Orangutan Adventures

We have long wanted to see the orangutans in Borneo after local friends had mentioned an awesome orangutan tour they been on and absolutely loved so it made sense when Ma came this time for us to just do it! Our friends had described the tour as a bit basic so we had a little trepidation going in but honestly, it was fabulous!

Our tour was in Kalimantan which is the Indonesian part of Borneo. Borneo being the third largest island in the world with some breathtaking scenery.

We started early in the morning catching the 7am boat from our home on Nusa Lembongan to Bali. Arriving in Bali we covered the important stuff, like breakfast at McDonalds and snacks from Grand Lucky before heading to the airport and checking in. We flew from Bali to Jakarta and then after a fraught layover (In Bali the agent would not check us all the way through so we had to find check in, join the huge queues and hope for the best – we made it, just!) from Jakarta to Pangkalan Bun. On the way back we flew via Surabaya which was a much nicer and easier journey, not least as the lovely agent checked us in all the way through. (except that one of our group was inexplicably on another flight entirely and none of us realised until after her flight had departed – thankfully she was able to catch a flight an hour later).

We arrived in Pangkalan Bun mid afternoon and headed straight to the newly opened Mercure which was lovely, a bit odd but lovely and comfortable. After an early dinner in the hotel restaurant – would heartily recommend going to the local night market which we knew nothing about at the time) The next morning we were picked up at 9:30am by Andiyas, our inspiring guide for the tour, to go onto the boat, which was about a 30 minute drive away.

Our beautiful wooden boat had three floors, the top floor a viewing deck with a bench seat at the front, the middle floor our ‘everything floor’ where we had two loungers in the prow, several other chairs and a 6 seater dining table and chairs, which was cleared away to make the sleeping area at night. There were two toilets, one for the crew and one for the guests. Our toilet was also a wet room, so there was a shower in there which apparently had hot water but no one told me that and I had cold showers which was fine because it was warm anyway. The bottom level is the kitchen, crew area and captains section. We had 5 crew who were all lovely. One of our group had bought camo bucket hats for us all – including the crew and they were thrilled with them, such a small gesture but so well received.

Having set off, we motored away from the shore along the large river Kumai,  after about 10-15 minutes you turn into Tanjung Putting National Park and the Sekonyer River. On one side of the river is the reserve and the other public land – unfortunately where logging and palm plantations are. (You may remember the outcry a few years back about palm oil and palm plantations killing orangutans, which is true, unfortunately there is still no sustainable alternative to palm oil that uses less land and less water, meaning boycotting palm oil could actually end up killing more orangutan as more land intensive alternatives are tried.)

The landscape along the banks of the river are kind of swampy/palmy and you can’t see any big trees so we did not expect to see any orangutan at this stage but it was still very beautiful, tranquil and relaxing. The water has two types of crocodiles, salt water at the beginning and then as you go further up river, long nosed fresh water crocs, so no swimming at any point! We motored along on the completely flat river for a while and then the topography started changing with taller and bigger trees and the excitement builds – you know you’re coming deeper into the park proper and that the possibility of seeing something large increases.

Over the two days we visited three feeding stations, you dock and then walk into the jungle. All of the feeding stations were about 10-15 minute walk into the jungle. On our way to the first station we looked up and right there was an orangutan walking towards us, no fear, a bit curious and totally magnificent – not ashamed to say that I cried, softy that I am. Seriously what a beautiful experience, to see an animal in the wild like that. Then a mother and a baby appear in the trees by us, posing it up, after enjoying the impromptu show we carried on to the to the feeding platform.

There’s some rough seating (Andiyas our excellent guide always got us there early so we had the front row which was awesome) You are held back probably 20 feet away from the feeding platform.

Watching the dynamics was so interesting, orangutan would come to the platform, some boldly, some warily, if a more dominant animal came the others would snatch what they could before fleeing. Some came and took as many as 12 bananas, stuffed into mouth, foot and fist before climbing away to scoff in safety.

Over the course of the two days we were lucky enough to see many mothers and babies, one huge male, and many juvenile orangutan. We also had the treat of seeing Bob the gibbon. Bob’s mother had been a captive gibbon who was released into the reserve where she mated with a wild gibbon, creating Bob, who she brought to the feeding platforms for many years before passing away, now Bob comes alone but likely has a wild family of his own.

When our friends visited there had only been a few boats at each dock, there were probably between 20 and 30 at each for us, and in high season over 100. You climb through other people’s boats to get to your own at times and I imagine this would be an interesting experience with so many! Lots of manoeuvring of boats depending on who arrives back from the feedings first but all managed calmly by the skilled captains.

Back on the boat – the journey through the park was quite lovely, watching out for troops of proboscis and macaque monkeys and enjoying the calm, quiet scenery.

All of the meals on the boat were fantastic, fish, meat, veggies, rice, noodles and then fruit for dessert. We had been advised to take snacks and would definitely say DO NOT take snacks, there were snacks whenever we needed them. The one thing we did take that we actually appreciated was a large brownie which we bought at the departure lounge in Bali, all the other snack we bought we left on board mostly untouched.

Each night we pulled up next to a troop of proboscis monkeys who had bedded down in the trees before us and they were asleep when we woke up in the morning, so cute! The crew set the sleeping area up, moving the table to one end and laying out nice plump mattresses which they group in two and put a mosquito net around each set to make a little room. I’m a mosquito magnet and I felt completely secure. Blinds were put down on the side closest to the jungle and then the other side left open so you’re getting breeze. I felt less hot than some of the others and actually took a fleece blanket to snuggle under.  Unfortunately my mother was ‘in the room’ enclosure next to me and snored solidly the first night. Thankfully I had earplugs which I wore the second night and had a peaceful sleep- J had been warning everyone about my snoring and I didn’t snore hardly at all, ha!

The reflections on the water along the whole way were stunning – especially on the second day where the Sekonyer river converges and you have the brown opaque water from the logging and palm plantations mixing with the dark crystal clear water that marks the rest of the river until you reach Camp Leakey https://orangutan.org/our-projects/research/camp-leakey/.

About Tanjung Putting… is a reserve which covers some 1,174 square miles, while the orangutans are the most well known of its inhabitants it is also home to the aforementioned macaques, proboscis monkeys and gibbons as well as leopards, civets, Malaysian sun bears, mouse deer, barking deer, sambar deer, and wild cattle known as banteng.  There are parts of the park where rehabilitation of injured and orphaned orangutans takes place that tourists do not visit.

The orangutans are not reliant on the feeding stations, they live in a massive jungle with fruit and enough to eat. Not all orangutans visit the feeding stations and there is no guarantee you will see orangutans at all or any of the feeding stations. Many do come because – why not – free food -they get sweet potatoes and bananas and if the boat doesn’t come with the banana delivery then they get given milk. The wardens call the orangutans to the station but even before the calling begun there were orangutan in the trees around each feeding station so they clearly know the time!

Timeline: We went on the boat in the morning, were there all day, slept on the boat, all day next day, slept on the boat and then the next morning we left –  it’s a three day two night trip and they adjust the schedule according to your flight.  The sun rose at 5:00 AM and set at 5:00 PM and we went to bed silly early each night and woke with the sun pretty much.  

I would recommend this trip a million times. We did get some comments when I posted about this from our business about not supporting animal tourism and we are very careful where we go and what we support and yes there are many types of animal tourism we do not support. Tanjung Puting is a really great way to support the conservation work that they’re doing.

Our tour was organised by orangutancruiseboat.com who were the same company our friends had used and were fantastic. All the communication was super easy, they were very clear from day one. You can have a maximum of eight people on each boat, there were six on ours which felt like a good number, I think 8 might have felt slightly crowded. The tour cost 3.8 million IDR per person, about £190 – this may according to how many people on the boat with you and the time of year you travel. The flights were about 2 million IDR each. The boat was entirely for our group – which is the same if you are one or eight people. We did see boats with private cabins and AC and imagine they cost rather more. Did not miss the AC at all, it was like camping on a boat 😊