02.33S 107.40E Belitung Island

Kumai - Charging up the river in Geteks - note the fumes!

Since our last posting we have had the most exciting time in Kalimantan, Borneo visiting some of our early ancestors. We reached the south coast of Borneo at the mouth of a large river system and made our way upstream with dense tropical jungle on both sides. Ten miles upstream we reached the grubby little but very
busy port town of Kumai. There is ribbon development along one side of the river at Kumai with all manner of craft tied up to slap dash wharves and piles. Buildings are generally low rise with the unusual exception of a handful of 4 storey high buildings without windows but just small openings.  On enquiry these are swallows nest houses where thousands of swallows come to deposit saliva on nests to make the delicacy "birds nest soup" so sought after by Asians and Chinese.

Once again this is a rigid Islamic settlement with huge mosques everywhere and the habitual supersonic sound systems. So fundamentalist we could not even buy Bintang !!! The local Regent put on a day tour of the region followed by a formal dinner at a rebuilt Sultans Palace in the nearby regional town of Pankalanban. The highlight of the tour was a charge up the river in the local longboats (labelled Getek Wisata or Tourist Boats) powered by Chinese diesel engines with long direct drive shafts. They laid on 50 boats, all led by
local Polisi boats and the sound and mayhem was a sight to behold as the local river dwellers came out in their thousands to gork at these 'long noses' (thats what they call us ) disrupting their life. Interestingly the traditional inhabitants in this area are Dayaks, a tribe renowned renowned for their small stature and their head hunting prowess (in the past) plus use of blowdarts for hunting (still in use).

Next day we boarded our Klotok (traditional river boat) with two other couples from Moon Mist and Double Dutch for our three day cruise to visit the famous Gorillas in the Mist....the Orangutans. The Klotok took us up a tributary of the main river about 40 miles deep into the rain forest to Camp Leakey where a
research and rehabilitation station for Orangutans has been operating for over 30 years. En route we traversed a series of croc infested waterways to finally get up to the camp and on arrival at the camp wharf we were immediately greeted by a middle aged female Orangutan called Seiswee. (look at pics with B) 

It was just a sensational welcoming experience but there was much better to come. That first afternoon we came face to face with many adults and infants andfound ourselves clicking furiously away with the digital cameras to get some special pix. This is where digitals come into their own as you can click away happily knowing you can discard the duffed shots. That evening we went downstream to anchor and have sunset drinks and a spontaneous poetry recital by our resident poet laureate Rob from Moon Mist who had written a special verse on the Orangutan visit worthy of publication. We had a traditional Indo dinner (noodles and thumbnail sized bits of meat - one piece each) before retiring to sleep on mattresses on the top deck in the open under mozzy nets. The food, ablutions and accommodation were very basic but hey you are in the tropics and this is the real thing. We felt we were with Livingstone going up the Nile.

Next day we went back to Camp Leakey and took in more 'up close and personal' viewing with a variety of young and old orangutans including as luck would have it the oldest Alpha male in the area, a big chap called Kassarsi, a 49 year old who up until 3 years ago was the king of the jungle until being toppled in a series of full on physical fights with one of his sons, Tom.
Poor old Kassarsi being Alpha male #1 for 25 years used to have all the females at his disposal, indeed queuing for his attention but alas now Tom is 'the man'. Kassarsi is still a huge specimen but he has the saddest face in the tribe, all scarred and battle tired with the look of a human in an old folks home.

We also sighted at close range a variety of monkeys in their natural habitat playing like monkeys do including some mammoth jumps between trees and more than a few misses, hitting the lower shrubbery from great heights.

We have spent the last few days at Belitung Island 200 miles to the Northwest of Kumai and a few nights back we had the farewell dinner with our fellow cruisers and the next day cleared Customs and Immigration to exit Indonesia. Today Sunday we commenced sailing north to Singapore, island hopping the 330 miles
until we reach the busy Singapore Straits where an East and West traffic separation system operates as this is among the busiest shipping lanes on the planet. We will accordingly schedule our transit of the Straits for daylight hours. Until next blog.
Regards P and B

Kassarsi, the former alpha male, now old age pensioner. Still an amazing chap.

Peter and his new friend. Notice the firm grip on ankle and knee!!

Peter admiring Mrs Orangutan and baby.

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Photos of our great experience visiting our Orangutan ancestors in Borneo.

More Orangutan photos!

Cruising on the Klotok.

River ride in Geteks at Kumai. Great fun!!

Photo Update

Kumai Town - market and river.

Bawean Island 05.43S 112.40E

We are at anchor at Bawean Island in the Java Sea taking a pit stop en route to the mouth of the Kumai River on Borneo. The people here on Bawean are very friendly as they are off the tourist route and do not see many "long noses" as they call us westerners.

We are back into night sailing again as we move from coastalhopping to some longer open water passages from now on through to Singapore. Night sailing in Indo waters is something we wanted to avoid because of the unlit fishing fleets and their FAD's (fish attracting devices).

Well we hit a FAD at 3am yesterday. Black as the inside of a cow hurtling through the dark at 7 knots and bang clunk clunk as we rode onto an unlit bamboo FAD in the middle of the Java Sea 30 miles from nearest land. Luckily it went down the port side and did not foul our keel or rudder as these things are tethered to the bottom in this case by 300ft of rope or twine. The fish are attracted to Fad's by the growth of marine life on the tether and the fishermen simply come out in their boats and circle the FAD with a big net and get all the fish inside the circle. Low tech but obviously very efficient.

FAD's notwithstanding we have only come 200 miles from Bali but had some great sailing as we enter the south east monsoons. Already we have been treated to some impressive sheet lightening at night under clear starlit skies. Not a cloud in sight so that was a new experience. As we near the equator we know we are
going to be in for regular lightening displays but we hope we don't get struck !! It also rained overnight for the first time in months so we really are into a convergence zone as the monsoons arrive this month.

Last evening we were hosted to dinner aboard the yacht SY 'Dream Weaver' out of Hilton Head, South Carolina USA. A magic roast chicken dinner in the saloon before retiring to the cockpit for a Baileys on Ice. As we sipped our Baileys aboard Dream Weaver, Paul the skipper was extolling the virtues of his night vision binoculars as we each took a turn using them looking around the dark bay.

Next minute a distraught fellow cruiser in the form of our friend Piet Hein SY 'Double Dutch' came onto the VHF radio announcing his dinghy had drifted from tthe yacht he and wife Tory were having drinks on. Now to a yachtie this is equivalent to having your car converted.  How fortuitous, Paul and another guest hopped into Dream Weavers dinghy and headed out into the bay to look for the errant dinghy and low and behold within 20 minutes they had found the drifting dink with the 'night eyes'. We are going to purchase a pair saspo as they will be perfect to help avoid FAD's and other things in our path.

Belated Health Story

As an aside we stayed in Bali longer than planned due to a little medical hiccup with P. For some days he was very grumpy with a head cold and backache in the lower left buttock region. Barbara was preaching from "How to Treat Your Own Back" and how to do back arches properly without success whilst P asking where are your kidneys because this is feeling like kidney stones or something very very painful. With P not responding to back therapy and now doing award winning wreathing acts on the cabin sole and passing claret from his waterworks it was time to make a move for professional help. To cut to the chase we got ashore somehow with the groaning P arched over like a broken willow and into a cab to the local quack who promptly jabbed a shot of morphine into his rump and then phoned the hospital to receive him.
Xray, Blood and Urine tests and a course of antibiotics and diagnosed with a water works infection possibly due to bad water. Now a week on he is nearly back to normal and we are sailing again. Whatever they reason we are both going to have thorough medical 'wof' checkup in Singapore.
P and B