27th July - Kinabatangan River - Kampong Sukau

Sunday 27^th July

Last night John and Catherine jumped ship and had a night ashore, at the eco-lodge nearby.  They had a great deal: dinner, breakfast, two river cruises (4-6.30pm, 7.30-9.00am,) as well as a night in a tiny twin- bedroom with shower, toilet and…large ceiling fan (approx. $70 each.)  Irresistible!

We were going to join them on the 4.00 boat trip but…there was a bit of a mix-up between Pete and me as to what time the boat was to leave…and he was FAST asleep, on a thin blue cushion on deck, at 4.00.  I couldn’t bear to wake him.

The Miedeckes had a wonderful adventure.  They saw a wild orangutan, swinging free in the jungle, and a fabulous kingfisher, red and yellow. 

A bit blurry but unmistakably a wild orangutan!

On 2XS we had our very own adventure…We had gone out in the dinghy (and oh what a lovely big dinghy it is; it feels SO solid and safe, not like a dinghy at all.  More like a small ship!) to look for monkeys along the river bank, and then we stopped for a chat mid-stream, with Janice, Lynne and Mick.  They showed us photos on their iPad of the 3m crocodile which had been circling Zoa earlier in the day…

It started to rain, just a few drips, so we all headed back to our boats.  Faster!  The rain was absolutely pelting by the time we got back.  Our poor cameras had to shelter in the anchor bucket, which has many holes… We put them safely inside, then looked out at the rain, and without a single word, rushed to get our soap, shampoo, whatever.  Oh the bliss!  While we were rinsing off the suds we realised that there were cascades of water running off the tarps, so we got out every bucket on board and then had a delightful time scampering about emptying them into the water tanks.  I also filled ever receptacle I could find inside – kettle, washbasin, jug, glasses.  Not a single drop was going to be wasted!  I think we got hundreds of litres; it was so very satisfying! 

In the meantime John and Catherine were out in their small tourboat, with only my very small fold-up green-spotted umbrella for shelter…

Catherine took some BEAUTIFUL bird photos

Eventually the rain stopped, and very satisfied with our efforts, and very VERY clean and refreshed, we chuffed over to join them for dinner in the restaurant.

How did we chuff?  Well Pete and John managed, miraculously to rescue the outboard engine, which got completely soaked in our Sinking Episode.  Fortunately the river is fresh water, if very muddy, and we hauled it out quick smart.

Pete took it apart and cleaned it and uttered words of praise and love and now it goes better than ever!  It seems to cope perfectly well with the much bigger dinghy so…all is well!

Salon Miedecke on 2XS

Many things happen on deck.  Sometimes it is a salon; other times a motor workshop.  At other times some of us play Bookworm on our iPads…

John hasn’t brought a charger for his computer.  His is a MacBook Air, as is mine but…it is a few years older so OF COURSE the chargers are not compatible.  Chris, on Out of the Blue II, just happens to have the right sort of charger.  So John’s computer is regularly hoicked from boat to boat, via boat-hook… What could possibly go wrong??  But…so far, so good!

26th July - Kinabatangan River - the dinghy is dead - not sure if all photos will load...

Friday 25^th July

Co-ordinates

05 degrees 31.349N

118 degrees 17.801E

Depth 5m

We are anchored outside Kampong Sukau, a reasonable sized village on the banks of the Kinabatangan River.

Thursday 24^th July

The provisioners came back to 2Xs yesterday morning laden with more fruit, veg, fish, chicken.  Catherine and I decided to hang the pineapple, and also the ginger.  Both have proved to be irresistibly attractive to all manner of tiny and unwanted insects, if they are the least bit available.  This should stop them!

There were last minute internet session, while we were still connected.  Catherine was very patient and kind when I interrupted her for a photo;

John looked DAGGERS.

(Catherine and I find this photo far too amusing.)

We cruised up into the Kinabatangan river and anchored at 2pm.  We are surrounded by dense jungle.  Birds are tweeting, monkeys are calling.

I very excitedly took a photo of some birds in a tree, thinking they were hornbills but they were “only” cormorants.

I like cormorants too.

It was what I can only describe as stinking hot.  REALLY stinking.  I started to go into a decline and then I heard Catherine’s very welcome words – Big storm coming!

WEE HEE!!  Thunderbolts and lightning!  We took all the tarps down (four people are much speedier than two, I now know.)  And then we waited for the blessed rain.

We saw a lone macaque, with many more making a hullaballoo in the trees behind him, 

and a lovely wading bird,

with many more tiny birds busying themselves whistling and tweeting and darting about in the trees.  In the evening, we had a few fireflies to visit – it was just like having a few shy fairies on board.

We got up very early this morning – 6am is VERY early for Captain Pete – and made our slowly up the beautiful golden river.  Within about twenty minutes – a whole tribe of proboscis monkeys!  This made us very happy indeed as we sipped our cups of tea and wielded our cameras.

A few miles up the river we came to a small village, Kampong Abai. 

Catherine (VERY sensibly, as it turned out,) decided to stay on board and have some peace and quiet.  Pete, John and I had a village adventure.

We found a small shop, which sold nothing we could conceivably want – but the people were very friendly, and happy to have us gazing bemusedly at tins of Chinese corned beef and very dubious looking chicken stew.

I bought a very small crocheted box or Catherine.  It is made from recycled plastic.  The creator of the boxes is, in the is photo, leaning nonchalantly on the large skull of a very dead crocodile, which is holding in its jaws a donation box, some tissues and sundry other useful items.

The village obviously gets visits from tourist boats.

TOURBOAT

I hope they all buy a small box or two.

ABAI

We enjoyed our village walk and made our way nonchalantly back to the waiting dinghy…

2XS was not far away across the river but…

2XS

oh dear and oh no - the dingy sprung a leak which even the most assiduous pumping could not quell.  Fortunately (thank GOD) not far from the little jetty we sank, ignominiously.  We went right under but managed to save Catherine’s small box, clutched in my left hand, and my camera, held aloft like Excalibur.  John had arrived at the jetty and I handed it up to him just before I sank beneath the water again.  We were not really thinking of  having a swim but…swim we did!  I made the most of the refreshing wetness but was very happy to clamber out – the jaws of a giant crocodile were not far from my mind…

I made myself very useful holding a rope and moving back and forth as directed by Captain Pete and Sub-Captain John, while happily clicking away with my (SAVED!) camera…

I lost my sunglasses (not the Oakleys, the others,) and my shade umbrella.  John’s camera got drowned, as did a big wodge of Pete’s money, which is now drying delicately between some teatowels.

A kindly local man in a small wooden boat came to our rescue and took us back to 2XS.  It was deep enough for us to tie up to the jetty and haul the poor darling dead dinghy aboard.

BOATMAN

We are SO lucky the (*cough*) incident happened where it did… Imagine if we had been up one of the many small creeks leading off this big river… The boat would have sunk and we would have had to clamber onto the branches and shelter with the proboscis monkeys…

DINGHY ON 2XS

Saturday 26^th July

Saturday 26^th July

PROB

Speaking of proboscis monkeys…We saw another big tribe further up the river.  We were enthralled by their athleticism as they hurled themselves (noisily!) through the branches.

We meandered further up the river and anchored near Kampong Sukau, with the rest of the rally fleet.  Our friends…we were overwhelmed; within minutes we had offers of not one but TWO dinghies.  Apparently (some…) people carry spare dinghies on even the smallest yachts – who knew??  By the time we had dropped anchor, Patrick was on his way over from Labarque, where Elizabeth had blown up the spare (splendid!  big! solid!) dinghy with a small hand pump.

We are so very grateful… We can use this dinghy until we get to Tawau, by which time maybe we will have been able to buy a new one.  Pete is still keen to patch up the old one.  He does realise it is on its last legs (maybe even its last legs are a thing of the past…) but he can’t resist a last-ditch attempt to rescure the poor little thing from an ignominious end.

23rd July - leaving Sandakan - Kinabatangan River later today - Martin and Osa Johnson

Wednesday 23^rd July

Sandakan stilt houses

We will be leaving Sandakan soon.  John, Catherine and Pete have gone foraging ashore; I have been washing and sweeping, and now I am rushing to do a blogpost before we disappear (possibly…) out of range.

Our own intrepid journey...up a tower on the Rainforest Skywalk...

Our kind friend Chee sent me his website; all very interesting, the programs he is preparing - very ambitious, and it all looks good to me.

http://iborneo.com.my/home/newsletter/2.html

Before we left for the Turtle Islands, we walked into town to find the little (free!) museum (Chee had shown us where it was; we are very lucky to have such a lot of help.)  I love this sort of small, random collection.  Upstairs there were some fabulous photos of Sandakan before the destruction by bombing in WWII.  And eclectic items – an old(ish) chain saw, a relatively new sewing machine, a black telephone, plus some local arts and crafts.

But downstairs was the main attraction – a collection of photos and information about Martin and Osa Johnson, adventurers extraordinaires.  They spent a few years in Borneo, flying a small seaplane into the jungle, making friends (they were, apparently, very much loved by the locals and by the expat community – Agnes Keith talks very admiringly about them in her Land Below the Wind.)

They did an epic journey right up the Kinabatangan River in a small houseboat, replete with dark room.

And they funded their journeys by making extremely popular docu-dramas.  A different world…

Our poor little deflating dinghy is still with us...just