01 Cover - Audley Travel

Taking a walk on thewild sideChris Orme, Audley’s South East Asia Programme Manager, reflects on a recent trip hetook to witness the spectacular wildlife of Borneo.Stepping off the Malaysia Airlines planeat Kota Kinabalu in Borneo, we werewelcomed with a clear blue sky andbright early morning sunshine...AN ORANG-UTANOur first excursion saw us venturingto the foot of Mount Kinabalu, thehighest peak in South East Asia.Deciding not to attempt the climb upto the summit we walked some offascinating trails through the NationalPark at the base. Our guide, Alicia,introduced us to the incredible floraof the region, including huge pitcherplants which gain their nutrition byluring insects into their interior. Thenearby hot springs at Poring provedan excellent antidote to tired legsbefore we returned to Kota Kinabalufor a traditional Malaysian meal at thecolonial Jesselton Hotel.A short flight the following day tookus to Sandakan, where we visited8the famous orang-utan rehabilitationsanctuary at nearby Sepilok. This isdefinitely the best place in the worldto come face to face with theseremarkable and gentle primates.Continuing on by boat to the tropicalparadise of Turtle Islands NationalPark, we spent the afternoonsnorkelling in the crystal blue watersand that night we waited in anticipationof witnessing a mother hawksbillturtle coming ashore to lay her eggs.Our patience was rewarded in theearly hours when a turtle emergedthrough the light surf and hauledherself up the beach, magical.Returning to the mainland weheaded away from the city along abumpy road to the KinabatanganRiver. We based ourselves in thefriendly Proboscis Lodge, namedafter the rare breed of monkey thatinhabits this region. Taking a leisurely,late afternoon river trip we spottedgibbons, monitor lizards, orang-utans,all sorts of monkeys and even a quickglimpse of a family of elephants.This is the best area in Borneo to seewildlife and we weren’t disappointed.The next morning saw an early startas we took a dawn trip to a nearbyox-bow lake to observe the fascinatingProboscis Monkeys coming down tothe shore to take an early morningdrink. That day we said goodbye toour fellow travellers and ventured