Danum Valley

Bro and I were desperate to visit Danum Valley as after all the rainforest we’ve seen, we’ve not yet been in virgin forest.

So we booked ourselves on a 3-day, 2-night trip which involved a bus to the small town of Lahad Datu, then a mini bus to a research centre in the heart of the rainforest, which was where we’d be based for our trip.

Our friend Atteh from the village is a guide there, so we tagged along with his group for the three days, and we had an amazing time trekking, doing night walks, getting up at 4.45am to see the  sunrise (one of the best views I’ve ever seen!), swimming in the river and generally immersing ourselves in this new type of forest. We knew we were unlikely to see much in the way of novel wildlife from that we’ve seen in the Kinabatangan, but we were excited just to experience a different type of environment. The trees here are colossal compared to those in the Kinabatangan, and they are simply magnificent!! We spent a lot of time just gawping up into the canopy (I actually have a sore neck as a result of the trip!), in awe of how tall these marvellous trees are.

Late afternoon on the second day we rallied our nerves and made the 60m climb up the tree canopy climb. This just involves a step ladder up a tree. There is a vague cage surrounding it, but this wouldn’t stop you if you fell, so essentially it’s just a straight drop down to Earth if you let go. I was petrified and I’m ashamed to say got myself so worked up on the climb to the first platform (about 40m) that I had a little cry, but Bro came down and said he’d climb up a few steps behind me, so I persevered and made it to the top, super proud of myself! It was worth the fear....what a bloody marvellous view!

The wildlife didn’t disappoint either…my highlights were the gibbons first thing in the morning who make a glorious ‘Ooo ooo ooo’ song to one another, and just look spectacular swinging through the trees, and some red leaf monkeys! This was the first time we’d seen these and after a distant peak on the second day, they finally gave us a marvellous show on the last morning, when we got up super early to try and catch them before they headed off for the day. What stunning little creatures!

 

What perhaps upgraded the trip from great to simply awesome, was that we spent the three days with an wonderful group of people. We all got on so well, and it was great to click with people like that in such a short amount of time. It is perhaps worth mentioning that we were more than a little excited by the fact that one member of our group was the Production Manager of the new series of Thunderbirds (her hands are Lady Penelope’s hands!!) and the writer of the new edition of Sabah’s Lonely Planet!! Starstruck.com! Needless to say we shoe-horned in as many plugs for KOPEL and the Eco Camp and our fave hostel in KK (PODs) as possible and are reliably informed that we’ve earned ourselves a credit in the next edition. Hurrah! Couldn’t have met a more interesting or down-to-Earth bloke, and we’ll definitely be taking him up on his offer of stopping in for coffee next time we pass Cirencester!

An awesome trip all round! J