Outdoor Appreciation NYAA

My 2019 October Trip to Borneo

During my October break in grade 9 I went on a trip to Borneo with my family. The trip was comprised of two sections. At the beginning we traveled inland and stayed at a lodge in the Borneo swamp forests. Then towards the end we headed to the sea and were able to scuba dive. The second part was definitely the highlight for me because of the amazing views both above and below the water. But I have to admit that my time spent in the inland area gave me a new perspective on the kind of perseverance it must take to adjust to that sort of climate.

Transportation

Day one – In this environment it was to wet and to wild for their to be any roads. That’s why boats were the main way of transport. In the image above, you can see myself with my family on a boat heading towards the lodge we’ll be staying at.

The Lodge

Being out in the wilderness, the lodge did not have many of the comforts that we enjoy in everyday life. While it was humid and there were a lot of mosquitoes it was an amazing experience to wake up in the morning and be surrounded by the unique forest on all sides. On Day 2 after a short breakfast we embarked on a boat ride.

Life in the forest

One of the main highlights of our boat trip was visiting a large cave filled with bats. Photography was not allowed inside but it will be hard to forget the thousands of silhouettes we could see lining the ceiling. The walk in the cave itself was quite the challenge. Between navigating through the rocks and avoiding bat poop, there was scarcely enough time to take it all in.

Fig 1

Throughout the boat ride we encountered a variety of the native species. In this photo we can see a monkey that was hiding in one of the trees

Fig 2

Here is a bird our guide introduced to us as being a native species. We found that a lot of the wildlife were scared of the boats and chose to hide in the many bushes and trees. Upon returning to the lodge we stayed another day and then set off on the second part of the journey.

Day 3

On our third day at the lodge we went out quite a distance to visit a orangutan rehabilitation centre. There we were able to witness the caretaking of orangutans to weak or fragile to survive in the wild. It was really interesting to see how the orangutans with each other. we witnessed the residents boith fighting and taking care of each other.

Day 4

We set off for the second part of the journey where we stayed in a resort on the water. Our days were mainly made up of scuba diving and relaxing in the evenings.

The photo on the left is a photo of the resort we stayed in. If you look closely at the bottom you can see that the structure is built on top of water adding to the experience. On the right you can see a picture of me. my brother, my cousins, my dad, and my uncle between dives. Although diving cna sometimes be a tiring experience that leaves you very thirsty at the end, this was one of the best diving spots I’ve ever been to. The water clear and the reefs were beautiful. Some of our highlights were swimming alongside sea turtles and having reef sharks all around us. We were even able to witness some of the attempts to propagate the coral reef by sinking man made structures for coral to grow on.