Feeding at Pondok Tanggui
We set off at 0830 after breakfast for the 0900 feeding session at Pondok Tanggui. It took about 45 mins before a mum and a baby orang utan showed up. She was rather shy, taking some food and then retreating up to the branches above.
Back on the klotok, we started our journey to Camp Leakey around 1100. This is the famous camp started by Birute Galdikas, the Canadian who studied the creatures here, naming the camp after the legendary paleo-anthropologist.
We saw some gorgeous black-and-orange birds with blue beaks, which I was told were called Broadbills. Then we had a mother orang utan and a baby in the wild, and a snake crossing the river.
Ita had told us that Camp Leakey has the lowest chance of seeing orang utans at feeding as the animals here have been released here for a much longer period. They are more wild, I guess. Asking her if guests ever see NOTHING at the feeding stations, she said “Often”. But they would nearly always see orang utans en route from the klotoks.
So it seems that if one wants to just see orang utans, it is better to go to a rehabilitation centre on the edge of Kuching or Sandakan where the parks are smaller. But Tanjung Puting is special for the genuine nature experience with all the other things we have already seen.
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- Mum and babe at Pondok Tanggui feeding station.
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- Mum and babe making a getaway after feeding.
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- The river is also black from the peat swamp.
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- Black waters of the peat swap.
Feeding at Camp Leakey
At Camp Leakey we visited the information centre before a long walk to the feeding platform for the 1400 feeding session. It was hot and sweaty unlike our first day. I commented on how lucky we had been with the weather and that was the wrong thing to do! It poured torrentially after a lone shy orang utan came down twice. The wild pigs were hanging around the platform but they had no way of getting the goodies up on the platform.
After waiting for the rain to ease, we had to brave it and walk back in the heavy rain. Fortunately we had an umbrella each and stayed relatively dry.
It was a short chug to our mooring point for the night. We saw a fresh water crocodile (long mouth) along the way. After the rain, the frogs were really noisy as we settled in for the night.
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- Black waters of the peat swamp.
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- At Camp Leakey.
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- Lone orang utan at feeding station.
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- Lone orang utan at feeding station with wild pigs waiting.
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- Near our parking spot for the night.
