Sept 26-Oct 2
Hi All,
We did leave Bawean at 7am on Monday, Sept 26 for the overnighter to Kumai Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. There were squalls all around us for most of the morning but we found the only blue sky and had sun most of the day……that means it was HOT and then more HOT….ugh!!!! We had great trawler like weather….<7kt winds, seas <1’….all behind us so no breeze to cool us off. Later that night we went through a huge squall complete with lightning, thunder, rain and wind……yuck!!!! We have not seen lightning like that since Panama….oh, boy……we think the rainy season may be a little early!!!!!
We arrived at the Kumai anchorage at 11:00am…..193nm, 7.1 kt avg speed…..not too bad…..of course, we arrived on an ebb tide so had 1-2 kt current against us the last 20nm up the river….ugh!!! There were a lot of cargo ships and barges where we are supposed to anchor……don’t think they got the memo……so the cruisers all anchored in amongst them. That’s ok until the tide changes and the boat swings 180. We had anchored in the back and a 200′ cargo ship swung within 50 yards of us…..the captain was outside watching and spoke to us in Indo…..he was smiling and clapping so we don’t think he was mad but we do think it was too close for both of us.. So we picked up and moved to the head of the pack and yep, the barge in front of us got to 80 yards when they swung…..the captain was also watching and he was smiling too so we decided to stay put for the night.
But the best news of all is no smoke in the air!!!!! In years past Indonesia has had problems with the slash and burn method of clearing land, especially for Palm trees for palm oil. It is quite controversial and last year the smoke was so bad that only a few boats made it to Kumai. We just read a report that over 100,000 people died from the smoke last year in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore…..whoa. We also read that Indonesia, with the help of other governments, is cracking down on the illegal clearing of lands, using police and military to arrest people, fining people and companies, and incenting villages to be burn free……and, along with an early rainy season it seems to be working!!!!
The Kumai river is very dirty…..almost a creamy coffee color…….yuck…….no watermaking here which might be a challenge in a week or so. Wati, the woman arranging our orangutan tour, came over to Mystic yesterday and we asked her about it. She said the river is polluted from various sources but mainly from illegal gold mining up the river. It seems people use high pressured waterhoses to uproot trees where evidently the gold is located. This is done very quickly so they are hard to catch. We watched the tug and barge in front us as they were painting the barge black……when they got done they just threw the paint cans overboard. Yep, Indonesia has a long way to go to educate the folks about pollution but if their actions on all these fires is any indication, you get the feeling that when they get serious about it they will make it happen…..we sure hope so!!!!
Boat Stuff:
We had a bit of a challenge with the GEN seawater intake the last few days in Bawean. We were running the GEN, just finished dropping the dinghy and the exhaust pitch changed. I looked and we had smoke coming out the exhaust….I looked at the temp gauge and yep it was at 210* F….just about to cutout on hi temp…….we shut it down and I went to investigate. Sea strainer clean, check, seawater pump impeller good, check…..hmmmmm, not good…..this could get serious. Maybe it was a plastic bag over the exhaust…..we started up again and ran for another hour and all was well….although it might have been 5* warmer. We went over to Bella Vita for HH with Antares and came back and ran the GEN…..hmmm, definitely running hot…..and some smoke coming out. I fretted about it most of the night and finally got up at 4:30am and was in the ER a little after 5am as we wanted to leave at 7am for Kumai….yep, early morning hot yoga….the ER was 95 deg F. I took the hose off the thru hull…..not an easy task…..lot’s of struggling but got it……stuck a long screwdriver down the thru hull and crap….it wasn’t going through….took me about 5 min of jamming the screwdriver up/down….then put all my body into it and voila…….something gave and I was greeted with a saltwater geyser shower…..well, it did cool me off a bit. We are not sure what got stuck in the thru hull…..plastic bag, seaweed, grass, squid…..who knows. I got everything cleaned up by 6am and in time to get going to Kumai!!!!
Stats: We have now gone over 6000 engine hours…..whoa!!!! 6050 engine hours, 42,400 nm, 7725 GEN hours, 3400 watermaker hours!!!!
Sekonyer River Safari: Wow, wow, wow……OMG, what a trip…..as Kathy says, a trip of a lifetime. We saw 31 orangutans, Proboscis, Macaque, and Gibbon monkeys (those may have been my favorite monkey), Storm’s Stork, a Hornbill bird……all of these species are rare or endangered due to the decline in natural habitat……oh, and many kingfishers including the bright blue one and lots of swifts……just incredible and we feel so honored/blessed to have had this experience. Having said that, this trip was not exactly princess cruising as it was hot, hot, hot, humid, humid, humid and buggy, buggy and more bugs. It is in the middle of a rainforest at 2.5* lat so what do you expect……we were constantly applying bug juice!!!! Our boat was named Mama 4 from Borneo Holiday…..I would say in the upper echelon of boats but we did see a few boats with nicer accommodations and even AC, but even that is controversial due to the noise the GEN makes, as it makes the animals skittish plus is just an annoying noise. Fortunately all the boats around us were very quiet!! We highly recommend Harry’s company……[email protected] or [email protected]. We had a crew of 4……a guide, captain, chef and deckhand!!
The food was all Indonesia, quite good and plentiful. And, because they know us Yanks, they put the hot sauce on the side:)))) We had curried beef and chicken, talapia fish in various sauces, fried shrimp, various noodles, greens and vegetables, fried rice, scrambled eggs, pancakes and plenty of fresh fruits and snacks. We drank copious amount of water as it seemed we were constantly drenched in sweat…..
Ami was our English speaking guide. He is native of Borneo from the Dayak tribe. His village had sold to a palm oil company and his parents used the money to send his sister and him to the university where he studied economics and learned English…..it is quite a story and during the course of the 3D/2N tour we got to hear both sides of the palm oil controversy. It provides money and jobs to the locals but then it is also destroying the rainforest and endangering all the rare animals!! It is a dilemma indeed, and neither Kathy nor I can find an easy answer…..
We were picked up around 9am on the 1st day and quickly went into the river entrance. The river is banked by several miles of Nepa palms…..people use the palms to make thatched roofs……then water pandanas and eventually it becomes rainforest. We eventually made it to Station 1 where we saw our first orangutan. Ami had taken us an hour before the feeding time and we were treated to a private show of a mama and her 2 babies…..one quite young and another 2-3 years old and quite active. In the Tanjung Puting NP, which we were in, there are about 6000 orangutans. There are 3 feeding stations that are active, mainly for the tourists. They use bananas and sugar cane as the feed this time of year……neither are natural foods for the animals but some of their favorites. During the dry season there are almost always orangutans present and during the wet season they eat their natural food….mainly fruits, flowers, barks, leaves, honey and insects…..and do not come to the feeding stations!! We saw a total of 6 orangutans at station 1. When we got back to the boat Ami suggested we move on to station 2 for the night, as there would be less boats and more quiet, plus it would be about 2 hours and a sunset cruise through the jungle. Wow, wow, wow….this is where we had monkeys all around us and saw our first Proboscis monkey. They are only in Borneo and the males have a huge nose……think Jimmy Durante:)))) We changed into dry clothes, had our cocktails and enjoyed the nature show. When we arrived at station 2 we were served a scrumptious dinner in candlelight…..whoa…..and then it started to rain which was a blessing as it cooled everything off…..oh what a relief. We slept in a bed, snug and dry, surrounded by a mosquito net listening to the rain, thunder and lightning and the very loud jungle critter sounds. We did sleep some but spent a lot of time just listening to the various animals!!!
Day 2: We we up early with coffee and tea and then were treated to another orangutan show…..Auklas, a young male maybe 8 years old comes through the trees onto the dock. He surveys the scene, then jumps on the boat in front of us and opens the rain tarp….holy cow…..the captain sees Auklas and shoos him away…..Auklas then hangs his head and walks away down the walkway…..one of the boat crew sees this and entices Auklas back with some bananas……he seems very content and quite harmless. He then looks up and spots us on our boat and our table, and he quickly climbs onto our boat and immediately grabs a jar of sugar and a can of condensed milk…..all for our coffee/tea…..the crew is about 20 steps behind but quickly start yelling at Auklas as he makes his escape overboard and into the jungle…..holy orangutan batman!!!!! Well……it happened all so fast and then everyone just started laughing how we had been robbed by Pirate Auklas…..wow!!!
We saw 3 more orangutans at station 2. One was a huge male named Doyo…..an alpha male maybe 20+ years old…..they can live to around 50……he was very charming and just sat and ate to his hearts content…..we did notice the more he ate the lower he sank onto the platform:)))))
After station 2 we continued on to the Camp Leakey: “Located in the Tanjung Puting Reserve (now National Park) in Central Borneo, Camp Leakey was established in 1971 by Dr. Biruté Galdikas and former spouse Rod Brindamour. It was named after the legendary paleo-anthropologist, Louis Leakey, who was both mentor and an inspiration to Dr. Galdikas as well as Drs. Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey. Originally consisting of just two huts, Camp Leakey is now an assemblage of permanent wooden structures designed to provide a base for scientists, staff, students, and Park Rangers.”
We parked the boat on the side of the jungle across from the dock and were treated to several orangutans on the dock and in the forest. One was named Mario and he came up to the boat, maybe 10′ away and then proceeded to watch us eat lunch and play peekaboo with us. He took a small branch with a few leaves and he would hide his face behind it and then occasionally peek around to see if we could see him…..they say the orangutans have an intelligence similar to a 3-7 year old and his actions reminded us of playing with a small child!! It was absolutely adorable and we didn’t want to leave the boat to go see Camp Leakey!!!
Dr Galkikas is still alive and teaching in Canada but still comes to the Camp a few months each year. There is a great information center where you read all about the individual orangutans and their habitat and a lot of information on the palm oil industry and the destruction of the Rainforest. I asked the woman in charge about the lack of fires and smoke this year…..I say it seems the government’s programs are working…..well, she says not the government but mother nature…..it started raining in August…..the government does nothing…..ouch!!!!!
We saw 15 orangutans at Camp Leakey….as well as our first Gibbon monkey….unbelievable…..lots of moms and babies, a few juvenile males and one rather large male who is challenging the alpha male, named Tom, who did not show up. We sat there for almost 2 hours just mesmerized with the action!!! At one point we are on the path watching a mom and baby and she decides to go up the path and pass Kathy…..yep, Kathy stood rigid hoping no micshief was in mind!!! Afterwards we left Camp Leakey and went about 1 mile to a shutdown crocodile research center where we stayed for the night with 1 other boat and went on a night walk. The walk was just ok…..we saw a few very large spiders and many tarantulas…..pretty skittish and quickly went back in their hole!!
The next day we were up early and again treated to a marvelous river cruise and nature show…..this is where we saw many birds and plenty of monkeys and a few more orangutans. We stopped at a village that had recently sold land to a palm oil company. From the large sum of money received, the village had paved their streets, put in electricity supplied by the palm oil company, many had built nicer homes, bought motor bikes, built a school and all had cell phones. About 80% of the men worked in the plantation while the rest supplied various service needs. The 300+ people definitely had bettered their standard of living…..again the other side of this huge palm oil controversy!!! Kathy and I came away thinking the only way to stop this deforestation is to offer the people a better alternative, which at the moment we have not heard of one!!
OK…..that’s it for now but we have plenty left to do in Kumai. We are going to visit with Wati and her English school and then participate in some of the Rally activities for the next few days.
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
on the Kumai River!!!
PS: Lot’s of pictures on the website in a gallery: http://mysticmoonvoyages.com/photo-gallery/nggallery/main-album/Kumai-and-Orangutans
PSS: Checkout Mt Barujari eruption, the child of Rinjani, the small building volcano cone in the middle of Rinjani’s crater. It was smoking when I was there 4 weeks ago and now has had a small eruption. They evacuated all the trekkers and the towns around Rinjani…..so far no one has been hurt!!! http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/09/28/indonesia-evacuates-tourists-after-mount-barujari-eruption.html
