Feeling excited to be going to see wild orangutans in one of only three places in the world, we were picked up by our guide 'Rudy' along with his 18 year old niece who he was training up to be a guide. We were driven to the nearby town of Kumai, where we boarded the boat that would be our home for the next 3 days. Lacking the luxury of our houseboat in India, our boat was instead small and simple, with an upper deck on which we slept on mattresses, a toilet and bucket of river water for a shower, a lower deck where the chef cooked, and where herself, the captain, the deckhand, and our guide and niece slept. Immediately after departing down the river, Trevor managed to break the wooden table we were sitting at which had to be repaired with scraps of wood that appeared from somewhere!

After a couple of hours motoring down the river lined with dense jungle, we arrived at the first feeding station for the orangutans. A 10 minute walk into the jungle took us to an area with a raised wooden platform set amongst the trees and a viewing area roped off about 15 metres away. As the forest ranger placed a pile of bananas, pineapple and mangoes on the feeding platform, and called out to the orangutans, we could hear the trees around us begin to rustle. Looking up we began to see the orangutans, the 'people of the forest', slowly approaching through the tree tops, their burnt orange hair striking against the green trees. Their movement was slow and cautious, taking time to move their large bodies through branches that looked far too small to hold their weight, and constantly peering around for safety. Finally they began to reach the feeding station one at a time, and mostly turning their backs to us began to munch down the fruit as quickly as possible. They picked through the fruit to find the best bits, peeled bananas open with their lips and discarded of used fruit peel on the floor. Often some of the orangutans would wait in the trees near the feeding platform until another orangutan had left, all to do with their status in the forest. Some orangutans had tiny babies clinging to their hair while they gorged themselves on fruit, others had their children, who stay with the mother until they are 8 years old, swinging next to them on the trees; the mothers careful to keep a watchful eye on them and make sure they didn't stray too far. After filling themselves up on fruit some of the apes would climb into the trees and sit watching the crowd watching them. One found a trapeze like branch right above our heads to relax on and watch us from a safe distance, which entertained everyone endlessly. The human-like actions as they ate, looked around, and stole food from each other cheekily was amazing to see. Towards the end a mother and baby turned up at the feeding station, albeit too late as most of the fruit had been eaten by the 10 or so other orangutans, so moving through the trees she peered through the crowd to get the attention of the ranger, looking at him pleadingly for more food, but sadly to no avail.

After watching in awe for an hour or so, our guide had to tear us away to continue on our journey. Leaving just after the ranger to walk back through the forest, we then had a pretty amazing experience. On the path in front of us we could see a large male orangutan standing next to the ranger. Slowly approaching, with excitement and apprehension, we found out that he had also been peering into the rangers' empty fruit box and appealing for more. As we reached him our guide urged us to get in close to the male named 'Kacong' for a photo. Edging in extremely cautiously we got within cm's of the amazing animal, so close that it even reached out and touched Trevor's hand at one point! After finally accepting the ranger had no more food he sloped off along the path towards the feeding station, leaving us open-mouthed at the encounter. Back on the boat we relived the amazing moment when the orangutans emerged from the forest for the first time, and our encounter with the male, and continued on our journey up the river, the experience truly living up to its reputation!

The rest of that first day was spent travelling a little further up river to moor for the night and being fed more food than we could possibly eat! That evening Rudy told us about an Englishman who had got killed by a crocodile about 12 years ago while swimming in the river at Camp Leakey, where we were going the following day. Apparently his body only came to the surface 3 days later when a woman from a local village, believed to be able to speak to crocodiles,asked for it back! That, coupled with other ghost-like stories, stories of local superstition of dark spirits and energies in the area, and sleeping on the open deck with only a mosquito net for protection, surrounded by the sounds of the jungle and for a while a loud thunderstorm, made for a pretty sleepless night!

The following morning we were well fed again for breakfast, had bucket showers in brown river water, and made our way to the second feeding platform along the river. While the viewing area was this time more like 5 metres away from the feeding platform, and we could see a couple of orangutans waiting up in the trees, unfortunately none would come down and approach the platform while we were there. The National Park is home to both fully wild and rehabilitated orangutans, who have been rescued as orphaned babies or from the black market to be released back into the wild. Despite the temptation of fresh fruit and a bowl of milk, the wild apes are often more reluctant to come down to the platform while surrounded by people! Instead, whilst waiting, we spent half an hour surrounded by dozens of colourful, fearless butterflies fluttering around our heads, trying in vain to get a good photo! We did however spot another couple of orangutans when walking back to the boat peering down inquisitively at us from up in the trees which was an unexpected treat. During the boat trip further down the river we managed to spot a few more orangutans in the trees, a large monitor lizard slithering through the water, and three proboscis monkeys trying to cross the river right in front of our boat. While they tried with all their might to pull a tree branch back enough to propel them to the opposite bank, they all fell short, splashing into the river and quickly swimming to the bank and escaping to safety in the trees...it was just like watching a David Attenborough documentary!

After lunch we arrived at Camp Leakey, named after naturalist Louis Leakey, who trained up a trio of young women in the 70's to study the world's great primates in the wild. Dr Birute Galdikas, or 'THE lady' as Rudy affectionately called her, was set to study the orangutans and has spent her life trying to find out as much about them as possible, and ensure the continuation of the threatened species; there are only 6000 left in Tanjung Puting which despite being the single largest population in the world, is continually threatened by logging destroying their habitats and poachers selling orangutans on the black market.

On arrival at Camp Leakey we started our 10 minute walk through the jungle to reach the feeding platform. Just 1 minute in however, our route on the boardwalk was blocked by an infamously lazy orangutan that is always hanging around the camp; 'Suswi'. Suswi was strewn across the width of the board walk on her front looking dozy. On our approach she raised her eyes and immediately stretched out her arm to ensure we couldn't pass. Unsure of what to do we stood behind Rudy who went down to her level and tried to lighten her mood by playing with leaves and sticks with her. Looking fairly disinterested she huffed and rolled around, much like a child not wanting to get out of bed. Worried she would reach out and grab us if we tried to pass, it wasn't until another guide came up, confidently pinched her cheeks to show her who was boss and distracted her, that we could pass. It was clear that different guides had different relationships with each of the orangutans, again enforcing such a human feel in them.

After having a look at the family trees and photos in the visitors centre, we made our way to the final feeding station hoping for more action than that morning. Indeed we got it with what seemed like the most fearless orangutans yet, some of which started eating the fruit before the ranger had even left the platform. There was also a wild boar snuffling around on the floor for leftovers the whole time, and who terrorised and chased the orangutans whenever they went to the floor (sadly the wild boar is one of the predators of the orangutans, often attacking young babies too weak to fight them off). One mother orangutan with a tiny baby attached to her even ran straight through everyone watching to escape the snuffling pig! Another mother had to go and rescue her child who had bitten off more than it could chew and gone the wrong way through the trees, eventually squealing for its mother to come and help! More action was had when a gibbon kept jumping down onto the platform, stealing food and swinging off into a high tree to eat it, not that the orangutans seemed to care!

As the sky started to darken and loud claps of thunder began we hurried to make our way way back to the boat...too late. In true Kalimantan style the rain poured down immediately with immense force, soaking us in minutes and even filling our waterproof boots up! With thunder and lighting around us and the paths becoming a mud bath we succumbed to the strength of the storm! Arriving back at the boat we were greeted by the disturbing sight of the captains of the many boats out in their Y-front pants only, trying to put the sides down on their boats. Back on the boat we changed into dry clothes and rested for a couple or hours in the storm.

That evening, after stuffing ourselves on dinner which even included chicken nuggets, we went on a 40 minute night walk in the jungle, trousers tucked into socks to avoid any unwanted visitors! During the walk we encountered a tiny frog, a silver insect whose call echoes through the forest at tremendous amplitude, a bright blue scorpion, and an insect something like a cross between a scorpion and a spider, which we were told was highly poisonous to the point of fatality; when the guides started shouting at us to avoid the running insect we definitely panicked! The forest ranger also used a stick to probe a tarantula out of its silk lined den underground. As the large hairy grey creature emerged, it didn't look too pleased at being disturbed. As the ranger kept annoying it with the stick it reared on its back legs and revealed its fangs and a bright red mouth. Again highly poisonous, we weren't overly keen on sticking around and after grabbing a photo quickly moved on. Despite the creepy crawlies we slept a lot better that night and felt wholly satisfied with how our trip had turned out and the amazing sights and experiences we had been lucky enough to encounter for the last 2 days!

On the third day we drove back down the river to where we had begun, through torrential rain and wind, and were dropped back off at Pangkalan Bun, checking back in to the Tiara Hotel to give ourselves a day to get our stacks of laundry done before catching a flight the next day. However, when there wasn't a single laundry place open in the city we grabbed our bags from our hotel room and did a runner to the bus station for another long bus journey back to Banjarmasin, saving money on a flight. Whilst the first bus wasn't too bad, 9 hours into the 18 hour journey, at 1am, we were all asked to get off the bus and wait for 2 hours for another that would take us the remainder of the way...of course this bus wasn't of such a high standard. On arrival in Banjarmasin we checked back into the Perdana Hotel, finally got our laundry done and spent a long time sleeping! We also managed to book a 3 day 2 night jungle trek around the region of Loksado, with another local guide that approached us at the hotel for the following day. Having sat on a boat for the previous 3 days and eaten far too much food we were looking forward to getting out and exploring some of the infamous Borneo jungle!