October 6th
Stagger out of bed at some ungodly hour. It’s my (pre-) birthday treat, a day birding. Our guide, Step, and driver Chris were depressingly awake and happily raring to go at 5.30 am, whereas I started the day by falling down the steps on the way out of the hostel.
A long drive out of the city took us out towards Sabang, a coastal village, where we picked up an outrigger, which sailed us around the coast and into a cove. On the beach we were greeted by monkeys, whose main interest was to pinch our bags, a few giant lizards, who slowly disappeared into the jungle.
Step then spent half an hour playing the mating sound of the Philippines Megapode, which responded by buggering off as quickly as it could, moving like smoke, as he put it. Frankly how you were supposed to spot anything in the jungle seemed a bit of a mystery, but eventually we downed binoculars and wandered down a path to another cove, which opened into the Palawan Underground River, one of UNESCO’s Seven Modern Wonders of the World.
We were the first to arrive and got our own boat, paddled by Eric, whose head torch was the only light in the entire trip. The caves go on for over eight kilometers but the accessible tourist bit is only about a 1.5km, which you’re paddled around in an canoe. It has a huge population of bats, and an even bigger amount of guano, and there are a succession of caves, mostly named after the various stalactite formations and peoples’ overactive imaginations.
The whole thing is carefully managed to avoid upsetting the fragile ecosystem, and it’s staggering to think that this was originally explored over hundred years ago. When the head torch goes off it’s complete darkness, of a kind you don’t ever get in modern life.
Once out of the cave – Nikki was clearly relieved that Eric knew the way – we made our way past the crowds going the other way and took our outrigger back to the village, and then had a short drive to the local mangrove forest, which is a local conservation project designed to provide income for the indigenous tribes who live there without destroying the habitat. Another kayak took us on a short trip at low tide, with the roots of the trees exposed.
To start with every second tree appeared to have a snoozing snake in it. “Venomous” is how the boatman described them … and then there were red headed woodpeckers, pigeons, bulbuls … suddenly the entire birdlife of the locality decided to come and visit us and we gently paddled down, and then back up, a short section of the forest.
The rest of the day was a blitz of birdwatching. We saw (deep breath): Green Imperial Pigeons, Blue Throated Bee-eater, White-throated Kingfishers, Bar-bellied Cuckooshrike, various Drongos, Palwan Flowerpeckers, Grey-backed Tailorbirds, Palwan bulbul and Fiery Minivets. And probably a bunch of other things I can’t remember.
Mostly we stood in front of an enormous bank of trees for a while, sweating in the heat, usually on a road, until eventually Step would go “there’s one” and focus his scope on a spot in a tree about half a mile away where some tiny bird would be perching. Absolutely astonishing.
By midafternoon we were both flagging, but our first (note first) cup of coffee of the day was enough to stop the headaches and revive us, while we chatted to our guide. Turns out Step has been involved in conservation projects on Palawan for years. He’s trekked into the forests to do various studies, most of which seemed to involve Pangolin poo, and was an alarmingly detailed guide to the various snakes around. Only two can kill you, but you don’t want to meet a King Cobra – he described them as “bad tempered”. No anti-venom in the Philippines. Top tip: avoid the bamboo, as that’s where they lay their eggs.
The tour is highly recommended: http://www.malampayatours.com
We finally got back to the hostel after a very long day and staggered out to find some food and beer. Obviously Nikki decided that this called for us to walk around Puerto Princesa for miles until we found somewhere that sold appropriate cocktails …
Tomorrow we need to figure out how to get to a villa in the jungle that doesn’t seem to have an address. But that’s a story for another day …
– Tim