Mrs M’s most exciting day

We meet our guide Theo after breakfast and fully equipped in our jungle attire (including the ever so lovely leech socks) we set out to complete the 4 hour long Coffin Cliff trek through the rainforest ascending to a viewpoint at one of the highest points in the Danum Valley.  I have the very big hope that we will just maybe get to see an orang-utan in the wild – one of my lifelong dreams and the very reason we are in Borneo for this part of the round the world trip.

10 minutes in we meet a lady studying the behaviour of orang-utans in the wild who has spotted a female in the trees in front of us.  We see some rustling in the trees, but unfortunately are yet to get the elusive glimpse I am waiting for – but now we know that they are here and very close to where we were staying.

We really enjoy the trek through the rainforest despite the heat and intense humidity and see some weird and wonderful plants and animals including a violin beetle, centipedes and millipedes, gibbons, red leaf monkey, some amazing orchids and fortunately nothing of the 8 legged spider variety (bugs and beasties update in another blog).  We stop at the Kadazandusun burial site and see the relict coffins from some of the tribes men buried in the cliffs.  Eventually we make it to the viewpoint where the view down the valley is amazing.

On our return trek we stop at two waterfalls which look like they are something out of a poster – it is the most amazing place.  Mr M takes the opportunity for some ‘geologising’ to our guide Theo 

To be fair he has done well to get this far into the trip and not looked properly at a rock so this was long overdue!

Back at the lodge after lunch excitement is brewing as the arrival of Wills and Kate is very imminent – they are visiting the Danum Valley as part of their SE Asia tour – and are staying at the Rainforest Lodge with us!  Not wanting to appear nosy we find a good watching sofa to observe their arrival in a prime location and have a cup of tea as a distraction so as not to look to obvious.  Eventually they arrive and as they walk right past us Wills said “hello” to us!!! Today is turning into quite an exciting day!

We head back to our bungalow to get ready for our afternoon walk and suddenly I see something long and wriggly on my finger – “arrrrggggg it’s a leech!!!!” –  I had been attacked by a passing leech duly trying to get its lunch from me.  Fortunately as most people know Mr M is calm in a crisis situation and rips of the leech in his bare hands and duly applies the antiseptic to the bite mark – I will live to fight another day at least!

On to our afternoon walk unscathed by the leech incident (and also after I literally bumped onto Wills and Kate on their way out) Theo takes us down a track close to the staff quarters – orang-utans had been spotted in this area within the last hour.  I am so excited and there in a tree right in front of us appears a young adult male swinging through the trees collecting figs.  My first wild orang-utan - it is the most amazing sight and I feel so lucky to have seen him.  

Not quite believing what we are seeing we then see a mother with a baby emerge from the trees again feeding.  We get to see them so close up – their faces are just so full of expression – we are so privileged to see this – it is my most exciting day of the whole trip so far!

Not really sure how the afternoon can be topped off we head out onto a night safari with some of W&K’s entourage.  It is largely un-eventful apart from at the very end when we see a horror of horrors giant tarantula on a tree – I am very pleased there is a large distance between me and it, although will need to do a full spider check in our room tonight after what has been the most exciting day.

Mrs M