Kuching, Bako Nat Park

We had dinner on the foreshore of the Cat river at the centre of town.

24/8/10 Bako Nat Park

We left at 8am for a trip to Bako NP. 30min drive thru the industrial part of Kuchin, then a 30min boat trip down the rivermouth to the open coast.

Beautiful Ranges to the NW, similar to the Coromandel Ranges near the moehau, but much larger!

Once ashore we saw Proboscis monkeys in trees near the cafe.

We walked up to the plateau, thru thick jungle back to the plateau where we saw pitcher plants. It was very hot up here on the small tree rock plateau.

We made our way back down and over to a neaby bay. We only walked 4km all day, but it took 2 hours. Very rugged and our slow coaches struggled... It was very sweaty work...

Some of us had a swim in tepid water in a rock fringed small bay.

We then took a boat out to see fantastic sandstone rock formations and look for sea snakes and then back to the cafe for a buffet lunch incl apple + cake!

3 of us went to the Kuchiing Museum. It was pretty good - similar to KL, but lots of stuffed critters from Borne.

We had a farewell dinner that night at a rooftop food court on a high rise with a full yellow moon behind us.

The beer drinkers stayed out till 3:30am with some singing thrown in.

25/8/10

8am departure for the Organutan rehab centre. Took 45 mins to get there (20km away) due to heavy traffic to get out of town.

We arrived just in time for feeding and upon arrival saw Ritchie the 29 yr old BIG dominant male eating fruti on the platform.

He was 3 times as large as the orangutans at Sepilok and looked like a big wooly carpet from behind.

Head on he was gorilla like, with the bull head and big cheek bones.