BORNEO WILDLIFE EXPEDITION
February 9 - 15, 2020
 We just returned from our Borneo trip seeking out the wildlife there. This was our first time visiting this magical place, and the location did not disappoint. What an amazingly rich place it is. I kept a journal of our time there and I’m sharing it with you guys here, along with images captured of the wildlife and people who traveled with us. (Just an FYI, it is written in the present tense, because the stories are pulled straight from my field journal). Hope you enjoy the report…

February 9, 2020 - On the plane headed to Sandakan. The final flight for this part of the trip. This afternoon, after we check in to the hotel we will head over to the orangutan rehab center and see some orangutans, which is awesome. Tomorrow morning we will head to Dermakot rainforest for the next three nights. Our hope while we are there is to find the Sunda clouded leopards, which is the hardest of the big cats to find. This cat has amazing markings and has been on my “must see it,” list of animals, I would like to encounter it. It is a hard animal to find, but I feel good about our chances. We have three days to do it, so we will see? Pygmy elephants are also a priority for us but, just really looking forward to seeing what we can find.

LATER THAT EVENING - We visited the Sepilok orangutan refuge for the feeding time and what a sight it was. We had orangutan females with their babies with them, and a bunch of very young apes at the nursery area as well. It was absolutely beautiful and I enjoyed myself there. These guys are free to leave the park, but they are habituated and stay in the forests here, enjoying not only feeling safe, but not having to work hard to find food. Looking forward to the next forest we visit, and hopefully encountering a few true wild orangutans, but we will see. 

At night we went on a night walk to find some of the night life around this area. We found a tiny Western Tarsier, which is a night type of monkey species, super cute with big eyes. It turns out that is a very hard to find animal, so I feel privileged to have found one. We also found our first kingfisher of the trip. The smallest of the kingfishers here with dazzling colors. They reminded me of the African pygmy kingfisher. They are very similar. Such a beautiful bird. Kingfishers are my favorite birds, so I was on fire for this opportunity. The search for these beauties continues, there are over 100 species of kingfishers, going to try and snap them all.

It was a fun first day, with a few images that I am very happy with, let’s see what tomorrow brings. We leave to Dermakot tomorrow, after we visit the sun bear sanctuary. Hoping for a few descent shots of a bear. The adventures continue…

Above; Western Tarsier, and Olive Backed Sunbird
Below; File-eared tree frog, and Borneo Dwarf Kingfisher

February 10, 2020 - We woke up, had a quick breakfast and then went to the sun bear wildlife refuge center. I was excited about seeing the bears, and learning about the conservation efforts to save this threatened species, but wasn’t exactly super excited about the photography for this spot, because I knew the bear viewing was up on a high platform, and we could only look down on the bears. So the photos would be more for a proof of life, and hard tp get anything super exciting. But I know this is an important place. All of the bears are rescued from the pet trade, deforestation or commercial hunting.

The bears here are happy and allowed to roam the property, socialize, climb, and just be bears.. And the purpose behind this organization is to eventually release as many bears as possible back into the wild, which is amazing.

We arrived just in time for the 9:30AM feeding, but we were stuck waiting for a few minutes. Just as the park opened (they open at 9AM), in the reception area of the refuge, an orangutan had just given birth on the platform walkway, minutes before the park opened. The refuge is built in a rainforest, across from the orangutan refuge, and there are no fences to keep the tree climbing animals, like orangutans out. The apes are free to go where ever they choose. So this new mother gave birth on the platform away from the other apes at her refuge, and took her newborn baby up to the 100ft trees.

After they cleaned the walkway, we then were allowed in. The walkway is up high and as we looked down, we could see the bears roaming around, waiting for breakfast. Our guests were checking things out, when off in the distance, right next to another walkway, a bear climbed up on dead giant tree, The tree, was only 15 feet away from the viewing platform and at perfect eye level. We all rushed over there and for a good ten minute, this bear hung out, walked around and gave us all a show. My guess is it was hoping we had some food to toss to it. Realizing we had none, it finally got bored and climbed down. Talk about fire! We all had this bear, pretty much to ourselves, just a few feet away, literally posing for us. After that we left the park to pack our bags for the journey to the Dermakot rainforest.

SELF-REFLECTION MOMENT - As we all walked out of the bear refuge with my group, I saw another group walking in with their trip leader on point. And man did he look the part, proper bush outfit, 600mm lens with a big tripod, his shirt displaying the logo of his company, a camera vest with all the tools for his trade, and behind him, were his guests. A mix of 20 plus men and women, following him into the center, all wanting to gain from his photography experience with these animals. At that moment, I felt very self conscious looking at my own clothes; ratty Phantom divers t-shirt, torn and stained carthart pants and my camera rig, handheld due to me forgetting my harness back in Texas, I suddenly felt a little naked and unprofessional as hell.

However, as I looked at our small group of guests with me, I reflected on the experience we just had, with a sun bear, basically in our faces. We all experienced an amazing opportunity with this bear and nobody had to fight for it. I could just imagine, those 20 plus photographers, all vying for a good position to get a good shot. For us, it happened organically and we each had plenty of room for an opportunity to have a long intimate encounter with that bear. We all left happy and at that moment I was beaming with pride, knowing our friends had a really good experience just now.  I love keeping our groups small, BUT, next time, I’ll for sure bring a proper camera harness, and maybe a cleaner shirt… maybe?

5 hour drive, 3 of them spent on a bumpy dirt road (Dermakot is only accessable via 4x4 vehicles), and we finally made it to our lodge. We unpacked, had dinner and then headed out for our first night drive of the trip. The goal for this trip, pygmy elephants and the star of this country, the clouded leopard. Both are hard to find, but damn do we want to see this animal. During the night drive, both were a no-show, but we did see, 5 slow loris, some frogs, (frogs are big here, super colorful and very diverse). two leopard cats, flying squirrels and a bush pig. No clouded leopards or elephants. We will try again tomorrow.

February 11, 2020 - 6am wake up, after returning to our lodge after 12 midnight from our night safari. We went out early to see what we could find. After a couple of hours, we found a few birds, lizards, a monkey family, and a quick sighting of our first true wild orangutan. A big male was grunting and growling as he moved through the forest canopy. We couldn’t see him, but it was still a thrill hearing him. Such an awesome experience. 

Above Images; Bornean tree frog and Malay Civet
Lower Images; Red-bearded bee eater and Green crested lizard

After breakfast we decided to go for a trail walk. Of course we were all pumped to go, not realizing it was up steep hills, in a dense forest, darkened by the tall canopy, covering up the hot afternoon sun. The trail zig zagged through the forest. Every once in a while we could hear something crashing through the forest as it speed away from us. Shy animals are so frustrating. The highlight of the walk was a rhinoceros hornbill flying and landing nearby, allowing us to snap some photos. Hoping one will come out from that session?

Tonite we head out for a long night safari looking for cats. Hopefully we will find it. Of course as I write this it is pouring down rain. We will see???

Above; File-eared tree frog and Harlequin tree frog (flying frog).
Below; Painted Bat and Barred-eagle owl

Writing this the next morning - We returned home from the 7 hour safari. All of us were spent, it was exhausting. We left at 7pm and minutes after we left, the rain just started pouring down. We were in an open topped safari vehicle, so we were all drenched. We all had rain coats and one of us, JP actually read the ‘before you go’ info we sent, - of course I suggested bringing a small umbrella, which he did, so he was fine. The rest of us, including me (lol) did not. I used a trash bag to help protect my camera, and my Frog togg rain jacket worked awesome! Love that thing. I used it in Norway, over my dry suit to help protect me against the wind and I was super happy and warm with it. 

The elements were so tough, it rained constantly, and we were all soaking wet, plus the night air was chilly and being wet made us all cold. We all had cameras we were trying to keep dry during our time out there, and that was hard. But despite all that, sprits remained high. After all, we were trying to find one of the hardest of the big cats in the world to find, which is the clouded leopard. Even the snow leopard is easier to find than this cat.

The agenda for this trip was the holy three… orangutans, pygmy elephants and the clouded leopards. We found the orangutan, photographing habituated wild orangutans already, and we found a big fully wild male that wanted nothing to do with us, but so far the pygmy elephant and the leopard have eluded us. There is elephant poop all up and down the rainforest roads, but still no sign of them. Hopefully we will see them soon.

It truly was a tough night and my hats off to our badasses who were out here with me, including our guide Adi, who didn’t even have a rain jacket but she sat up on the roof of our truck all night, not complaining, just trying hard to find wildlife for us to photograph. She is such a sweet kid. She is Malaysian and lives in a dominate male society who looks down on female guides, even her parents were against it, (they said she could not be a guide, because she was a girl), but she pushed through the negativity to live her dream of being a wildlife guide and loves her life. Now her parents are super proud of her and brag about their daughter. Loved hearing that story.

February 12, 2020 -  This is our final day in Dermakot. I now wish I had more days here… we didn’t get our clouded leopard damn it! However, we did get a HUGE male orangutan today and it was such a rush. I know we already saw orangutans at the reserve, but they are habituated orangutans. Yes - they are still wild, and free, but they choose to stay with humans and get fed, vs. this old boy who was 100% wild. I was the one who spotted it, which made the find even sweeter. We were driving by and I spotted it near the road, under the tree canopy, eating something on the jungle floor. When it saw us, it bolted up for the safety of the trees. But he was so big, it was difficult for him to get up the tree. We all jumped off the truck and the work to snap an image of him was on. Our big boy, we dubbed Big Red, was lost to the forest, and all we could see was the tree’s branches, swaying back and forth, from his massive weight as he moved up the tree. We all were moving around, trying to find a spot where we might be able to see him once he hit a clearing in the forest canopy. 

We found a spot and the first thing we saw, was his massive arm. The rest of him was covered by the jungle foliage. It didn’t matter, we were all happy that we could see that. Then the magic happened, he continued his climb up and we finally got a glimpse of his face. The trade mark, wide face of a big dominate male orangutan appeared. He looked right at us, then continued climbing up. He then reached across to a nearby tree to pull himself over to it. However, the tree could not handle his weight and started cracking and breaking as he moved his full weight onto it. After that, he began a forced descent, and we lost our ape to the foliage again. All we could hear was branches and twigs snapping and breaking as he made his way, hastily through the forest. We all were on fire. What a rush.

We all returned to the truck, with an ear to ear smile. Feeling blessed to have witnessed this magical moment. Damn, I love the natural world.

I didn’t keep a proper journal for our February 13 day. It was a travel day from Deramakot rainforest to Kinabatangan River, a long morning that started at 6AM, We said good bye to our new friends from Deramakot and began the morning travel to Kinabatangan. After checking in at the next lodge and dropping off gear, we headed out for a 4PM safari. Instead of trucks, we use boats for this part of the journey, to find wildlife. So I didn’t properly document that day, I was super tired and passed out without writing. But here are a few images from our afternoon and night safari on the river.

February 14 - Last day of this trip. We went out for the morning session, the goal this morning was to try and find orangutans and A rhinoceros hornbill. What we found though was a massive surprise and one I will never forget.

When we went out that morning, we were trying to find a rhinoceros hornbill, a bird that I snapped an image of, but it was a horrible image, so I wanted a better shot at this iconic bird that truly symbolized what a hornbill is. When we arrived at the Tributary, which is part of the Kinabatangan, where these birds visit daily when their favorite tree is fruiting, we noticed some boats on the river bank looking into the forest. As we slowly approached, we could smell what they were looking at… elephants. 

They found the herd of 100 plus pygmy elephants we had heard about the day before. Our guide told us that they had left the area days before and moved on to a different river. He was thankfully wrong, the elephants were still here. No real words can be expressed for the experience we all just had. It was beyond what can emotionally be described. I don’t even know how to begin writing about it at all. 

The day before, we got to see mud tracks and what was left of an area where a herd of a hundred pygmy elephants swam across the river and disappeared into the forest on the other side. Our guide believed that the elephants were gone for the season. All that was left to see, was the muddy trail of broken trees and smashed grass and plants from this mega herd moving across the land. It is impressive the damage they can do, but it is also important, when elephants move through an area, it allows for new plants and trees to grow in these areas.

When we reached the boats and peeked into the darkness of the forest, I expected to see maybe the shadow of an elephant as it pushed deeper into the forest and away from the gawking humans, instead we were greeted by ten elephants just standing there by the rivers edge. They were hiding in the shade of the forest, resting from the blazing heat of the early morning sun. Talk about fire. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the forest, I could see more elephants stretching across the river bed. Some resting, others tossing the cool dirt onto their backs, juveniles playing with each other, and the sounds of elephants communicating with each other. Letting their family members know where they were, the sounds were both close and far away. It was an incredible sight. There were some small babies in the area, and as we tried to snap their pictures, the over protective females covered them up from our view. 

We spent the next three hours photographing these animals. They stayed in the area close to the river edge the entire time. A few of them went into the river to cool off from the searing heat. It was one hell of a show and beyond anything I had ever dreamed of. I felt truly privileged to have witnessed this at all. Our guide said this was only the third time he has seen a gathering like this in 20 years. I felt extremely lucky hearing this.

I knew we were going to see something special, and I figured it was when we encountered Big Red, the wild male orangutan from Dermakot rainforest. It wasn’t. And even though that was special…this was one of the greatest things I have ever witnessed.

Thank you for reading my journal note. I know it was long, but I had lot to write about. Hope you enjoyed it.