We spend Day 59 and 60 in the jungles of Sumatra.
We wake up bright and early for a breakfast of fresh fruit, scrambled eggs & toast before meeting up with our guide Bubba and the rest of our trekking group. Except there’s no Bubba to be found. As it turns out he had to pass us on to another guide because not enough people signed up to make two full tour groups. Eric and I are disappointed but we make the best of the situation. Another Canadian couple is on the trek with us so we have a good time shooting the shit about all things Canadian, eh.
The plan is to spend a good part of the first day hiking around the jungle looking for orangutans and as luck would have it, we find one very quickly, just hanging out in a tree, approximately 60 feet in the air.
Seeing orangutans at the feeding center in Borneo was great.
Seeing wild orangutans in the jungles of Sumatra is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!
Later on while hiking the trail we turn a corner and there, less than a meter away, is another orangutan feasting on some fruit. We spend nearly an hour just watching him. We constantly have to change our positions to leave enough room between us and the orangutan and at one point I get a little nervous because he is moving quickly in my direction… but don’t worry – there were no more “monkey” incidents. Or “ape” incidents for that matter.
We end our day of trekking watching a mother and baby playing through the trees. Again we can almost reach out and touch them.
The evening is spent under a tarp near a river and waterfall, just playing cards with our guides and our fellow Canadians. As there isn’t a whole lot to do in the jungle at night, we find ourselves going to bed relatively early.
The next morning I wake up to a macaque peering into our tarp tent, which is not something I expected to see! Across the river from us are two monitor lizards and more macaques looking to steal our breakfast, but thankfully they didn’t succeed because we were all very hungry.
The walk back to the village involves crossing a set of rapids and to both Eric and my delight, we do so on a chair rigged up on cables that are manually operated. The guides do all the work pulling us across, so we just get to sit back and enjoy the spectacular view. The pulley chair was a highlight for the day. Further along the river we go for a swim in the current and watch even more orangutans.
I’ll never get sick of them – they’re just too awesome!
When we return to the village, we check into the Ecolodge for the night, unpack our trekking gear and then head back to the children’s café for some tea and Internet. And of course, we spend our last meal with Rita because tomorrow we begin our long journey to Bukittinggi.
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