Monday, February 20, 2006
Penultimate Day at Rasa Ria
(note to all: i will fill in the blanks of all the previous days when i get a chance back at Sepilok, but as people are screaming at me now to show more Orang Utan pictures, here we go...)
Work Day 8 at Rasa Ria started in usual fashion with a 5.30am alarm (combination of my phone playing Star Wars Imperial March tune and Nick's playing some mystery tune that we all have grown to love!). My phone also had a text from Ness letting me know that Chelsea had knocked the mighty Colchester out of the FA Cup. Waved it in front of the Man Utd poster in the room and felt good.
Today was one of those days with no running water at the house. Not uncommon but at least last night was a little cooler in our room so no-one was feeling too mucky. Honest...
Our lift into work was late this morning - Remy lives opposite us and 15 minutes late he came rushing out of his house repeatedly saying "Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry" ad infinitum until we had reassured him for the 100th time it was OK.
Breakfast at the staff cafe was just toast today as the fried rice was either all gone or just off the menu. No Milo either, so a bad start to the day but it got a lot better...
My 2nd day as Ranger was a good one. After sweeping the bridges and steps I went with Reemy and 8 hotel guests for a jungle walk on the Native Trail. This lasted 2 hours and we were lucky enough to see Mouse Deer, a very large Golden Web Spider as well as a variety of other animals and plants. Very good exercise too.
Back at the NIC (Nature Interpretation Centre) base and it was time for Orangutan feeding once more. This time i was handed a walkie talkie and led the group of about 45 people to the platform.
Really poor session though, the 3 Orangs just fed on the platform and disappeared into the trees. As usual, once all the guests had left the Orangs came down to play with all of us! The past few days have been really good in that respect, the permanent staff (Lyn, Dino and Melvyn pictured here), have let us take a lot of photos and we are trying to push the boundaries of what and where we can photograph :-)
The afternoon Orangutan feed was one of the best yet (just can't predict how they will be!) with Joey, Siti and Mowgly all playing near the platform for over 40 minutes. Once again we got some great photos after the session was over...
Tonight is our farewell drinks night with the other Rangers as tomorrow is our last day at Rasa Ria. After work tomorrow we will fly back to a very wet Sandakan and on to Sepilok. All 3 of us are dying to get back there although the past three days have been much better than the first five...
Work Day 8 at Rasa Ria started in usual fashion with a 5.30am alarm (combination of my phone playing Star Wars Imperial March tune and Nick's playing some mystery tune that we all have grown to love!). My phone also had a text from Ness letting me know that Chelsea had knocked the mighty Colchester out of the FA Cup. Waved it in front of the Man Utd poster in the room and felt good.
Today was one of those days with no running water at the house. Not uncommon but at least last night was a little cooler in our room so no-one was feeling too mucky. Honest...
Our lift into work was late this morning - Remy lives opposite us and 15 minutes late he came rushing out of his house repeatedly saying "Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry" ad infinitum until we had reassured him for the 100th time it was OK.
Breakfast at the staff cafe was just toast today as the fried rice was either all gone or just off the menu. No Milo either, so a bad start to the day but it got a lot better...
My 2nd day as Ranger was a good one. After sweeping the bridges and steps I went with Reemy and 8 hotel guests for a jungle walk on the Native Trail. This lasted 2 hours and we were lucky enough to see Mouse Deer, a very large Golden Web Spider as well as a variety of other animals and plants. Very good exercise too.Back at the NIC (Nature Interpretation Centre) base and it was time for Orangutan feeding once more. This time i was handed a walkie talkie and led the group of about 45 people to the platform.
Really poor session though, the 3 Orangs just fed on the platform and disappeared into the trees. As usual, once all the guests had left the Orangs came down to play with all of us! The past few days have been really good in that respect, the permanent staff (Lyn, Dino and Melvyn pictured here), have let us take a lot of photos and we are trying to push the boundaries of what and where we can photograph :-)
The afternoon Orangutan feed was one of the best yet (just can't predict how they will be!) with Joey, Siti and Mowgly all playing near the platform for over 40 minutes. Once again we got some great photos after the session was over...
Tonight is our farewell drinks night with the other Rangers as tomorrow is our last day at Rasa Ria. After work tomorrow we will fly back to a very wet Sandakan and on to Sepilok. All 3 of us are dying to get back there although the past three days have been much better than the first five...// posted by storri @ 10:06 am 
