Today I started work and the next 9 days are jungle trekking. We are spending 5 days recording orangutan nests, then 4 days putting out mammal traps to catch small mammal data, we also do 2 nocturnal treks on the last 2 days.
The ranger that took us out today was called Gibili and he was lovely. He had a bottle of dettol that paralyses leeches for a few minutes at a time. Before we left he sprayed our boots but it didnt help...he was our leech protector though. We were shown some interestig insects on our trek, one in particular was a millipede, it was red and yellow and when you pick it up it goes into a ball. It was funny bcos later today, I saw one on the road and usually I would run away from insects, but because I knew it wouldnt harm me I picked it up and showed everyone so I am obviously getting more confident with insects...not leeches though.
Our ranger also showed us animal tracks and identified what they were, we saw millions of termites going up one particular tree which was amazing to watch as they were carrying food too. I thankfully only managed to get 3 leeches on me and none of them actually sucked my blood...Gibili got them off me before they managed to get in. However one girl in my group - Kelly, she got one biting at her underarm and had to take her top off to get it off. Tracking orangutan nests was fun and I actually got quite good at spotting them and knowing how tall trees were etc. 8 more days of jungle trekking and horrible leeches :-)

We have afternoons off when we are trekking because you are exhausted after it so we went to the feeding platform to watch the orangs and take some pictures. Yesterday there was a wild orangutan spotted at Sepilok who isnt from Sepliok, he is a 45 year old alpha male and they can be known to be really agressive and dangerous. I was hoping to see him at the feeding platform this afternoon and i did. He is huge and when he came all the other orangs disappeared, and he hate all their bananas. He was only about 5 metres away from all the tourists - I wouldnt want to know what would happen if he got angry. It was really cool seeing one so big though and with the dark, large cheeks.

I got locked on my balcony this evening :-( I was putting my washing out and the door shut, I also had locked my bedroom door so nobody could get me out. I managed to get the door open eventually though. However what with the leeches and being locked out, I am exhausted this evening. A good night sleep and some energy for tommorrow is definetley needed to fight those leeches off.
xxx