Simon at Sepilok

My last day as Animal Curator.

Once again I had quite a bit of solo time with the Orangutans at the platform before anyone else arrived.
Definitely been the highlight of the Rasa Ria work so far.

But still can't help thinking these 9 days are really not adding much value for either us, or more importantly the orangutans.

This "experiment" to send volunteers here from Sepilok for 9 days out of our 2 month placement in hindsight is not something i'd opt for if given a choice.

But who knows, after a month at Sepilok maybe i'll have a different opinion!!

Another great sunset tonight, this was taken from the hotel reception area as we waited for our lift "home"...

Tonight we met Naima at Transit for dinner and discussed all the "problems" we are having. Expressed concern about the bikes and later groups having to cycle home in the dark alone. Neither the roads or the bikes are lit so that's an accident just waiting to happen. One idea we came up with was to have a dinner allowance rather than having to eat at the same place every night. That we we could explore the area a bit more in the evenings. She said she'd try to sort it out with Albert.

Loads of other bits and bobs discussed, felt good for all of us to get this stuff off our chests.

This past few days is starting to sound really negative I know. It's not that this is a bad time, far from it, we are all experiencing magical stuff every day, but a lot of this we could be doing elsewhere (e.g. gardening, feeding non-endangered animals) and we are all here specifically to help with Orangutan conservation. This doen't appear to be making the best use of our time...