after ariving in Sandakan and meeting Bam who is a friend from my last trip we took the 2 hour or so drive to the village we stopped in to get some lunch and buy some suplies, Fish, eggs and vegetables.
So its day 2 in Sukau located on the Kinabatangan River in the flood plain. and boy is flood plain an apt description. when io was here last year it was much later in the year. this time the river is 3 or so meters higher and moving much quicker. they are normally out of the wet by now but this has been a late season. some speculation that it is related to the Japan Tsunami. im at the office for hutan who have pretty decent internet so will upload some photos aswell just capturing off my phone. first 2 days have been more about logistics than real work. setting some sort of schedual for the rest of the stay.
Tomorrow i am heading out with the Elephant Conservation Unit, tracking a local group of elephants who have been lving in a local Oil Palm plantation for the past 6 months. the ECU guys have relocated them once before but they just returned so they are thinking of better stratergies to keep them out and away from potential danger from the Plantation workers.
currently there are 3 females here at the office who have been raiding local orchids and whilst they are on chains it is only a short stay, the Sabah Wildlife department will tomorrow be relocating them to another part of the River many Kilometers away from local villages.
so my schedual for the next few days is following the ECU guys, Visiting the Tree Planting site and then going down river where it meets the sea and is predominately Mangrove swamp. i never got that far south last trip so really looking forward to seeing the different enviroment and wildlife. this is such an amazing area. In one boatride you can go from flood plains, past virgin rainforrest, limestone cliffs and caves down to mangroves and finally the sea.
the reason for the trip is that the Hutan Education Awareness Program (HEAP) is heading down to do some work with the two smaller villages and comuneties down there. they are going to visit 4 other villages over 10 days i will join them for the last 3. so more on that when i reach back. i am their as i said to collect some footage of different eco systems that i missed last time, and also to document some of the activeties that HEAP are doing.
Last night i caught up with the co director of Hutan Marc who is an amazing guy. i had dinner with him and his girlfriend at their place in the village and after to much wine to much hennesey and lots of food and talk i left with my mind a blur. marc set up Hutan and the Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project with his now Ex wife Isabele in 1998 and both are still running the show here. an obvious sighn to their dedication and passion to still be working together after a divorce. its so amazing to be around like minded people who have real ideas and are directly involved in in situ conservation. all up i have spent hours with marc talking about the project, and he is quite different to the Jane Goodals and Dianne Fosseys of the world. he doesnt want to be the face he wants to step further and further back so that the locals who are employed by Hutan can step into the spotlight and the world can see the real faces that live and breath conservation here on the Kinabatangan and throughout Sabah.
I highly recomend Checking out the Hutan Website and finding out more about their amazing work over the past 13 years - http://www.hutan.org.my/Home/Home.html
Give Thanks
Mike
Please check out all my Blog Posts and My Photo Bucket Album - http://s1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb321/RasTorty/
