The orangutans von Zentralkalimatan

So a trip around the world is not to have completely visited without the orangutans in Tanjung Puting National Park National Park !!

Our check in was done from Kuching via Pontianak to Pangkalan Bun with small propeller planes, where the airport was waiting for our guide. The 4 nights / 5 days tour we had booked in advance via the Internet. Although there are several providers, all boats are very similar and you always meet all tourists at feeding, so that also the program does not differ by much.

The aerial view shows the rainforest Zentralkalimantans, but unfortunately I had to help with the colors more on environmental issues but later!

From Pangkalan Bun it goes half an hour by car to Kumai, a small port town where are many important goods for the Indonesian main island of Java shipped. Kumai but is also the gateway to Tanjung Puting Nationalpark, One of the most important of Indonesia.

The trip itself was by far the most comfortable jungle tour I've ever done! It is on a 16 meters long and 3 meters wide houseboat you here Klotok calls on the river kutschiert on which the vegetation is constantly changing.

The crew consists of a guide, the cook, the captain and his assistant, who are in the lower deck. The upper deck is one of the guests, here you can sleep on a mattress under a mosquito net and in addition to sun loungers, a large dining table that has the most delicious dishes are served in Indonesia.

At night is then applied to a quiet spot on the river.

In the evening is the proboscis monkeys observed on the trees on the riverbank the best time. Here they sit comfortably together in the group.

But the idyll is deceptive: Not far from the feeding sites of the orang utans, some kilometers further upstream, it has opened a gold mine. To get there, the rock mercury to separate the gold used which then passes directly into the river and gives him this brown color. This is where two branches of the river, the dark water is pure, the brown of the pollution. Although the government has promised a long time to clean the river, this has not happened yet and the people using it still to wash themselves and their clothes and to fish there.

In the national park there are 3 Feeding Stations, Tangui cottage, Cape of Good Hope and the famous Camp Leaky. Here the orangutans are fed at different times of the day bananas and milk. Here are the first impressions of the Apes. They expected us already in the trees! More about the National Park and the orangutans in the next article!