Rested and recuperated, we were ready to spot some of those great apes. We had heard extremely mixed reviews regarding the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre, mostly negative according to Trip Advisor, but like many things, we needed to go and assess for ourselves. Orang-utans are only in Borneo and Sumatra, and are fast declining in numbers. There are apparently only four orang-utan rehabilitation centres in the world, Sepilok being one of them, and it claims to raise orphaned orang's, and help release them back into the wild, in the hope that they will successfully mate. We arrived in plenty of time, before we the afternoon feeding time, which we were told was the best time to go, and the best way to see them. Waiting in anticipation, we sat with dozens of others keen to see the apes in hushed silence. In front of us among the trees, were two feeding platforms and various ropes across the trees making them accessible. Three o clock came, and not orang-utans, but dozens of monkeys appeared as if from nowhere. One practically climbed over Lucy to get into the the trees, and grab the food. This was great, but it was orang-utans we had come to see. Finally we saw the unmistakable tangled auburn fur, and two arms swinging on one of the farthest ropes. It made a beeline for the platform, and began chopping on a banana. The monkeys showed little sign of moving, and cheekily began grabbing at the ape's food. It didn't seemed bothered to be interrupted, however after a while it swung to a few more trees to take refuge from the monkeys curiosity. It sat alone, hidden behind trees, and refused to come out into sight. One of the handlers bought a toddler onto the platform to feed, and it seems this ape was shyer than the last, and once it had eaten, it scampered up a high tree for cover. They are notoriously shy animals, yet I'm not sure whether these sightings actually classify as having seen these fascinating and curious creatures in the wild. I'm uncertain, whether we only saw two as they came for food off of their own accord, or if handlers bought them out, which for the small orang-utan I think is probably the case. Although they were great to see, I was undeniably slightly disappointed by the whole experience. It had been made out we would see loads of orang-utans, and I had been looking forward to observing them interacting with one another. Nevertheless, it's something we had to see and witness for ourselves, and it seems the centre is doing rather a rather successful job of introducing the apes into wild and natural environments.

The following day, we were ready to witness more wildlife, as we embarked on our day trip to the Kinabatangan River. The journey took over two hours, and we were accompanied by two Japanese men who have been to Borneo around ten times as their work involves research in wildlife. We were total novices compared but that didn't matter. We enjoyed a traditional lunch before jumping aboard our small powered row boat. It was a scorching hot day, but the slight breeze on the river offered slight relief. AS journey on the river into the jungle interior, is apparently arguably one of the best way's to spot the numerous wildlife in the region. Boasting orang-utans, crocodiles, elephants and hundreds of bird species we were going to be spoilt for choice. Our guide had an amazing eye, and his spot was a baby crocodile basking on the bank of the river. It was really cute, but as we drew up closer and closer, we obviously scared it off, as, as quick as lightening it was under the water and not seen again. Our guide informed us that each year several plantation workers from indonesia are killed in the river when they fish, as they are unaware of the wildlife in the area. The latest having died two weeks ago. Hmm, surely where baby croc was, mummy would be close...but apparently not. We didn't see any more for the remainder of the time we were on the water. I was hoping to spot, (from a good distance) a big one. Our guide had said the biggest grow up to four metres in length! Throughout our three and a half hours on the river, we saw literally hundreds of monkeys. And they insisted upon getting close, our boat right beneath them, as they peered down upon us with curious eyes. The baby's were incredibly cute, some as young as two weeks old, trying to keep up with their mother's as they clambered over the branches, keeping tight hold as they did so. We saw plenty of exotic birds too, including hornbills, electric blue kingfishers, and many more, which I can't remember the names of. We also spotted a snake, a monitor lizard and a huge black spider, which our guide insisted going right underneath in the boat, so that it was literally dangling over our heads, and kept saying "look up, look up". I glanced up, seeing it's huge legs sprawled out above my head, then refused until we had moved away. I did not appreciate it dangling up me, ready to drop on my head at any given time. It hadn't even crossed my mind that the spider may be poisonous, but our guide later told us it wasn't. Just before heading back to the jetty, our guide insisted on showing us a birds nest, which was situate under a cave. We successfully woke the swarm, who dove out of the cave and directly at us, forcing us to duck down. I think our guide was loving this, as we then went a little further round the cave, and saw hundreds of bats sleeping in the cave. It seemed we had too disturbed them, as some of them began fluttering frantically in every direction until we backed out of the cave. It was a nice relaxing and sometimes unnerving (being underneath the spider, amidst bats, underneath a snake) afternoon, but our time had come to journey back to the city for a goodnight's sleep, before yet another day of travelling ahead of us the following day.

The bus journey back to the city wasn't quite as bad as the first, however we did seem to brake down a few times. However, the seats were of a slightly better standard, however there was still little chance of sleep, as the guy in front talked very loudly to the man in front of him. Some people have no social skills here. Its funny. We were back in the city for another two nights before flying into Gunung Mulu National Park, which is allegedly Borneo's best park, and one of the best park's in the world. Wait and see for the next instalment...