The next leg was an overnight sail to Bawean, with the added entertainment of a thunderstorm and some ship traffic. It was not too bad, and all fishing boats had bright lights on. At Bawean, we met two other Rally boats. We had a chat, and went ashore. I played soccer with some boys on the beach. This was another island which deserved more time, but we were in a hurry to catch up with the fleet, and make it out of Indonesia before our Visa expired.
Another overnighter to Kumai was probably the best sailing for a long time. We made 143 miles in 24 hours, nearly 6 knots on average! WE did not motor until we entered the Kumai river and arrived with full batteries. The whole distance from Bali to Kumai was 380 miles. And there we were: still lots of Sail Indonesia boats, most of them visiting the Orang Utans. We arranged for a 2 day, one night tour together with an English single hander, got some diesel and water.
The man we booked the tour with (about AU$150 per person) promised to organise the bolts while we were in the forest. So off we went, the price included having a boat boy staying on the boat, and a guide, cook, captain, and assistant on the boat. It took us about five hours to reach Camp Leakey, and we saw quite a few monkeys on the way.
Arriving at Camp Leakey, we had to walk a bit through the forest to get to the information station. We saw Gibbons and some other monkeys on the way. We followed the ranger to the feeding station, and were overtaken on the way by 2 Orang Utans. It is a very strange feeling to be so close to those animals, who have the strength to swing around in the trees or rip up any backpack in seconds. At the feeding station, there were a total of close to 20 Orang Utans, and about four babies clinging to the neck of their mothers. The dominant male (“Tom”) had the bananas all to himself, the others would not go near him. Only after he had enough, the others would come down and eat. We were standing about 10m away from the feeding platform, and they would just walk around us, as if we were not seen as related at all. I wonder what they think of those humans...
At the ranger station, there were some more Orang Utans, and we got quite close. Especially when Rosi stepped back for a photo and nearly walked over one ... We could have stayed and watch for hours, it was a great experience. It was time to return to the boat, to go to the night anchorage in the river. We had mattresses on the deck, and mosquito nets. The food was good, it was amazing what this guy could produce with the limited equipment he had. They rigged a shower for us, with a generator and a pump to a shower head in the back cubicle, which was also the toilet. It was a western style toilet, with manual flushing. We had to ladle water into the bowl, to empty it into the river.
In the morning, we were woken up by Gibbons exchanging greetings in the trees. We upped the anchor to go to the morning session at the next feeding station. This one was also ok, but far fewer Orang Utans. There were only three of them. Still fascinating to watch. The next station only had one male consuming all bananas, and nobody else showed up. We were told that this was a good sign, as they all find enough food in the forest and do not need the handouts. Good for them. At the last stop, we had millions of mosquitos with their own interpretation of feeding station. We were glad to be back on the boat and on our way back to Kumai.
Overall, it was a brilliant experience, and not to be missed. With the benefit of hindsight, I would have chosen to visit Camp Leakey twice and skip the others. Just can’t get enough of those cute relatives...
In Kumai, we noticed that all other boats had gone. The boat boy had even folded the washing we had left on the line, and in such a neat way that I have never seen before. Rosi just could not believe that a man can do this. The next day we took on some more water, and I tried to clear out with the harbourmaster. He was not really interested and wished us a good trip.
Time to move on...
No comments:
Post a Comment