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