From Sukau we were heading to the Danum Valley overland. It was going to be a long day, so we had to rise early for a 6 am breakfast and take a short boat ride, along with our guide Andis, to the opposite bank of the river.
Waiting for us was Yus’ cousin Andy, who was going to drive us down to the regional capital Lahad Datu, where we’d be taking another car into the rainforest.
Initially, we took the road from Sukau passing mile after mile of palm oil plantations. An hour into the journey the road from Sukau joins the main Sandakan to Lahad Datu road, which is heavily trafficked by large trucks carrying palm oil fruits from plantations to the processing plants. The impact of these trucks is not only slow traffic, but the creation of many large potholes, which in many cases have not been repaired.
Eventually, we reached the offices of the tour company that operates the resorts in Danum Valley. Our bags were unloaded, and we then had to sadly say goodbye to Andy and Andis.
It was going to be a long and bumpy ride out to the Rainforest Lodge where we would be staying for the next two nights. After an introductory briefing, we loaded into a tourist van that would be taking us out into the rainforest. Joining on this ride were a young couple from Denmark, Lena and Christian. Lena was feeling a bit under the weather with a sore throat, and to Karen’s annoyance she was not wearing a mask – so we put ours on to at least give us some protection from any bugs she might be spreading in the confined space of a small van.
For the first twenty minutes, the road was smooth tarmac, and then we turned off onto the gravel road. We were going to travel around 80km on this road, which was up and down, with lots of bends and extremely potholed. Having recently driven all around Africa it was somewhat familiar, but Lena struggled with the rough ride. At one point we had to cross a small stream because the bridge that had crossed this stream had collapsed. Unfortunately, the van did not have high clearance or four-wheel drive and we ended up getting stuck on a rock in the middle of the stream. The driver had to get out, take his shoes and socks off, and put a rock under the wheels. This did the trick, and we were soon on our way. After about three and a quarter hours we reached the Rainforest Resort.
Before we sat down for lunch, we got a short briefing and met with Nicholas, who was going to be our guide for our activities in Danum Valley.
The Danum Valley Conservation Area is considered one of the world’s most complex ecosystems and is classified as a Class 1 Forest Reserve. This 130-million-year-old ancient rainforest covers 438 square kilometres and is home to the tallest trees in the tropics with the largest towering 100.8 meters above the forest floor. In 2016, researchers discovered some 30 trees within the conservation area measuring over 90 meters in height. The forest serves as a natural home for an unimaginable number of plants and wildlife species such as banteng, clouded leopard, orangutan, slow loris, proboscis monkey and the endangered Bornean pygmy elephant.
Once the briefing was done, we headed into the dining room, which overlooked the river and the rainforest beyond it. It was a buffet, and the selection of salads and main courses was exceptional, even for us vegetarians. On top of that the staff were amazing. This was one of the best overall eating experiences we had had in a very long time.
We then had time to go to our room and settle in before the afternoon’s activity began. Sheng had obviously decided to book us into a premium room, which was enormous, with two queen-sized beds, and a big balcony that had a large plunge pool that you could also access from our shower. Best of all we had a massive glass window that was the length of the balcony which looked out onto the rainforest and was totally private.
The first activity was a briefing on the activities included in our package by AJ, the head guide, and a bit about what to expect during our time in the Danum Valley. Once briefed we found our guide Nicholas and the rest of the people, we’d be spending time with over the next couple of days. We had already met Lena and Christian, and joining us were a British couple, Mark and Jen from Salisbury, and a young lady solo traveller, Anna from the Netherlands. In preparation for our first trek into the rainforest, we donned ill-fitting (at least for me) leech socks. The blood-sucking creatures are abundant everywhere throughout the Danum Valley!
We set off on a short and easy hike. The trail was relatively flat, the hardest thing to deal with being the heat and humidity. It was not long before we were dripping with sweat. After we had been walking for about half an hour we had to come to a stop because a Bornean pygmy elephant was on the trail ahead munching away on the undergrowth. If we progressed much closer, we would have been in danger of being charged. Unfortunately, the bush was particularly dense, so we didn’t get a clear view of the elephant apart from a bit of waving tail and trunk. This long-nosed pachyderm was in no hurry to go anywhere, so we had to retrace our steps back to the lodge.
Much to our delight dinner was as equally tasty as lunch had been. We were joined at dinner by a massive moth the size of a dinner plate and a couple of large and scary-looking rhinoceros beetles.
We still had one more activity before we called it a night. The seven of us climbed aboard two electric buggies and headed into the darkness in search of nocturnal beasts. Just a minute or so after leaving the lodge a civet was spotted in the bushes on the edge of the road. We got a clear sighting before it then headed off into the deep stuff. On we went. There were a few more sightings of various beasties. We stopped at the boundary of the primary rainforest and turned around. On the way back Nicholas spotted some movement high in the canopy, which turned out to be a flying squirrel. We all called under our breath for the squirrel to jump, which it kindly accommodated. Unfortunately, Mark and Jen missed it as they were exchanging the binoculars when the squirrel leapt. This became a bit of a joke amongst us.
The rest of the ride back to the lodge was quiet.
Once back at the lodge, we headed back upstairs to get some water to take to our room. There were very few visitors left around, most had called it a night and gone to bed. As we waited to collect our bottles one of the remaining guests pointed out a large green katydid, a type of grasshopper, crawling across the floor and on the furniture. It must have been eight-plus inches long, with feelers twice that length, and a body about three inches high. We of course took loads of photos with our hands in the picture to get a scale of the size of this insect.
It had been an excellent first day in the Danum Valley.
The first activity of the day started straight after breakfast. We were doing a two-and-a-half kilometre hike to a platform on a hill a few hundred metres above the resort. The platform was visible to us as we sat eating our breakfast contemplating the climb ahead.
Once again, we were trekking through the rainforest, so it was on with nasty leech socks. The trail initially was flat and easy-going, crossing over a suspension bridge to the other side of the river. From here we started to climb. We were glad to have bought our trekking poles. The path was clearly marked, but there were many tree roots across it, so care was needed to avoid tripping on these. Luckily, it had not been raining too much so it was not very muddy or slippery, but there were some sections of mud where the sun had not been able to break through the thick canopy. The forest was beautiful, lush, and green and filled with an incredible diversity of trees and plants, some of the trees reaching fifty-plus metres above our heads. It was also filled with a cacophony of noise of invisible insects and birds calling from within the bush.
The higher we climbed the steeper the path got. In some areas, we had to use the roots of trees as steps. This was no walk in the park and was made all the worse by the high humidity, our clothes wringing with sweat and sticking to our bodies (a pleasant image indeed).
About two-thirds of the way up the hill we took a short diversion to a place known as Coffin Cliff. Here, against the base of a cliff was a platform, which we climbed, to see the remains of a human skeleton and a coffin. Both the coffin and skeleton had once been suspended inside the cliff, but decades of erosion had seen the coffin fall and its remains exposed. The age of this ironwood coffin is estimated to be around 250 years. It is believed that warriors and tribal leaders were given the highest niches for their final resting place. Getting the coffins to this place would have required an enormous effort. The folklore behind these particular remains is that this was a great warrior who was placed here ‘protecting’ the village that would have been by the river below, pretty much where the Borneo Rainforest Lodge sits today.
This area of the Danum Valley was occupied by the Orang Sungai Tribe, who practised animism. Suspended coffins in cliff niches and caves were a common practice in Southeast Asia, and coffins can be found in the Philippines, China, and Indonesia. When we visited Madagascar, we saw similar customs among some of the tribes there, whose ancestors originated in this region.
After this short break, we carried on further up. This was the steepest and hardest part of the trail but fortunately was not too far.
Finally, hot, sweaty, and tired we arrived at the viewing platform. The early morning mist had lifted, and we had wonderful views down onto the river below and miles of rainforest beyond. It was stunning!
We stayed for a while to enjoy the views and drink some water.
The way down was not any easier, as slipping was a bigger risk than on the climb up.
The vegetation in the rainforest is very dense, making spotting wildlife challenging. But we did catch a break when we spotted a small group of Bornean gibbons, which are rarely spotted. They are very reclusive animals. It was a delight to see them, and they were not in a terrible hurry to rush away from us. So, we got to spend a good ten minutes watching them before they finally disappeared.
Further down the hill, we reached a point the guides call the jungle ‘jacuzzi’, where a mountain stream falls over some rocks into a natural pool. We had all been told to bring our swimming costumes and towels to enjoy a refreshing dip in the pool. After a hot trek, this is just what the doctor ordered. The only downside to getting in the pool was that it was occupied by fish who like to nibble on you. We’d done a couple of fish spas and had swum in a similar pool in Laos, but these particular fish bit more aggressively. Their bites felt a bit like having a needle stuck in you, so it wasn’t very pleasant. What we did find was that if you swam, the movement put them off, so you hardly got any bites, at least until you tried to get out of the water – then the bastards got you. I braved the fish but didn’t stay in the water too long. Karen didn’t go in beyond ankle depth!
After drying off we trekked the remaining twenty minutes back to the Lodge, which was enough time for me to bash my head on a low-hanging branch. It didn’t feel much of a collision, but where I hit it on my forehead resulted in quite a lot of blood oozing out.
We left the lodge at 3 pm and set off along the forest road. About ten minutes into the walk, we found a small group peering into the bushes at the side of the road. It turned out that a large male orangutan was having an early evening snack before settling down for the night. This was a dominant male and not afraid of people, in fact, if we got too close, he was likely to chase after us. So, we stayed back from him. It was hard to get a good view of this orangutan through the dense bush even though he was only about 20 metres away. Eventually, he grew bored of what he was eating and decided to move to a new tree. Slowly, moved closer to the road and we all hoped he would come out and cross the road. But he was in no hurry. After a while, a couple of guides went closer to where the orangutan was on the road. Suddenly, he decided to come out into the open and chase after the guides, who legged it. Luckily, an orangutan on the ground is not very nimble. For the next five minutes or so he walked down the road away from us, so we followed. Finally, he disappeared back into the trees, and we turned around and continued down towards the canopy walk.
This 300-metre-long and 27-metre-high canopy walkway is a great way to see animals and birds not easily visible from the ground. I have a problem with some suspension bridges that swing (don’t mind the height), but these were fairly solid with only a tiny bit of movement. The sun had already started to set, so the light quality was incredible. From the last tower, we saw a troop of red-leaf monkeys climbing high into the canopy, the light was great for watching these little cuties going about their business.
We arrived back at the Lodge for a quick refresh before heading out on the final activity of the day, a night walk around the nature trail.
We gathered at the lodge entrance to meet up with Nick for this hour-long walk through the rainforest at night. We’ve done a few of these before and love seeing the animals, birds, reptiles and insects that roam the forest after the sun has gone down. I was hoping to see a tarantula, but we didn’t see anything other than small spiders, but there were some scorpions on the prowl. At one point the boardwalk takes a 90-degree turn – Karen made sure I saw this – at a large tree with massive buttresses. It was one of the largest trees in the Danum Valley, and probably the world. There were a small set of steps down from the boardwalk leading to this tree. Apparently, these were put in specially for Dame Judi Dench who was here filming for a documentary on ‘Wild Borneo’. I had seen the episode at the tour office in Lahad Datu, and she was hoisted up in a harness to the top of this tree to interview a researcher, tens of metres above the ground. A game-old girl in her late eighties. Our night walk continued, spotting a small bird roosting in the tree. We started back to the lodge, passing the frog pool. In the shelter next to the pond were some creatures hiding in the roof space including a large huntsman spider and a huge caterpillar, that would hopefully one day turn into a beautiful moth. The frog pond itself did not disappoint, with several species of frogs in the water and bushes.
Best time to visit the Danum Valley