Simon at Sepilok

It was one of the best days we've had up there - we had plenty of time after working to sit inside The Office and look out at the orangutans climbing, play-fighting or just chilling like Eyos here... We were also graced by a visit from a 13 year old mother, Mimi, and her young son Roni. Hope you like the pictures...

Quite a bit of the time we were the attractions inside the human zoo, with several "men of the forest" looking in at us locked inside The Office. After just an hour there I know I'd hate to live in a cage for the rest of my life. So it's good to know that our work here makes a small contribution to help some of these beautiful creatures live free.

On that subject, we had the good news confirmed that seven of the older ones from the Indoor Nursery will be moving to the Outdoor Nursery on Monday. They will stay in the big holding cage there (next to The Office) for a week to help the transition to their new environment. This is done so that they can start to see their new home and also for the existing orangutans to familiarise themselves with them.

So if all goes well, just a few days before the end of our time here, they will then be released into the wild and will be free to live wherever they choose in the Sepilok Reserve. Some will go deep into the forest and probably never return, while others will stay closer and start to use the tourist feeding platform to supplement their food whenever they feel like it. Apparently a release like this hasn't happened for over a year, so once again our group has been very lucky with the timing.

To see that release would be the perfect way to complete our time here. Watch this space...

After that it was exercise time for the toddlers, this time i started off with Eniro who is pretty confident in the branches and loves to swing backwards and forwards testing how much each one will bend. A lot of the time it appears he is mastering his ability to come crashing down onto our unsuspecting heads before swinging back up out of our reach!

We swapped around a bit too, so i made sure i also got time with Reto as well. She had a brief climb (and of course a little squealing session!) but was more interested in being cuddled today and then going to sleep sucking her thumb :-) All say "Aaaah..."

This weekend we will be trekking (or swimming if the rains don't stop soon!) to Sepilok Laut (which means Sepilok by the Sea) and staying overnight. The place we are heading for is owned by the Forestry Department and used mainly as an outpost to keep an eye out for illegal logging operations on the edge of the Sepilok Reserve area.
It's a pretty remote area so don't expect any blog updates for a couple of days until i get back, ok? (Gosh, what will you all do without this daily dose of adventure to brighte your days?!)
The whole group of 11 will be together there (Elle and Becky get back from Rasa Ria tonight) with a couple of the Sepilok Rangers plus some of the local Forestry people. The plan is to have a BBQ, a few glasses of rice wine and then start collecting open and honest feedback about the success (or not) for each area of our work program. Not sure if we'll be under canvas or kipping in the reception area of a building - probably the latter because of the weather...

The days are disappearing so fast now - it's hard to believe there are just 2 and a bit weeks of work left here for us. I'm starting to get a few "what next?" thoughts in my head about future work. I've enjoyed the work here and the beautiful Sabah area so much that when i think of going back to Brighton i'm not too excited by the prospect. Seeing girlfriend, family and friends again back home, a big yes to that of course, but not going back to cold, damp and grubby old England. I feel very relaxed and at home here now in this beautiful place.
Although....
....there is a family holiday to Egypt planned for April...
....and a World Cup coming up this summer....
....and a Panini sticker album to start with the lads....
....and a few Poker nights....
....so that will add some colour for a while!!

Anyway, have a good weekend all.
Talk to you soon...X

A proud moment for Pachi (Uncle) Simon today.

After Outdoor Nursery duties i took little Reto out for some exercise. We went up to the shady tree area with 5 other volunteers and 5 other youngsters.

Once again i encouraged her to reach out to small branches with her hands and feet and got her to transfer some of her weight from me onto them. After a few minutes of experimenting and to my total amazement she actually let go of me with her last limb and held herself up on the branches of a small sapling - the first time she has ever done this!

Nervously she moved her grip around a little, several times she reached out for me with one leg so i took some of her weight back to let her know i was there if she needed me, then she started reaching out further to other branches and leaves and began pulling herself up higher.
She was actually climbing on her own!!

Everyone around me was amazed and we all had huge smiles. I was cupping my hands underneathe her at this point, just in case she slipped, but i needn't have worried - she was absolutely loving it!

Soon we were hearing little squeaks and squeals from her, often a sign of distress, so I offered my arms back up to her expecting that she would come back down to me but she wasn't having any of that at all - we soon realised that the squeals were simply little squeals of happiness. As her confidence got stronger the little squeaks got louder and louder. Our smiles got proportionately bigger and bigger too!

I felt so proud of her, watching her confidence increasing all the time. The closest comparison i can draw was back when i was teaching Francesca to ride her bike, when i was running alongside her and gradually letting go of the saddle more and more until one day she was shakily pedalling along on her own. I'm sure some of you can relate to that feeling... :-)

After 15 minutes or so we literally had to drag her back down off the small tree. She made no complaints - she must have been exhausted after the excitement of all those wonderful adventures in the branches. Sure enough within minutes she had fallen asleep in Vicky's arms.

Well done Reto! The first step of your long rehabilitation journey back to the wild has just been taken!

After that nothing else really matters today does it... :-)

Sogo Sogo has unfortunately had another setback and is now not expected out of quarantine for at least another week. Nothing too serious, just a little bit sick, but looks like it will be touch and go whether i get a farewell cuddle from her before we leave in 2 weeks... :-(

During a very slippery banana delivery and then sweeping duties at the Outdoor Nursery we bumped into Elis and Ruth. They were collectings specimens from their "small mammal survey". I won't spoil the surprise and tell you what they had in their bags, as we'll be doing that work ourselves next week...

After that it was over to the feeding platform for the tourist session. Off came my boots and i found no less than four leeches heading towards my toes. Time to start using those sexy leech socks from now on methinks!
This was another good session, lots of Orangutans at the platform including the 3 big males once again.

Apart from that, pretty much business as usual. Nick and i watched the girls taking the young orangutans out for exercise (It was good to see Lipong and Nonong get some fresh air with Yvonne and Ruth - they are both recovering from illness), while we continued to assemble the roof struts for the new play area.

Quick Tiger after work at the nearby Jungle Resort (richly deserved i might add...!) and a change of food from resthouse cuisine went down very well :-)

The rains are back with a vengeance today. That means more leeches of course, but to be honest i'm getting used to them crawling on me. Obviously you want to keep them where you can see them (there is an infamous story here about how one of the current Rangers had to help a panicked lady trekker in removing a leech from a "very personal" area of her body...) but now i've seen how they move and usually hunt down your warm spots before starting to suck, i can see how people might get quite fond of them.
Like Karen tonight - she happily let one start to suck on her thumb and decided to let it have a little drink. After 15 minutes she thought she'd better try to ease it off (with a little hairspray loosener) and now has a very fetching bandage on it. Gila girl... (that's Malay for Crazy, btw).

Nick threw a sicky today - his hand was trodden on my Aman's studs last night during our Footie kickaround and has swollen up a bit. He reckons he wouldn't be able to hold a broom properly. Bless... That left just Vicky and I to carry the Group banner today.
No Rosali at work either today, so Outdoor Nursery with Dusain was very quiet - a few bananas and sugar cane to the store, a sweep of the slippery wet feeding platform and then some peace and quiet at The Office.

After that we spent some more observation time at the feeding platform, mostly in bright sunshine between the showers, and were rewarded with a visit by all 3 of the big males - Mr.G, Mariko and Grand Boy. On top of that Miskam and her baby Mais made a flying visit.
On the way back we bumped into Sylvia and a crowd of botanists who were marking and cataloging different species of plants and trees in preparation for a new guided trail they are planning to construct. We tagged along with them and learnt plenty of facts, i especially liked the plant whose bark you can dry out and burn like incense to ward off evil spirits (!!) and a won't forget a plant called Laparde in a hurry; in WWII it's fruit was given by the locals to poison Japanese troops who had treated them badly!

Talking of poisons, we found another smaller Viper near the walkway and we also noticed that the original one now had a bit of a lump half way down it's length - so it probably wasn't too hungry any more...

Grabbed a quick coffee with the group before lunch and found out that one of them was the chief botanist for the whole of Sabah! Amazing who you meet here...

Despite the rains they also wanted some photos taken of all 28 tagged species, so after lunch i went with a Ranger, Beddy, and Karen to capture the images they wanted.

This included the biggest single-leafed plant in the world (or something like that)...

The route took us right past the feeding platform once again (more observation!) and then on through the Outdoor Nursery just as Osama (yes, honstly...) and Miko, who are almost inseperable, came walking past.
Managed to grab a few more cute shots of the "specimens" there too of course... ;-)

Quiet night in tonight, all of us getting a little spooked by "The Forgotten" on DVD...

It started REALLY well with the news that Sogo has just had the last of her course of injections and is doing really well now. They are hopeful that she will be well enough to come out of quarantine and back to her usual home in the next couple of days.
Sogo - you gave us all a really big scare, but well done on battling through it. I can't wait to give you a big hug when you are back out!

Outdoor Nursery was excellent, with many of the orangutans playing nearby so after doing the chores we could sit and watch for a while:



Once we had finished over there we also spent a little bit of time at the feeding platform watching the expectant guests and the hungry orangutans start to arrive...
...but Sulima appeared to have already eaten at KFC - finger licking good, eh girl??!!...

Vicky had her first leech today, this time i managed to get a photo before we returned it by airmail to the bushes... :-)

Before too long we were heading back to the Indoor Nursery to help with exercise for the young ones.

Today i took out Annekara who is happy to amuse herself in the trees most of the time. She is one of the better climbers, in fact she if she was human she would easily find work as a stuntwoman in Hollywood - she is totally fearless and uses branches half as thick as she should probably use to crash from A to B.

Poor Kath was the main victim of Merudu's golden shower today, although she of course saved a brief burst for me later in the session (Merudu I mean, not Kath...) to keep up up her near perfect record of using me as a urinal 5 times in 6 visits!

After lunch it was the turn of the older ones to go out for exercise. But first Vicky and I had to give Nonong a well overdue bath. The others had already taken out the bigger OUs by the time we had finished drying her, so we were asked to take out little Reto instead for some fresh air. Oh what a hardship! Especially as we had to first put her in a baby Pampers and a very cute little t-shirt...

The other volunteers were all deperate to have a cuddle with her when we joined up with them later of course!

Late this afternoon Gabili's machete production line finished making gleaming new blades for both Vicky and I. We should be able to use them in our final work placement when we do our Jungle Trekking work starting next week. Mine is engraved on the wooden sheath with "~Simon~ Sepilok 2006", so will be a great reminder of our time here. I doubt if the local constabulary in Brighton would appreciate me carrying it around town, but it will be very useful next time i go trekking through the wilds of Ashdown Forest...

After work Nick and I started the roof supports for the new play area. Work was progressing smoothly until we broke our 2nd hammer in just three days - they just don't make 'em like they used to!
People now tell us our masterpiece of construction is looking more like a bus shelter than a goalpost, which is progress of sorts i guess...??!!

Today the Sepilok Orangutan Appeal's primatologist has finally returned from the UK after renewing her work visa. The Ranger staff here have been waiting for several weeks for Sheena to return so that they can release the bottleneck of orangutans and she can start to study the progress of 7 of the older orangutans in Quarantine and Indoor Nursery as they make their transition to the Outdoor Nursery and onwards out into the wild. This time she is being accompanied for 6 months by a former Travellers volunteer Kirsty who did her placement here last year. What a great job to have....
Hmmmm, that give me an idea....
I wonder......
Just kidding....!!!!

Dusain had a day off today so this morning at the Outdoor Nursery was with Rosali. In reality there was very little to do there today, just a little bit of banana delivery (still plenty of sugar cane left from yesterday!) and some path sweeping.
Most of the orangutans were already loitering at the feeding platform so when we swept that we had to keep one eye on the slippery decking and the other on Doggy & co.
I had my first leech there too. The little blood sucker managed to get his mouth onto one of my fingers while i was walking back from the platform. A few carefully aimed flicks and he was back into the bushes with no lasting harm done.

Only Pat and Eyos were keeping us company at "The Office" cage today. It's called "The Office" because after a tree smashed the roof of a brick building a couple of years ago, Dusain simply moved his desk inside a disused holding cage! Ever since then, the wild orangutans are free to wander up and watch the caged humans - an ironic role reversal! These pictures were taken by the last group a couple of weeks back when it was a bit sunnier and Dusain was here to pose...

After that we were free to go back and watch the Orangutans at the feeding platform with the tourists. I could never get bored of doing that! A bit overcast there today, which makes taking sharp photos difficult in the poor light - i hope you can make them out ok...



We also bumped into a guy called Jack there again too. He is another Travellers volunteer - we first met him at our Sepilok welcome party and he is teaching science and maths at a local primary school. Elis was chatting with him for a while so on the way back he decided to show him around the orangutan Indoor Nursery and also take him down to the Sumatran Rhino enclosure. I hadn't been there yet so i tagged along too and we saw the only 2 examples in captivity in the whole of Borneo. They are a severely endangered species, with only 15-30 left in the whole world. I can't say i was too impressed with their enclosure or their conditions... :-(

This afternoon we spent a bit more time measuring up, sawing wood and hammering nails into our new orangutan "goalpost". Well that's what they look like at the moment I reckon - we just need a net and we're in business!