Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Sepilok At Last!
Big thanks to Dave W. who kindly uploaded a copy of my camera software cd which i stupidly forgot to bring with me... Luckily the last half hour of my stay at Rasa Ria meant i could download the software on their fast link before heading off for the main centre at Sepilok - AT LAST!!!
A shuttle bus to the airport in KK and a short flight later we were at Sandakan. From there a 20 minute transfer by road and we were finally at Sepilok.
The accomodation is the Sepilok Resthouse - our group has the whole of the upper floor and for those of you who think it's been too much of a holiday so far (no names mentioned here...) here are some of the highlights of the place...
pic of luxury communal loo/shower/sink combo...
and the "virginal white princess" style mozzie net covered bed...
A bit more basic than at Rasa Ria i think you'll agree!!!
But it's comfortable, a 5 minute walk to the centre and the food is good. This will be our permanent home now for the next 2 months (apart from the 9 days we all do back at Rasa Ria in turn). I'm still rooming with Nick who luckily is a really good bloke.
So a quick drop of the bags and after a snack we were soon allowed in "as tourists" to see the Orangutan feeding at 3pm from Platform A. The orangutans living free in the reserve are free to come here twice a day for bananas and milk. The food is deliberately kept the same every day so that it is boring and only acts as a supplement to the food they must still forage for during the rest of the day.
This feeding session is the same as what i saw when i came to Borneo 5 years before and seeing it again was still magical for me. For the majority of the group this was their first experience of the great apes outside of a zoo. Plenty of big grins on peoples faces I can tell you!!!
It also allowed us to take some photographs which is something that will not be possible too often (if at all) while we are working behind the scenes at Sepilok. The staff here are apparently very strict about this as there has been at least one incident in the past of a camera being snatched away from a volunteer by an orangutan and then taken away up a tree. The drama caused a major disruption to activities that day as the rangers then had to organise a climb up after the orangutan to retrieve the camera! If we behave ourselves we were told we might be allowed some special access for photos in the last week of work........
Amazing day - and after seeing the orangutans up close again today i know i've done the right thing coming here to work on the project.
PS - cellphone coverage here at Sepilok is REALLY poor. I will try to get another Malay network SIM card tomorrow so i can switch to the only network with any signal at all...
A shuttle bus to the airport in KK and a short flight later we were at Sandakan. From there a 20 minute transfer by road and we were finally at Sepilok.
The accomodation is the Sepilok Resthouse - our group has the whole of the upper floor and for those of you who think it's been too much of a holiday so far (no names mentioned here...
pic of luxury communal loo/shower/sink combo...
and the "virginal white princess" style mozzie net covered bed...
A bit more basic than at Rasa Ria i think you'll agree!!!
But it's comfortable, a 5 minute walk to the centre and the food is good. This will be our permanent home now for the next 2 months (apart from the 9 days we all do back at Rasa Ria in turn). I'm still rooming with Nick who luckily is a really good bloke.
So a quick drop of the bags and after a snack we were soon allowed in "as tourists" to see the Orangutan feeding at 3pm from Platform A. The orangutans living free in the reserve are free to come here twice a day for bananas and milk. The food is deliberately kept the same every day so that it is boring and only acts as a supplement to the food they must still forage for during the rest of the day.
This feeding session is the same as what i saw when i came to Borneo 5 years before and seeing it again was still magical for me. For the majority of the group this was their first experience of the great apes outside of a zoo. Plenty of big grins on peoples faces I can tell you!!!
It also allowed us to take some photographs which is something that will not be possible too often (if at all) while we are working behind the scenes at Sepilok. The staff here are apparently very strict about this as there has been at least one incident in the past of a camera being snatched away from a volunteer by an orangutan and then taken away up a tree. The drama caused a major disruption to activities that day as the rangers then had to organise a climb up after the orangutan to retrieve the camera! If we behave ourselves we were told we might be allowed some special access for photos in the last week of work........
Amazing day - and after seeing the orangutans up close again today i know i've done the right thing coming here to work on the project.
PS - cellphone coverage here at Sepilok is REALLY poor. I will try to get another Malay network SIM card tomorrow so i can switch to the only network with any signal at all...
// posted by storri @ 2:28 pm 
