Sunrise/Sunset..from Fiddler on the Roof

After sunrise and a hearty breakfast, it was time to travel to the Gomantong Cave, famous for it's edible birds' nests, a delicacy once only allowed to be eaten by the king. Walking into an incredibly vast grotto, you were met by the pungent smell of ammonia. We then walked along the crusty crawling boardwalk of moving cockroaches. We were told despite a slippery surface on the boadwalk, DO NOT touch the railings as they are covered in bat droppings. Back to the river lodge for lunch, dripping in sweat.
The labourers that are scraping these bird nests off the walls of the caves, live very precarious lives as its mighty dangerous work.
Another afternoon cruise, that's 3 in 24 hours, to find "Where the wild things are!"
If that rogue elephant hasn't left tracks we will do a night walk. Again we saw pygmy elephants, incredible bird life, monkeys & orang-utans plus a crocodile.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Islands in the Stream

After my usual breakfast of fried noodles, omelette & muesli it was time to board a fast boat to Manukan Island, where we snorkelled & swam in warm waters to our hearts content. By afternoon it was time to head back to the shores of KK. A few of us braved the humidity & went shopping downtown. Shoes were bought for $5:00, kids T-shirts at $3.50. We went out for dinner , all 23 of us plus our guide, to the jetty, rice, seafood , fish, beef, curry & vegetables. Most days we eat this for lunch & dinner.
Read more

A Discovery day!

Image
Borneo is 5° north of the Equator. Anne you will be pleased as l have again lost half my body weight in sweat! OMG! But this beautiful hotel in Sabah has a pool. It's like walking into a hot bath but who cares! It's wet! First stop was the orang-utans rehab centre. We walked on raised platforms to the nursery then to the orang-utans  feeding platforms. Superb creatures. After that it was across the road to the sun bears centre. The world's smallest bear. Only 70cm high. They are black with a snu aura like a necklace under their chins. I got the money shot here. They were 20 feet below but this one bear crawled up a tree trunk almost at eye level & plonked himself down.  After lunch we went to the Rainforest Discovery centre & explored remaining tropical forest by walking a canopy walkway 630m off the ground.  Much higher than WA Rutts. Palm oil is hugely contentious and has destroyed most of the vegetation & hence endangered the wildlife. I did my famous or in...
Read more

Borneo or Bust!

Image
We had a smooth flight on Malaysian Airlines into Kuala Lumpur. The airport is vast & poorly signed. We were wandering lost for ages, no one around at 6:00am to ask but needed to be on a bus to take us to the other domestic airport miles away. I kept looking at people as if they had Tripadeal tattooed on their forehead. Many smiled back. Yes they were Trippa people. They were my tribe! Arrived in Sandakan. Incredibly hot & humid. A great group of 23 people from NZ & Oz. Our leader decided that prior to checking in at our plush hotel, that it was best to take us to the Sandakan War memorial garden. There we told a tragic tale from WW2 of the death march where 1,800 Aussi soldiers were kept in this POW camp by Japanese soldiers & put to work under appalling conditions. Only 6 survived as they managed to escape. Officials from Aus & Britain tried keeping this under wraps.
Read more