Bako National Park

Today we just got back from Bako National Park which was absolutley amazing!!!!!!! I cannot tell you enough.

Bako is situated on this peniunsula on the north west coast of Sarawak province. Screeu vir my 'province'. The higlights there being the rare Probiscus monkeys, Bearded Pig, Flying Lemur, Silver leaf monkeys, Pit Vipers and the various types of pitcher plants on offer.

Well we saw them all. I'm an old spotter i tell you, even managed to fit in a couple shy kingfishers, stick insects, killer ants, ninature bees and stick insects to name a few.

We set off yesterday afternoon with this german couple we met, Thorsten and Stephanie from Frankfurt, in search of the elusive Probiscus monkey. The search did not go well as we reached the end destination (the beach) without a monkey in sight, we styarted the walk back after some rock climbing antics and i assured them i would find them a monkey. 28 years Kruger Park grooming anf i couldn't find thema glorified Baboon... Well we got back to the start of the trail and again nothing. I was about to start my apologies when out rhe corner of my eye about 400 hundred meters away high up on a cliff obscured by trees i caught a glimpse of one of them. They were playing in the trees and we were all happy, checked that one off the 'to do' list.

We also spotted the silver leaf monkey which as its name siuggests is silver, but has orange babies so they are easily spotted. Incredible!!

Our night jungle trek was very interesting. We spotted this beatiful kingfissher sleeping, Pit Vipers, Tree frogs and various other night owls (but no owls), we also saw the flying lemur crouching against the tree trunk. We thought this was strange - more to follow.

The morning arrived with the Macaque's running around on our roof (glorified Vervet's) and so a new day. We set off pretty early on this trail to see birds but never say any, only another troop of Probiscus. This made Celia happy, so i was happy. We snapped away until the camera was overheating and wounding more like a semi automatic rifle. With intermittent bursts of me saying, 'Surely thats not a good photo'. the jury is still out.

We made our way back towards the jetty where the evening before the guide had told us the Probiscus chill out there chowing leaves and other stuff at low tide when low and behold we spot an entire troop up close, and i never even had to use my eagle vision.

We took many photos, Celia and I interchangably. When her index finger got cramp she handed the camera to me and we worked in tandem like a team. We do have some amazing shots of them, they became so comforable with us that we were even able to move within a couple metres of them. I believe it was my foresight in not having showered in 4 days in order to blend in with my natural surroundings. Incredible!

The rest of the day involved taking more jungle walks, seeing amazing Pitcher plants, a quick dip in the warm South China Sea and a extremely bumpy ride back to Kuching. Which leaves me here at Singasana Lodge waiting for the morning when we leave for Jakarta, Indo. Wish us luck!!