Danum Valley - Borneo Rainforest Lodge - March 13th

Chris with leech socks

We got up early and headed to breakfast around 7:00 AM.  As we had a schedule hike, we put on our leech socks before heading out.

The dining area is all open air and has a great view of the river. So while eating our breakfast we watched for birds and listened to the morning chorus.

There were 6 other people in our group with Donny our guide…a couple from England and a family with two girls ages 8 and 10 from Malaysia.  Our scheduled activity for 8:30 AM was a hike up to the lodge viewpoint.  It was steep uphill climb (and very hot and humid), we decided not to go.  The couple from England had the same thought and the lodge found us another guide for a morning hike.  

Trail 

We walked through the jungle for 3 hours (about 2 miles) at a slow pace to watch for birds, animals, and insects.  

We had on our leech socks and did encounter some leeches.  The tiger leeches sit on leaves 3 feet above the group and as soon as warm-blooded creatures approach, they start extending their bodies getting ready to jump.  

Tiger Leech

I did have one jump onto my hand but saw it before in had started sucking blood.  They clamp on hard even when they first attach.  The brown leeches are on the ground and get on your legs.  I had one on my leech socks when I got back to the lodge.

Crossing the river

We crossed the river a couple of times on bridges made of narrow boards on wires (at least there were sides to hold on to.

Our great find for the morning was the Great Argus. We heard its mating call before we saw it, although we didn't see it dance.  The male is one of the largest pheasants with hugely long tail feathers. Our guide knew the general area it tends to hang out. 

Great Argus

We got back to the lodge just in time for lunch.

After lunch we had free time until 4 pm.  Two miles isn't very far to walk, especially at a slow pace, but the heat and 90% humidity are exhausting.  We mostly hung in the air-conditioning and read until our next hike. 

At 4 pm, we headed out along the dirt road to the canopy walk.  We learned that most trees in the rainforest have buttress roots (you can see an example in the Great Argus picture).  The rainforest has poor soil so the trees are shallow-rooted.  They buttress roots can often extend far out to the side.  

Our goal was to see the red giant flying squirrel.  They are nocturnal and leave their nests around 6 PM.  We walked the whole length of the canopy walk and back again (can't remember how long it was), but it also involved a lot of stairs up and down.  Here is a picture of Chris and I as we waited for the squirrels. One of the nests is in the tree to the right of Chris in the picture.

Starting at 6 PM we waited and waited with our cameras in hand.  Finally, in the tree above us rather than in the tree we had been watching, a squirrel finally appeared.  The guide followed it with a light and we all spent the next 10-15 minutes looking up (your necks get sore).  We were watching it and taking videos.  We finally saw it fly but none of us caught it on video while it was flying. 

We headed down the canopy and back to the lodge.  By this time it was very dark and we used flashlights to get back. We combined this with our night walk and visited the frog pond and looked for tarsiers but unfortunately we didn't find them.  I guess I will have to come back.