Time to move down from the cool of the mountains to the heat of the coastal plain at Sepilok/Sandakan in search of orangutans. As usual on this trip, bus information has been hard to find and even the Kinabalu Pines Resort had "no information" on buses. We didn't want to backtrack to Kota Kinabalu and fly here to Sandakan, as our aim to do it all overland was still important. We had seen buses passing along the road by the hotel with Sandakan emblazoned across the front. So we take a chance, and wander, well for Ant after his marathon climb, waddle, down to the road and wait outside the "wishing machine" repair shop, we still want to know where to buy one! We were rewarded after about 45 hot minutes with the golden BS Express bus coming to a screeching halt in the mud and on we got. The bus was all locals again, this time with quite a few children. Luckily when we got on, the only seats were at the back, which proved fortunate as it meant we missed the sprays of child sick that occasionally erupted.... All we had to be careful of was not slipping on it on the aisle....
We make a short lunch stop at Telupid and lo and behold, all the mothers filled their childs' stomach's again for a repeat performance for the last half.... But we were entertained by the in house videos and saw a Kung Fu epic and Toy Story 3. Now of only if there had been a trolley with a glass of champagne it would have been perfect.
The journey was fascinating, the scenery gradually changing from mountain streams and deep jungle to more and more agriculture on the de forested terraced slopes, to mile after mile after mile of palm oil plantations. These appear to be taking over a lot of Borneo and the oil is used in food, cosmetics and increasingly, bio diesel. But it is taking away the natural habitat of a lot of the native wildlife, including the orangutans, who are increasingly pushed into smaller reserves.
Rather than go into Sandakan and then travel back out the 26kms to Sepilok where the orangutan reserve is, we asked the bus driver if he could drop us off on the way. We had read in LP that you get dropped off at the Sepilok roundabout, also called the Orangutan roundabout. Suddenly a sign appeared for a roundabout and we saw a big wooden orangutan on it so started heading for the front of the bus. We were trying not to slip on the sick, Ant was having trouble moving at all, and until the driver came to yet another screeching halt, we thought he had forgotten. But no, as the bus moved off into the dusty distance we were in the place that the LP describes as having loads of cars to take people the 2.6 kms to the hotels around the reserve. Only problem, no cars..... But as usual someone came to our rescue and we piled into an ancient Datsun car and off down the road to the Sepilok Jungle Resort.
We actually only tried to book this a few days ago as we hadn't finally decided on our itinerary. We realised we were probably heading back to tourist central as everywhere was booked. We finally found a local website which got us what looked like the last rooms in Sepilok. It was only after we had booked, we thought to check it out in the LP. Their advice was avoid like the plague and it really should be called the Last Resort! But it was our last resort..... It is the nearest (a five minute walk) to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre but it is a bit of an odd place. Spread out over a huge area of the forest with pools and walkways and the only swimming pool for miles, it's a beautiful setting. The rooms however.... actually they are not the worst we have stayed in, but basic would be a good description.
But the odd thing is they must have bought a job lot of concrete as everything is made of it, but all (badly) painted to look like wood. The walkways, the bar chairs, the tv stand.... Just call us Fred and Thelma.
Ant goes for a swim early evening to ease his Kinabalu muscles, it doesn't work. Gill rather liked the longest list ever of pool rules, the favourite of which was "do not use the pool to do your business, use the toilet" still not sure that was reassuring.... And then to dinner in the concrete/log restaurant, where we discover another great drink. Fresh lime juice topped up with more secret water, bought in Kota Kinabalu in case of emergencies. Being in a jungle with no wine list constituted exactly that....
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