Honeymoon Day 3 – Sepilok & Borneo Nature Lodge

Yet another early start (6am) for breakfast and the boat ride back to Sandakan. Got a better seat on the boat this time so it wasn’t as bumpy.

We were driven to the Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary which was a couple of hours outside of Sandakan and it allowed us to see more of the countryside. Unfortunately the countryside has been decimated over the last 25 years as rainforest has been cut down to make way for palm oil plantations. It’s estimated that a third of the rainforest has been cut down but the government has now stopped selling off the land so no more devastation can be carried out.

When we arrived at the sanctuary we were shown a video on the conservation project before making our way into the jungle to the feeding platform.

We watched as the irang utans and other monkeys played and then enjoyed their feed. Unfortunately the monkeys seemed to get most of it! There were some large males as well as young infants and also a mother carrying a baby!

When it was all over it was back into the minibus for a two hour ride and a ten minute boat trip to Borneo Nature Lodge.

Borneo Nature Lodge is a brand new eco friendly lodge in the middle of the jungle. They have solar panels to power the rooms and rainwater is collected for use throughout the lodge.

After some lunch we went out on a river cruise, or more realistically, a tour in a speedboat! We headed down the river to go looking for some promiscuous monkeys. Sorry, proboscis monkeys.

We saw many groups of them as well as long-tailed macaques, hornbills, storks and kingfishers. Our pilot/captain/driver also spotted a large monitor lizard relaxing in a tree as well.

We tried to find some elephants as they had been spotted in the area but after a 10-15 minute search down the main river we decided to give up and headed back to BNL.