done and seen so much that it is hard to think that such little time has passed. And so when we boarded this gigantic houseboat to travel up the Mahakam river, I was thrilled at the prospect of some time to reflect. It turns out that on riverboat with 20 people and then crew, there’s not a whole lot of room or personal space.

The boat was fantastic- big common areas, small bunks and amazing food. We piled on with all of our gear (I definitely have far more than anyone else because of my underwater housing and camera equipment… simultaneously a curse and a blessing) stepping over the thick wooden rails of the boat. We traveled all day, and through the night to our destination, a small village from which we would take longboats further north. Along the way we saw huge coal container barges slowly dragged along by tugs, or being filled by the giant conveyer belts that loomed over the water from the banks. There were small river-houses lining the bank, and we were waved at enthusiastically by literally hundreds of children along the way. As we got further away from Samarinda, the green along the bank became more lush and the cicadas were more audible over the drone of the boats big engine.

We enjoyed a stunning sunset the first night, and had our class on the flat aluminum roof of the boat so that we could enjoy our surroundings. Later we played guitar and watched the stars pass overhead and discussed what we had seen so far. I left my camera in it’s bag the whole day, because I have been feeling a little bit lost behind the lens, and was happy to recharge some of that interest in capturing the moments on camera.

The next morning we rose early and ate a big breakfast of pancakes (with the REAL bananas, not those ‘bonita’ wannabes) and then walked around this village built entirely on ironwood (wood ‘stronger than iron’ that this community used for their roads, and structures) These communities are so full of life it seems, or it could be that life is just so much more out in the open here.

While we walked through the market our longboats arrived, (the same style as in Thailand with the open engine and gigantic long drive-shaft for the prop) 3 people to a boat plus a driver, and we cruised off with a small flotilla of colourful boats full of pasty-white tourists, getting waved to frantically the whole way.

As the villages became less frequent we began to see some really amazing wildlife, there were birds diving for fish in the water, monkeys in the trees, even a large poisonous snake one of the boats spotted curled around some branches hanging over the water. We passed through a large shallow lake, and the sky opened up in all directions creating this beautiful contrast of blue against the green fronds of the lake grasses.

We saw Long-tailed Macacs, Proboscis Monkeys, Hornbills, Egrets, Kingfishers, and I filled up my memory cards quickly- but unfortunately not many of the pictures are very useable because the boat engines are so loud that all of the wildlife we saw was seen at a distance, and when we got close enough to take pictures the animals had fled further into the canopy. There are still a couple of pictures I am fairly happy with, but I decided I would love to come back here with a canoe that does not make so much NOISE!

We made it to the Dayak village and were greeted with the welcome ceremony, which was very beautiful- our impressions of this ‘cultural tourism’ were varied, but we did enjoy the presentation. It is difficult to say if we were helping to preserve their culture by being there, or the opposite. Most incredible was being able to interview the chief about his culture and the changes he has seen in his lifetime. We had a guide who translated for us, and his answers to our questions were very wise. We left the village wishing we had more time to spend in this village to learn more about their culture and background.

On the boat-ride back to the houseboat I counted 12 Proboscis Monkeys, which was pretty incredible to me- it seemed that there were so many in this area (which could definitely be because there is less and less habitat for them elsewhere…) We also had another fabulous sunset- I spent most of the boat ride laying on the tip of the bow so that my head extended out over the water, and dragged my fingers along the smooth surface. The noise from the engines of these longboats make talking almost impossible, and so it was nice to have this time for ourselves and to be able to appreciate where we were.


Now we are back in Samarinda, and staying at the most ridiculous hotel, it’s soooo nice, it’s way over the top- but their internet is absolutely the worst. So I’m not sure if I will be able to upload pictures to go along with this blog until I get back to internet again on the 8th… we shall see.

Samboja Lestari-
about an hour and a half bus-ride outside the city of Balikpapan, this is an incredible project where some very committed people have re-forested an area in hopes to create habitat for Orangutans. My first impression of this place is one of wonder, we agreed it could easily have been called Jurrasic Park instead. Down a long 4x4 dirt driveway we passed a sign directing vehicles to the sun bears, and a couple of man-made islands surrounded by moats where we could see some large shapes with orange hair swinging through the branches. Out of the surrounding jungle there is a tower that could be taken out of any fairy-tale. This is where we would spend the next five days.


During our stay here we were spoiled rotten with food, with buffet style meals and dessert plates with fresh fruits of mango, papaya, watermelon, rambutan, mangosteens and many more… We spent time watching and filming the orangutans on one of the islands, and participated in the feeding of the sun-bears. The sun bears are incredible, and reminded me more of the Tasmanian devils than any bears I have ever seen. They are extremely agile, and have long claws on the end of nimble fingers. In order for them to get exercise we hid their food around the compounds in difficult to reach places, up trees, under piles of logs, in burlap sacks tied and hung in awkward places, and along suspended logs that they would have to balance on to reach. The bears would then be released from the cages which they sleep in at night, and would begin ‘foraging’ for their meals. It was pretty awesome.

The orangutans were fascinating to watch, they are so strong and nimble- and smart!!
They exhibit so many human qualities that make them so interesting. I felt like I was learning about myself as much as about them.
During our stay here we visited a very sad place called Kilometer 38, where there are a group of orangutans that can never be released because they have serious diseases that would harm wild orangutan populations. We were so moved by these imprisoned animals- they are such beautiful and intelligent creatures. To see them reach through the bars at us, triggered for many of us a very paternal instinct. I felt like there had to be something we could do for them, some way we could make a change.

We were extremely fortunate to have Dr. Willie Smits arrive and make several presentations to our group about a great many things, and possible solutions to environmental problems. He is incredibly inspiring and motivational, not to mention quite a celebrity- so our time with him was very interesting in many ways.

Overnight in the Mangroves

So I wrote this blog the other day on the bus- making great use of my time and being as efficient as possible, but later when my computer reached maximum capacity and I was forced to delete a bunch of things I guess the file got moved to the trash. ARRGH!

So to re-cap the happenings of the time spent in the mangroves: In the morning following our sleepless overnight in Stan’s house (due to giant rats running around the rafters, sadistic crowing-all-night-outside-your-door roosters, and neighbors horking and spitting every ten minutes loud and juicy enough to make the bile rise to the back of your throat… among other things)

We woke (from not sleeping) early and made our way to the harbor where we piled into a longboat with Budi (founder of local NGO YK-RASI) who we were helping to conduct this Irrawaddy Dolphin survey. He explained how two people always had to be looking from the front of the boat, one with binoculors and one without, and a third person recording the data (speed, weather, GPS location, Depth etc). Another two people must search from the back of the boat.

We were hoping to see some of these rare dolphins, but in all the time we searched, we did not have a sighting. We did see a Dugong (sea cow- very cool… eats lots of sea grasses and is very threatened) as it came up for a breath of air before returning to grazing.

We boated from the dolphin survey further up the Mahakam River to the field research station owned by Stan Lhota, a primate and Mangrove specialist doing amazing work in this threatened area. We were able to go with Stan at dusk and observe some wild Proboscis Monkeys, as they settled for the night in mangrove branches at the water’s edge. During this sighting we experienced the most intense downpour- it came out of nowhere and was everywhere instantly. We were not anticipating the skies to open up while we observed the monkeys, because it was sunny and beautiful when we left. As it was, I don’t think we could have been soaked faster than if the winning football team dumped their Gatorade water dispenser over our heads. Our reaction was pretty funny… we at first were so shocked that we couldn’t say anything, followed by some of the biggest smiles and then panicked expressions as we hurried to get our cameras under something plastic.

Unfortunately my camera definitely got wet during this downpour, and had some internal condensation which I had to be very careful about. I therefore do not really have many pictures that worked out of this incredible experience, but thankfully my camera seems to be working just fine after I let it live in a bag of dry rice and desiccant packages overnight.

We also saw some Longtailed Macac’s that evening and the following morning, another very cool primate to see in the wild. We were most excited also when an extremely rare hornbill flew right over our heads while we sat quietly in the boat observing the monkeys. Stan was a wealth of knowledge, and taught us many things about the area. We spent the night like I said, in his small research station on the mangrove-lined bank of the river. Mangrove-lined and killer-mosquito-infested. The ‘research station’ is actually a wooden platform with a thatched roof and no walls, on stilts. I slept smeared in serious bug repellent, fully clothed, under a mosquito net, and still carefully counted 48 bug bites in the morning. All of these things together added up to make this experience all the more real and exciting.

The following day on the return trip I was proud to be the one to spot an Irrawaddy Dolphin in the distance- a very special thing as I have mentioned. We killed the engines and floated around while it came up for air a couple more times before it left the area and we continued back to Balikpapan.
It was an incredible couple of days, and our first blogs and video-logs were due the following day, which many of you have already seen or read on the Ethical Expeditions page. The next leg promises to be exciting and awesome, as we are headed to Samboja Lestari- where there will be re-grown rainforest, rescued orangutans, and sun-bears.

Before an overnight in the mangroves...

Well, today was truly incredible. We spent the morning with a wonderful man named Peter Korsano, one of the founders of BOS (Borneo Orangutan Survival) we are truly privileged to have such incredible speakers and accomplished people who take time out of their days to present their life’s work to us. Peter’s English is excellent, and he has a kind of presence when he is speaking- pausing for very dramatic effect. We will hopefully spend more time with him later in the trip- he has so much knowledge to share I just want to soak up as much as I can from him.
After Peters presentation, we had lunch and then piled into the taxi-busses that are used here, and drove to the riverside village where Stan (the Mangrove and Proboscis Monkey specialist we had a presentation from yesterday) lives and does most of his research from. Group 3 (myself, Spencer, Jesse and Nadine) and group 4 (Michaela, Veronica and Elise) will be spending the night in his hut on the river.
When we got to Stan’s, the reception we received from the local people was incredible. Stan lives as the only white person in this village of fishermen, and so everyone was very excited and curious to see what we were doing, and to be in our pictures. The children are Beautiful (capitalized with reason) and especially love to be in pictures. We were able to spend most of the remainder of the day with these wondrous little Indonesians; they are incredibly quick learners- and good teachers too. Literally hours were spent today sitting and trading words, it’s good for their English, and for our Indonesian (which I must admit is much worse than their English most of the time).
The Village (Kampang Baru) is located on the Mahakam River that drains into the ocean, and the bay of Balikpapan. There is quite an incredible amount of garbage floating around through the stilts of the village, and sadly there is no septic system, meaning that all feces end up in the same water that all of the children play in every day. Stan has begun to educate the local people about managing their trash, however the sewage is a much harder problem to address. In Stan’s ‘free time’ he wants to convert his living room into a kind of classroom for the children- he is another incredible person with a great big heart.
Tonight a group of us took a walk around the villages, and stumbled upon a game of volleyball that was very well attended (I think most of the community was present) and we were asked to participate in the game. I am unfortunately not feeling 100% and decided to watch from the sidelines, taking pictures and video instead. What fun!! The entire place was alive with cheering and clapping when Jesse Nadine and Spencer walked on to the hard-packed sand court. There seemed to be no scoring system, and a wide range of skill-level. Everyone was smiling and having a great time, it seems to be such a happy community.
After Volleyball, we ate dinner with one of the local mothers in her house. She prepared a grand meal for us, and humbled us with her humility and generosity while she waited for us to eat before she allowed herself or her children to partake in the meal.
There is also an incredibly open women’s muslim group here, that got together next door and sang prayer songs with drums for a period of time, while a lightning storm passed in the distance. We were invited in to watch the prayer, and some of us did that- but since there was little room in the small house I decided to try instead for one of those elusive lightning pictures. We had our tripod set up on the dock, which children all around shaking and moving the camera unfortunately, and I had almost given up on the whole thing until there was a gigantic fork of lightning that struck a hut-roof right in front of us. Somehow there was a child hanging on to my tripod when the lightning struck, and the bolt scared him so badly that he jerked backwards kind of throwing my tripod out towards the water under the bridge we were standing on. I fortunately was holding my camera at the time- and had the shutter open in a time exposure to capture the bolt. I was shooting with my new Fisheye lens, at it’s full 180 degrees of view (at 10mm) and so the bolt looks further from us than in fact it was- but the resulting picture I’m sure you will agree is quite a powerful one. We of course abandoned our position immediately, because of the proximity to the storm, but I felt incredibly fortunate to have captured (if very shakily) this image.
Tomorrow we will be conducting an irrawady dolphin survey (freshwater and snub-nosed, not to mention borderline extinct). I am very tired, and very humbled by this day.

The first few days

Two days later, and it feels like time is flying already. We are staying at ‘Hotel Sagita’ in Balikpapan while we all get accustomed to the new climate and food etc. It is far, far above the standards that many of us feel like we need- it really is a HOTEL, and although it is important that everyone be ready for it- I feel like it is past time that we discarded these western comforts, and get started on the many things outside of the city.
The sights and sounds and smells are all so similar to those I experienced in Thailand just a couple of years ago. The heady mix of an open septic system, frying street-vendor food, two stroke motorcycle engines, some thick humidity and 30 degrees bring back so many memories. It is hard to remember that these people speak a very different language. I catch myself trying to greet or thank them in Thai. Everyone is incredibly friendly, and has welcomed us all to their community far more openly than I expected. There really is not a whole lot of white tourists here- in fact we have seen only several, and it is possible that these people actually live here. Everywhere we go, whether in groups or individually, we attract an incredible amount of excitement and attention. Everyone wants to say hello, and take a picture of us or with us on their cellphones. Smiles are shared, and since we can’t speak very much Indonesian- that’s about it, but it is wonderful.
We have gone exploring in the city a little bit, at least locally, and have ‘discovered’ some truly fantastic places. We spent some time wandering the streets and taking our chances with some food (so far everything is still O.K. touch wood) we have definitely eaten a lot of things that we could not place… or even really guess at and feel confident. It has been a bit of a whirlwind with all of the students trickling in from the airport, but finally today was the first day we all were together, and classes began. Today was mostly about logistics and where we will be doing what, etc. We are all so excited to be here, and thankful to be given this rare opportunity. I expect that the coming days will be truly incredible.

Getting to Balikpapan

So my journey began by leaving Nanaimo on the last ferry out of Duke Point- the beginning of a mind-numbing amount of sitting around in a big plane doing what is commonly referred to as the ‘head bob’- being interrupted every hour and a half or so with drinks and meals. Fellow students Jesse and Nadine met me early in the morning at the Vancouver airport where I spent the night sleeping fitfully on the waiting-room benches. The ridiculous American “homeland security” measures that followed our check-in were almost funny if not for the frustration associated with them. After carefully packing all of my underwater housing/battery-packs/u.w.strobe/flashlight etc etc, in one bin- that had to be completely emptied (understandable I suppose but still frustrating) The issue of the carry-on baggage was completely different however. The online rules regarding carry-on baggage clearly state that there is to be no carry on luggage with the exception of cameras, laptops and musical instruments (along with life-support devices and other obvious things) So unfortunately I assumed that meant I could take all of my camera equipment in it’s padded camera-case… not so. I was made to empty the contents of the padded bag, into a clear plastic sac without padding- and then check the empty padded camera case and other bags. This did not make any sense to me whatsoever, as I emptied absolutely everything from my camera case into this plastic bag, and then had to carry around this awkward sack full of delicate gear that was no longer protected, while the baggage staff had to load and unload completely empty bags. It definitely felt like a futile exercise. We agreed that it appeared to be more of a bullying tactic, because once we arrived in San Fran, the security was comparatively lax- without even pat-downs coming through security. Also, carry-on baggage was clearly allowed, and it was more of a normal scene going through security. I guess it’s not possible for a terrorist to do anything on a plane leaving the states, and the only possible cause for concern is planes entering the states (sarcasm).
Not to complain however, everything has worked out quite well- and although there were times of some frustration, we just went with it, and recognized that we were going to be traveling at least 48 hours to our destination either way. Singapore Airlines manage to make the whole experience quite as nice as I think it could possibly be- providing hot damp facecloths, movies on demand, bottomless drinks (alcoholic included within reason) and a selection of decent airplane fare- far better than could be expected of another airline such as… say… air Canada which we flew to San Fran with.
We stopped for about 2 hours in South Korea- it would have been nice to have more time to explore there, but since everything was covered in snow and freezing cold we were not too put out when we had to leave. We did get to disembark and walk around for an hour or so as well which was very appreciated.
The long stopover was in Singapore- where we spent a solid 14 hours between flights. Honestly, I’ve always thought the Vancouver airport was quite nice, but after being to Singapore… nothing will ever be the same. There are sleeping booths you can rent, free massage chairs everywhere, a sky-train between stations, beautiful koi ponds, the worlds only butterfly garden in an airport (we opted to sleep instead of visit this, but we may have enough time on the way back) there was a rooftop swimming-pool, and all kinds of other nice things. The most impressive thing we found was a completely free tour into the city of Singapore, and so we jumped all over that. It is quite incredible to be able to visit an airport for less than 24 hours and come away with a pretty good understanding of the country. Our tour-guide was very informative and quirky, and took us to the China-town to visit a temple… and then showed us around the city by bus explaining things about the city and how because they have no real resources, or land to expand to, they have had to be very creative and efficient with everything they do. The city and the roads are incredibly clean and extremely organized, and there is shopping to be done EVERYWHERE. It was a fun tour, and just long enough for our attention spans (as we were pretty wonky from the time-changes and long flights)
In the airport we met up with two more members of our expedition Cassandra and Sonja, a pleasant surprise. We all boarded the last flight of our trip, a two hour hop-skip-and-a-jump from Singapore to Balikpapan, Indonesia. The flight in was very interesting, I finally got a window seat, and since we flew over most of Borneo I was able to get a glimpse of what we are going to be seeing from the ground. Ultimately along almost every waterway I was able to see from the air, there were mono-crop plantations. (most of the time I could tell they were palm trees, but sometimes it was not so obvious…) Another thing we got a preview of was the rain… it poured on us as we landed and disembarked. The plane had to circle around the airport and find an opening in the heavy heavy cloud cover, which was very low. At last, we stepped off the plane, and into brutal monsoon tropical rain- and we were soo happy about it.
Brent and Sheryl were there to meet us which was great… there is always the hoard of taxi drivers just diiiieing to rip you off coming out of the airport, so it was really awesome that they had a driver ready to take us back to the hotel. Everything feels damp here, and the smells and colours are so similar to Thailand. We decided that the air here is best described as being ‘soft’ and my skin is happier already.