After having a good night’s sleep, we woke up early in the morning to get in a morning hike. Mornings and nights are the best times to do jungle treks. It’s too hot during the day, most animals sleep or seek shelter and you won’t see much activity. Actually, getting up early and doing a hike was pretty much a daily ritual. Followed by lunch and then a little break. Then around 4 pm, head back out for a hike. Then it’s dinner time, and then another hike through the jungle. Night hikes are amazing! Many animals are active at night, but many also sleep and if you are lucky, you can see them sleeping.
We arranged for a guided night walk, but it was a waste of money. I expected the guide to at least tell us how to better spot animals, instead he just whizzed through the forest as if the big, bad wolf was chasing us. We did see a few cool things, but not because of the guide, there were a few nature geeks who were awesome and pointed out a lot of animals. Without them, we would have only seen a sleeping dragon fly (which was really cool) and a few other insects.
Danum Valley has quite a few trails, all ranging from easy and only 45 minutes to difficult and takes 2 days. There are a few viewpoints so you can watch the wildlife from above, we didn’t see much because the jungle was so dense, you only see above the trees.
A river also runs through the field center and we swam a few times there. It was very refreshing, although the water is not clear….but watch out for the monolith lizards, they like to slither and swim through the dark waters!
Most of the animals we saw were actually on the camp grounds, mostly seen on the way to dinner from the dorms. We saw deer mice, lots of deers, lizards, and monkeys. Sadly, we didn’t see any orangutans during the entirety of our stay. 😦
If you want to go on a jungle trek, make sure to bring a good pair of binoculars (spending money on this is worth it), we just had a little one and decided to buy a better one once we get to a city. The nature geeks (fyi, they referred to themselfs as this) had really good binoculars and we could really see the difference.
A few other pointers to make your jungle experience more enjoyable:
When you are in the jungle, don’t talk to each other too much, it might scare the animals away or you might not hear something scurrying along. And walk slowly!! Watch for rustling, especially above you, it might be monkeys or some kind of birds of paradise. If you hear something, try to identify where it is coming from and then pull out those awesome binoculars!
Also, like I mentioned before, try to go at dusk and/or dawn, and at night. That’s when you see the most activity and animals. For those night hikes, bring a head light and a good flashlight. By good, I mean ones that allow you to see at least 20 meters away and that provides really excellent light, like megalight. Shine your flashlight around and watch for “glowing points/eyes”, if you see something, don’t shine your light in the same direction, instead shine it around the direction of the glowing eyes, about a meter away. And when you see the animal, never shine directly at IT!
If you don’t want to get wet, bring a light rain coat or jacket. But it’s too hot to wear it and you just sweat profusely under your jacket that you end up being wet anyhow. However, those jackets are handy for those huge jungle downpours!
If you are concerned about mosquitoes and leeches, wear light pants and long sleeves. Tuck your pants into your socks and your shirt into your pants. If your ankles are exposed, you can rub shampoo or something of the sort to the exposed area, it will help fend off the leeches. Or you can wear rubber boots, or buy leech socks and use bug spray.
Once in awhile, check your pants and shoes for leeches (trust me, there will most definitely be some!), if you find any, just flick it off. But if you find some sucking away, they you have to pull them off, or just wait for them to fall off. The area that gets bitten will bleed for sometime and nothing will stop it except for a special plant.
One last thing, make sure to put your belongings in your dry sack or a plastic bag and don’t forget the binoculars and plenty of water.
Ok, ok, one last thing, don’t litter! Bring your garbage back to camp with you. The jungle is a precious thing and we don’t want to destroy it 🙂
So….I hope this will help on your jungle trek, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!
moments to create 