Day 232 (Sat 24 Feb) - Kinabatangan River (Sabah, Borneo)

Up early at 5.45am. Dressed and were soon in a small boat wearing life jackets ( [1], [2] ).

Didn't see a great deal this morning as we traveled up and down the river. Some probosic and langur monkeys and a few birds in the distance was all.

Got back and had breakfast. Said goodbye to the other people who were leaving that day and went for a walk with Loise for the morning.

Walked along a path that was hemmed in on by tall grasses. Saw wild chillis and ginger growing. The path was littered with elephant poo and their tracks. A week before we arrived a herd of wild elephants had moved through this area. Would have been a sight to see!

As we walked Loise warned us of the annoying leeches. Soon after he'd done this he pulled up his shirt and a thin leech attached to his skin started waving around, it moved like an elephants truck. He flicked it off. We were determined to pick up any of these blighters.

We could hear a great number of birds but rarely saw them for any length of time. We did manage to spot a small scarlet capped bird though. Also saw a huge (about 6 inches across) black and yellow butterfly and a frog. As we walked Sarb would periodically begin scratching at his (large) midriff and was surprised to see a leech flailing around. Got rid of it. He had to repeat this performance a further two times before we had a break. Jo luckily picked up none.

We stopped at a lake and sat on a jetty where we relaxed chatting to Loise and watching the birds. Saw oriental darters sunning themselves and sometimes fishing, egrets, kingfishers and a small unidentified bird that had a nest, no bigger than an egg cup, next to the jetty.

After a while Loise asked us if we'd like to see something. He produced a small bag that contained some bread and breaking off a large piece held it in the water. Nothing happened but then the surface of the water seemed to boil and hundreds of small fish simply attacked the bread. Within seconds there was nothing left.

He handed over the remainder of the bag to us and we had great fun feeding the starving fish ( [1], [2] ). Occasionally a larger fish (about a foot in length) would detect the presence of the feeding frenzy and not wanting to miss out would join in. Seeing that these fish were not going for the bread and was larger large you had to watch out for your fingers.

Walked back, crossing a swampy area via a log, and saw a polka dotted birdwing butterfly. Huge!

Just as we got to the edge of the camp the rain, that had been threatening all day, suddenly began to hammer down.

Sarb sat in the common area, where we took our meals, talking to Jan the manager. Turns out that Stocking, the large black and white cat that hung around the camp, was the son of the larger tabby that prowled around and is only 14 months old. He's massive!

Rained all afternoon ( [1], [2] ). During a lull in the rain a party of three Poles turned up.

Rain had cleared up as we prepared for our boat trip in the afternoon. Even the butterflies were out and about. We spotted a croc and a probosic monkey and passed a tree where Loise stopped the boat and asked us to look up. Looking very, very carefully we finally saw a green Wagners pit viper curled up on a thin branch.
A langur monkey nearby seemed just as curious in us as we were of him.

Got back and had a nice dinner with our Polish buddies and retired to bed with a brandy.

Both slept very well.