Dhahran British Grammar School Expedition 2006

27 March 2006

We were up for sunrise, feeling much warmer at the lodge than we had been at the summit the day before. In the half-light we could see the mountain hut that we had stayed in before our attempt on the summit. As the sun rose higher, the impressive ridge of Kinabalu appeared like a bronze knife against the sky. We looked for shapes in the silhouette, but at this hour imagination was running in short supply and we could see but a small kitten preparing to pounce and a turtlehead appearing from the water. And no, we hadn’t just taken malaria tablets…

A five hour bus journey to Sandakan, through mile upon mile of oil palm estates might have been exhausting if we hadn’t all fallen asleep almost as soon as we set off. Richard and Junior, our guides, woke us occasionally to either teach us Malay words or give us information about he area. Sixty eight percent of Sabah is still covered in primary rainforest and logging is tightly controlled now. Malaysia is the world’s biggest producer of palm oil and this is Sabah’s main industry, although small quantities of coffee, rubber and tea are still produced, mainly for local consumption.

At a convenience stop along the road I found a large female rhinoceros beetle. I took it in to the bus to show Jacob, who is very interested in insects. It immediately attached itself to his hand with a surprisingly strong grip. As he gently removed one leg at a time, the beetle would reattach itself quickly. Pulling the beetle off wasn’t’ an effective option. As Jacob tried, one claw pulled off a flap of his skin and he was later left with a ring of small red dots where the beetle had been sitting.

The banks at Sandakan, where we stopped to change money and buy snacks, would only accept three hundred US dollars at a time, so I had to go in search of a moneychanger. The students, rearmed with cash, were literally kids in a candy store. We had restricted them to four treats for the trip to the riverside lodge at Kinabatangan; with imagination though, some got around this by trying to buy family sized boxes of biscuits or the most gargantuan bars of chocolate. We headed them off at the check out – not wishing to have hyperactive, chocolate crazed kids for the rest of the trip.

There is a sea village at Sim Sim – single storey wooden houses extending out to sea on chaotic platforms supported by slender, blackened timbers. At the outer limit of the village, and some 300m from the sore, we had lunch at an open-air restaurant. Junior had pre-ordered food. Battered shrimps (poor things), a beef dish, and treat of treats – French fries, were waiting for us. A feeding frenzy followed.

Two speedboats took us to Kinabatangan Lodge, a beautifully landscaped but simple hotel at the side of the river. In the open sea the boats travelled at an impressive speed, occasionally smashing down from the peak of a wave with a gut-wrenching slap. Once in the river Kinabatangan they slowed down so that we could scan the thick riverside vegetation for wildlife. We didn’t see very much, just a couple of troupes of long tailed macaques high in the trees, the bottom of a wild boar and a small and irritable estuarine crocodile and two monkeys who were, according to Will, “intercoursing”.

Just twenty minutes after arriving at Kinabatangan, we were in boats again and heading off for the Mananggul Tributary to look for wildlife.

Apart from ten species of primate in the area there are also Borneo Pygmy Elephants and the rare clouded leopard. Two herds of the small elephants had been spotted by tourists during the last week, but we were to be unlucky. We did see several interesting birds, including a hornbill and a huge kingfisher, and large numbers of long tailed macaques and proboscis monkeys.

The proboscis males have huge drooping noses and look as though they are wearing red bomber jackets over ballet tights – a perfect description given by Junior. We saw one large, pot-bellied male sitting on a branch with his legs wide apart, hands on knees like an old man. He was staring down at his bright red member, which was standing to attention in what, apparently, is its most common state. Always ready for action, so to speak.

At dinner in the open-air restaurant at the riverside we all wore brightly coloured sarongs, Rob finally getting the chance to wear the skirt he has been talking about for so long. He wore his jeans at the same time, the overlong legs trailing along the floor beneath the batik fabric, lending an air of the ridiculous to his outfit.