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Firefly - Smoke and the Men of the Forest



In the Indonesian language, 'Orang' essentially means 'human' and 'utang' is 'in the forest'- hence Orangutan - 'Man of the Forest'. Tours to visit the Orangutan Sanctuaries in the Tanyung Puting National Park start in Kumai a port on the south coast of Borneo and it was a scheduled stop on the Sail 2 Indonesia Rally. However, due to intense smoke in the atmosphere caused by forest fires, visiting Kumai was left down to the individuals and Firefly was the first to visit, although we did know that some other yachts had been there recently despite the problems.

Like a port from Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim, Kumai would certainly not be described as pretty. The wide silty brown river has quite a lot of commercial and fishing boat traffic and leads you up to the town which spreads along the western bank. With the atmosphere thick with smoke it was like a scene from the movie 'Bladerunner'. Along the edge of the wharf there were a large number of tall box shaped building with no windows. Initially they appeared to be warehouses but as we got closer we could see numerous holes in the walls and hear the twittering of swifts. These building are where the 'birds nests' for the soup of the same name are harvested. The birds nest being the congealed saliva of the swift - sounds lovely.

We had a contact to call on VHF but typically there was no reply. As we motored along the wharf looking to see if we could see anything that might help, Firefly was spotted by Nina from Harry's Yacht Service. We motored in close and we were told to anchor on the other side of the river and dinghy back in. Firefly was anchored in amongst a variety of rusty ships - but we thought it was a good omen that we ended up just behind Bagus - meaning 'good' in Indonesian.

An hour ashore and we had a tour on a local Klotok river boat booked for the next 2 days and would spend the night sleeping on the deck. Klotok means the 'put - put' sound of the single cylinder diesel engine and at 0800 the next day, Spirit, chugged up and came alongside. The boat boy who would stay on deck of Firefly jumped on board and we headed off towards the entrance to the Sekonyer River. Aussie sailor Denise, was another passenger had joined the trip. On board we had 4 crew, Skipper, Mate, Cook and Nature Guide. Elko, the Guide was the senior person although only 21. He did an excellent job speaking good english and had a sound knowledge of the flora and fauna. Nothing was too much trouble and the food, which appeared regularly was some of the best we have eaten since being in Indonesia.

Our first stop at Camp Leakey was 4 hours away and en route we relaxed on the top deck forward facing seats, enjoying traveling through the jungle spotting wildlife. Hornbills and Kingfishers were flying by and in the trees there were Macaw Monkeys. To get us excited we caught sight of an Orangutan and its Baby high in the trees as we motored along the narrowing river. Camp Leakey has been a place for the study and sanctuary of the Orangutan since 1971. This is the jungle habitat of the primate and there are wild Orangutan here as well as those that have been rescued or reared in captivity and released. Orangutan are generally rescued either as a result of their habitat disappearing or they are recovered from the illegal wild animal trade.

Sadly the jungle continues to contract rapidly mainly due to the onslaught of the Palm Oil Business. Despite environmental pressure many parts of the Borneo forests are being logged and then burnt. The Palm Oil Companies are wealthy, its a poor country and people need work and corruption is rife so there is nothing to stop the devastation at present - only the National Park in this area is safe. This 'Slash and Burn' activity also results in the severe smoke pollution. The situation is similar on Sumatra and as a result, smoke is present over many parts of SE Asia at present and will not clear until the monsoon rains come in November.

The tour was arranged so that we would visit 3 camps where there are feeding/viewing stations, the behavior of the Orangutans at each was different and we were told it was dependent on how wild they were. By 1400 the first day we had docked the Klotok and walked to the feeding station at Camp Leakey where the rangers emptied a rucksack of bananas onto a platform about 10 metres from a roped off viewing area. Bowls were also filled with milk and the wait began. Orangutan are definitely not stealthy creatures and there was no mistaking that one was coming as we could hear it crashing through the trees. It was in fact a mother and baby and after staring at us they proceeded to sit on the platform, have their fill and move on within about 5 minutes, always scanning the area somewhat nervously. At Leakey the same pattern occured with about 6 females all with young babies, some also had an adolescent in tow as well (apparently the babies were 1 to 2 years old and the adolescents about 4 to 5 years old).

We sat captivated for almost 2 hours before heading back to the Klotok and moving downstream to tie up alongside some Pandanus reeds for the night. Food was served and the mattresses were prepared on the deck, each protected by a mosquito net. It was a surprisingly good nights sleep despite an incredible cacophony of noise. Waking early as the people in Indonesia tend to do, the engine spurted into life and we headed to the next camp. At this session we only saw a female and her 2 youngsters, arriving after we had waited for some time. However, in this case they were not timid at all and spent an hour on the platform devouring all of the fruit themselves.

At the final station it was a different pattern again and a great finale. The Orangutans were waiting for the food this time and this was a big 'troop'. There were 5 or so females with young and a huge 'alpha male'. Apparently weighing about 125kg he had very long hair and was rippling with muscles with wide cheeks on his face, noting him as the dominant male. They spent about an hour devouring the food, staring at each other as well as the spectating humans and then once the male had headed away through the trees, the females and young climbed high in the trees a number of them right above where we were sitting.

The pollution thickened as Spirit reached Kumai and dropped us off on Firefly, during our time in the jungle it was less intense but on arrival back at the boat all we wanted to do was leave. We decided to sleep first and upped the anchor at 0530 the next morning working our way back out of the river as if it was a foggy day in the English Channel.

Paul and Susie



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