moutain gorilla holidays PHOTOGRAPHY & WRITING BY IAN WOOD

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Orangutan holiday Borneo trip report 18th Oct 2010

" Our trip to Tanjung Puting was a marvellous experience. To get so close to the wildlife and particularly the orangutans made for a unique opportunity to see the rainforest as it should be. " Michael Helliwell ... (To see some of Michael's photos visit his website here.)

I'd had a week off in Sulawesi after my previous trip to Tanjung Puting and to be perfectly honest I was slightly nervous about this trip. Only because the last one had been so exceptional (click here for trip report) and we'd beaten all previous records for wild orangutan sightings. But Tanjung Puting is a special place and never ceases to amaze me. We had some awesome sightings of both wild and semi orangutans throughout the week and very nearly matched the record from the previous trip.

Thanks so much to Michelle, Sara, Mervyn, Sarah, Valerie, Michael and Ella for being so lovely and making this trip such a pleasure. Once again the holiday got off to the perfect start with our first wild

 

orangutan sighting happening very soon on our cruise upstream to enter the park. As we were watching the young male orangutan a Storm's Stork flew right over our heads. These birds are incredibly rare and this sighting marked the beginning of a great week for birds. If I hadn't been keeping note we would have soon lost count of the number of Hornbills we saw during the week. There are 6 species of Hornbill in Tanjung Puting and we had excellent sightings of 5 of them. Kingfishers were also out in force during our time in Tanjung Puting with some great close encounters with the colourful Storkbilled along with many flashes of the Blue Eared. We were gently gliding upsteam to Camp Leakey on day 4 when we spotted 2 more Storm's Storks sitting in a tree by the edge of the river. They started to circle over our heads and were then joined by another 2. There are less than 300 breeding pairs left in the world so to have 4 of them just above us for so long was extremely special. We also saw a Chestnut bellied Malkoha which was the first time I'd ever seen one of these colourful birds in Tanjung Puting. Proboscis monkeys (click here for photographs and information) were also out in force during our time in Borneo which meant that everyone had good chances to get photographs of these lovely primates. So another very special time in Tanjung Puting and I'm already looking forward to my visits next year.

 

Oh and I nearly forgot to mention insects ! Personally it was a fine week for my collection of Bizarre Borneo Insects with this photo of a species of Borneo ladybird being the highlight.

Last modified on Monday, 27 June 2011 15:19

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Ian Wood

I am a freelance photographer and writer based in Sussex, England. My main areas of interest are travel, nature, wildlife and environmental issues, but I am happy to discuss any photographic and/or writing needs, both in the UK and internationally.