Last of the jungle cruise

Day 3 on our Kalimantan River cruise started out with a trek through the jungle. We learned quickly why the orangutans have been left alone and managed to hang on in this place--much of the land is too low and swampy for much else. Hallie and Garin both fell off the makeshift trail of planks and roots into the calf-deep swamp -- very muddy. We also learned about jungle leeches and fireants and decided that seeing the place by boat was definitely the way to go.

Coming back we had a little trouble getting by Siswi. She was in a bad mood and snatched our bag from the guide taking out all our rain gear, water bottles and then putting on our insect repellant. Finally, a nice ranger who was obviously her friend came up and she let us through. Whew!

We said goodbye to Siswi and Camp Leaky and headed down river to visit a Dayak village. On the way we stopped off at Camp 1 for the last feeding and wished we had not. Our guide warned us, “there are lots of mosquitoes here.” He was not kidding. These bad guys were swarming us and obviously immune to our Bali-bought insect repellant. It was miserable and we stayed about three minutes to see our first large male orang complete with impressive cheek pad then high tailed it back to the boat.

At the village we once again practiced our wading and trust skills. This year’s flood had covered the dock with a couple feet of water--it’s a very strange feeling to be stepping off a boat onto what you hope is a dock but can’t see because of two feet of chocolate brown water. The village was home to 800 or so folks many of whom worked on projects for the national park or orangutan preservation. Since most of the ground was flooded, all the villagers and their animals where hanging out on the high ground--lots of children, chickens, cats and dogs. Oh -- and ducks!

That night we tied up to a grove of river palms inhabited by a swarm of fireflies. We ate dinner and watched the flies flashing and blinking. The mosquitoes eventually drove us into our netted beds where we lay back and watched the light show.