Sumatra – Gunung Leuser National Park Day 2.

In the morning Ibu persuaded the guys to let us dry our socks by the fire since everything was damp, we thought we might embarrass our guides if we asked to put our bras there too. The socks smelled of smoke when we finally got them back on. The bras may have been soggy but at least they smelled OK. The water that was boiled for our drinking water also smelled and tasted smokey.

We walked out of the valley to a quiet road. Tatjana wouldn’t have been so worried about wild animals in the night if she had known we were that close to a settlement! We were driven back to Bukit Lawang and joined the usual visitors on a walk on the other side of the river to the hotels. The wild animals here are habituated to humans. This would be a place my father would not approve of, as truly wild animals would normally keep well away. I guess it’s a crowd pleaser when you have tourists and it stops random destructive forays into the park.

I had read that unscrupulous companies feed the animals and because of this, primates here are quite common. The downside is human food is not good for them and neither are our common coughs and colds which they are very susceptible to. Thankfully the unscrupulous tour guides haven’t considered attracting the Sumatran Tiger, or maybe they have, all that meat walking on two legs!

I was interested to see how the company we were with, managed this and was rather gratified to see that we were not offered snacks of fruit in this area like the other groups were, causing many of the  primates to come to investigate and then be chased off when they got too close! I saw this at least once.

All that said we did see Orangutan high up in a tree and later after losing some of the crowd as we walked on, several Thomas’s Langure came to investigate us. White Handed Gibbons were also playing around with the group. As we watched another tour group of humans arrived.

The Langure were totally un-phased by us and posed beautifully for pictures. A mother and baby were eyeing my bag that was on the floor while the photographers were in full flow! One of our guides made a dash for my bag, we were of the same mind as we nearly collided trying to scoop it up.

Interestingly there were few leeches here, possibly due to lack of leaf litter due to being so well trampled and dried out or pre-sprayed (I wouldn’t put that past the tour operators)

There were however mosquitoes. A fact of life here, you cannot avoid being bitten. We’ve been trying out different sorts of repellent, deet works best so far and now we’re out trying different percentages of deet.

At this spot we also saw a pair of Rhinosorous Hornbill perched on the steeply wooded slope below us! See the link for the types of hornbill here https://www.rekoforest.org/field-stories/the-13-hornbills-of-indonesia/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=sm&utm_content=rer_220410_burungrangkong. They look prehistoric and head heavy.

We meandered down to the fast flowing Bahorok River which runs through Bukit Lawang. We saw a big water monitor (4 foot long) disappearing into the undergrowth just before we got to the water.

Here I learned something as I tried and failed to walk through the water, keep walking up/into the current, my legs just wouldn’t set down where I wanted them and in the end Ibu and Ando each took an arm and walked me across, Tatjana strode across unaided. We sat and had lunch on a beach by the river (no monkeys here). This time it was noodles and lots more fruit, half a pineapple each with passion fruit spooned over it!

It was a huge meal and while we ate we watched people tubing (circular tubes tied together) down the river. We also saw some chaps carrying the huge tubes back up on thier heads and backs via a small path and up the River bed where it was shallow.

Our turn next, all our belongings put into huge plastic bags. After wetting our hair to keep our heads cool Tatjana and I squeezed into one tube, our feet pointing upward we lay back, our bottoms in the water. Ibu was in the tube behind and one guide Ando at the front with a pole and the other at the back, (laughing maniacally for some reason). It wasn’t serene, it was quite fast and there were a few low rapids, nothing major though. It was fun!

Ando at the front had to work hard keeping the tubes off the rock, the bamboo pole really bending with the force. It took us about 15 mins to reach our hotel sopping wet but blessedly cool for a change.

Just for the sake of record and particularly for my Dad, here’s list the animals we saw that were identified.

White handed Gibbon
Rhinosorous hornbill
Bushy creasted hornbill
Pig tailed Macaque
Long tailed macaque
Orang utan
Lantern bug
Water monitor lizard
Great black squirrel

The next day we had a taxi to Medan and the airport where we said farewell to Efrida, she caught a bus and we took a flight. We didn’t really get time to feel emotional about it. Actually Tatjana was more worked up about being swindled out of a cup of coffee (more on that later on). I think I felt sad more than the other two and I hope I come back sometime.

Heading to Thailand next…