November 6th – 9th
Where to start? We arrive in Bukit Lawang, the entrance point for the jungle, AKA Gunung Leuser National park and our quest to see Orangutans, after an eventful 9-10 hour car journey from the peace of Lake Toba. We avoided the by now expected high speed collisions and overtaking incidents by closing our eyes and praying. Our bags made it despite the Indonesian style roof box.
The transport was shared and snug. It was dark on arrival and we thought it would be very sparse but Bukit Lawang is a busy tourist haven that has developed, and developed well, over decades on the back of the Orangutans’ plight. This was the reason we were visiting. A considered decision after reading conservation blogs and websites.
The orangutan, which shares 97% of our DNA, is critically endangered. Numbers have dropped steadily due to deforestation – increasing palm oil plantations, the decreasing economic revenue of rubber plantations and basically all things human being the cause. Ironic then that this plight now provides income, careers and travelling experiences for said humans. Not enough economic gain to replace the harmful burning, logging and poaching but there does seem to be a will locally to help protect the rainforest – the orangutan is the emblem of that.
The Indonesian government has banned more land being used for palm oil plantations and Gurung Leusar National park is now protected but the activity continues illegally. There is no certainty that numbers of orangutan specifically are increasing overall but our guides’ view was that there are more groups establishing.
http://globalconservation.org/projects/leuser-national-park-indonesia/.
These guys explain the hisory better than me but in the 70’s there was a rehabilitation centre with orphaned or mistreated orangutans being taken away from private ‘owners’ and zoos and looked after until they were old/able enough to be released. Successful releases happened but learned behaviour and a relationship with humans, however dysfunctional, was difficult to overcome. These semi wild orangutans continue to live in close proximity to Burkit Lawang. They have never became fully independent and show themselves in the expectation of being fed still – although the feeding stations closed officially in 2016. Feeding is a big no-no on the ethical tours that are organised. There are ethical tours and not so ethical ones – you need to choose wisely.
The semi wild orangutans have birthed newer generations of apes who are wild and less visible. There are now more fully wild apes than semi wild – especially the males who tend to go off on their own to do stupid things their mothers do not need to see and only return when it is time to mate (see – 97% genetically similar!). The semi wild ones who have not learnt to be worried about humans are still likely to be sighted even if not fed or called. We were booked for a 2 day/1 night tour with Sumatra Orangutan Explore (ethical trekking pioneer in Bukit Lawang being their strapline). The most popular tour is the 3 day/2 night experience but we erred on the side of caution bearing in mind Tim’s knees and my HRT! Jule and Jak were our guide and assistant guide
Trekking in the jungle is emphatically NOT a walk in the park. It is scrambling, clambering, looking for the least slippery foot holds and finding branches that don’t suddenly move because they are actually vines or aren’t spikey or covered in termites or ants. It is trudging and plodding up and down in sweat sodden clothes and continually trying to look up because all the great apes know that it is far easier to travel in the canopy than down on the ground! I am not convinced that in reality we are the ones on show – the Orangutans, Thomas Leaf and White-handed gibbons know the trekking routes and timings. They come to watch us – impassively and with much internal mirth! As for the Macaques – well they do not even hide their disdain. They just skip around you outwardly mocking your clumsiness and stealing your food as often as possible.
With all that, trekking in the jungle is humbling. It is much more than sighting the great ape and smaller cousins – although this is astounding. The first day was stuffed full of sightings – which, with hindsight of the second day, meant we scrambled and clambered over less ground and spent more time still and staring upward – a definite bonus.
We saw an orangutan mother relaxing in a day nest while her 2 youngsters wore themselves out scarpering clumsily around in the canopy. You could only assess their ability when she gracefully, purposefully and near on silently got up to move on – causing them to move with her obediently. We were lucky enough to see a young but mature male make himself known to younger females who roam less deeply into the jungle. It is not common to see male and females together. We are approaching mating season so he was back from deep in the jungle to suss out available talent according to our young guides – there was similar activity going on in our human group (evidenced later in the evening after supper). The male orangutan reminded us that he was indeed wild and in charge in this environment – peeing on a few of us staring upward and breaking off bits of dead rainforest to throw down toward us – so we beat a retreat and left him to his displays of prowess.
We saw Tomas Leaf monkey’s – known locally as ‘punkey monkey’s’ due to their Mohican hairstyles – they sat and ate the red leaves (sweeter) staring impassively at us. White-handed gibbons were harder to spot sitting still as they move quickly with their long arms and out of a zoo they have no restrictions on how far and fast to travel. Long tailed Macaques were just cheeky – a family of young males currently live at our night base camp for the night – they happily sit on our camp roof and comment on our behaviour.
Overnight in camp was “interesting” – this really was genuine jungle trekking. There was no nice surprise of electricity (generator broken – said Jule with a long laugh – there was never a generator!), a bed off the ground or a flushing loo – or even a loo with a door! All that needs to be said is we did sleep a bit despite the rat in the bed next door, the jungle thunderstorm and the worry about needing to wee overnight with all of the nocturnal animals about (think snakes). Somehow we managed to eat like royalty with fruit stops, coffee and biscuits, cold lunches and hot suppers. Hats off to Jak and Jule who carried all of this extra weight without seeming to notice it.
Our second day of hiking was less monkey and more miles. We managed to sight a Rhinocerous Hornbill to Tim’s delight – a huge bird with long black and white tail and an orange horn shaped bill (surprising that!). We marvelled at the thousands of orderly termites and ants that regularly move phenomenal volumes of ‘stuff’ without traffic jams or bust ups (try that in Medan or even London). The sheer height of the trees, the thickness of the vines, the continual background song of the cricket (jungle silence) and the translation from hot dry sun to close humid air over a few (well placed) steps make this so far out of your normal that it is surreal.
A few more ups and downs, or if I am being honest, desperate, near vertical scrambling up muddy slopes packed with roots that both helped support you but also threated to trip you up and a spot of downhill mountaineering, clinging for dear life to helpfully strung ropes and we were done. We peeled off from the rest of the group to be tubed back down the white water river waving goodbye to the youngsters who were all doing 3 days/2 nights. We did smile as the rain truly bucketed it down that evening while we enjoyed a Bintang!
We were in bed by 7.30pm and slept until morning … but it was a terrific experience.