Definitely wasn’t prepared (as much as I should have or could have), but got super lucky in searching out and spotting wildlife in the jungle. Not sure if I’ll make it many more days in the jungle though.
- Late Start
- Orangutan!
- Thomas Langur (Leaf Monkey)
- The Jungle
- A Detour
- Getting to Camp
- Macaques
- Internal Thoughts
- Jungle Part 2
- Resting at the Campsite
- Vibe Check
- Feedback
Photo Gallery: https://pics.mattichan.com/-uwc096
Late Start
Apparently the guides don’t really start that early, so we kind of slept in and weren’t supposed to start until 10am. I wandered over in the morning to the main area, and they just brought out some breakfast for me. Some pancakes, fruit, etc.
We eventually packed up, and set off to go to the jungle. The morning was nice and cool, but by 10am, it was starting to get hot and humid already.
My guide, Ahmat, took me down the road and we started our journey. First, we had to walk up a long road / hill which was mildly annoying, but oh I shouldn’t have complained about this part :D.
Orangutan!
As we crossed into the Gunung Leuser National Park, almost immediately, we were met by a older guy yelling at us. It was hard to understand him, but eventually understood that he was yelling “Orangutan, Orangutan” and pointing up in the tree.
Pretty fortunate to see an orangutan, but also one so quickly was pretty crazy. This dude though, was SO freaking loud, the orangutan was not amused and started to wander off after a bit…like my dude…I see it, no need to keep yelling.
This orangutan was having some breakfast though, and had multiple fruits in its mouth…when I saw it I almost burst out laughing cause it kind of reminds me of people on the cruise ship…so much food, and have to put it all in all at once.
Thomas Langur (Leaf Monkey)
As we were still observing the orangutan, the dude changed his yelling to “Tomas, Tomas”, and I was super confused. I almost said to him, “My name isn’t Thomas”, but didn’t want to bother.
To my surprise, my guide also went and handed him some money which was a little odd, I wasn’t sure if he was paying him for spotting and telling us about the wildlife or what not (more on that later…).
We walked down a path for a bit and a little monkey jumped out in front of us down the path and up a tree. It then clicked that what they were talking about was called a Thomas Monkey (or North Sumatran Leaf Monkey).
Ended up finding a whole bunch right there in the trees putting on a little show for us, including some baby ones.
The Jungle
Super lucky, we didn’t even really make it *into* the jungle yet, and had already found orangutans and thomas monkeys, but we set off after into the jungle. As we traversed up and down the mountain, Ahmit would point out various bugs, flowers and different things along the trail (and off the trail).
At one point, Ahmat started smoking, which was a little surprising to me, because normally in the woods, smoking is a no-no cause it could cause a forest fire, but he said that because it was a rainforest, no such concern here whatsoever.
We got to a rest stop at one point (aka a fallen tree we just sat on), and he started to deconstruct a cigarette, took out a small pouch and mixed the tobacco and…some weed…apparently thats what he was talking to the old guy about, he had bought some weed). He offered me some, but I don’t smoke, and definitely didn’t need more reasons to breathe hard going up and down the mountain.
A Detour
As we were walking (or should I say climbing a mountain…), we heard some loud growling, and Ahmat got quite and then started going off the trail and up a pretty steep bank TOWARD the noise. Internally, I was like…hard pass, I generally stay 1) to the trail and 2) away from things making loud noises, but I didn’t really know where I was nor have much of a choice, so I followed up the embankment. We went up, over, and under fallen tree branches, muddy sides of hills and at one point I slipped down an embankment and both hurt my left foot and right knee (almost falling, but saving myself and my camera from disaster).
We eventually got to the top of a hill and found some other people as well looking up at the trees where there was a small family of orangutans. We sat and watched them for a bit which was pretty neat.
One of the orangutans was breaking branches and making a nest — which the guides told us is pretty special and we don’t get to see that all that often. The other two was a mom that was chilling and the baby which was moving around and then coming back to mom to have some of its own meals as well. Super cute, and really was an experience.
After a little bit, one of the orangutans had enough (or wanted to mess with us), and swung over on top of us, and started breaking branches and letting them fall toward us…so we ended up leaving and giving them their space.
Getting to Camp
We continued on, traversing down the hill and my foot and knee were really starting to hurt, as well as having to carry all my camera equipment with me (it was fairly heavy).
As we got down to the bottom, we came to the river, and found our campsite.
Macaques
As we looked across the river, a whole troop of macaques were there and they just wandered around with no care that we were there. Playing in the river, eating seaweed and just enjoying life.
Internal Thoughts
At this point, I felt pretty fortunate, I had seen so much wildlife already (both big and small) and since my legs were not feeling great, I started contemplating whether I could make it a whole 5 more days in the jungle doing this up and down hill. I also have the Middle Earth Halfling Marathon in a week, so I don’t want to really hurt or injure myself before running that.
I was thinking perhaps I’d just call it since I had such a fortunate time already.
Jungle Part 2
We set off after lunch and a rest back into the jungle. Even though they had assured that the rest of the jungle would be much easier, we started by once again going up and over some big hills and through mud, and after about 10 minutes, I was already feeling like my body wasn’t going to be able to cooperate, especially with all the gear.
I pulled the plug and went back to the campsite.
Resting at the Campsite
I ended up laying down for a bit, not sleeping, but at least resting both my feet and spirit. Our site happened to be just a couple sticks and some plastic wrap that the guides had brought along, and the provisions they gave were just a small sleeping bag which I didn’t even unroll. I ended up just using it as a pillow.
After dinner, we watched the fire for a bit and the moon that was out before heading in to sleep.
As Ahmat and I were resting, the other guide came back from the other campsite and just wrapped the last opening with plastic and then got in and secured the flaps. I was super confused because they didn’t tell me what was going on, nor how to get in and out of the tent. They both laid down and passed out.
I had to pee, but wasn’t sure if I was supposed to crawl over them in the dark and undo the plastic or whatnot, and after trying to just hold it all night, I ended up just making a hole in the plastic over on my side of the tent and crawling through two sheets of plastic. Super weird and didn’t have a ton of rest, as I didn’t really have anything to sleep in and on.
On the other hand, sleeping in the jungle listening to all the animals and the stream next to us was a pretty cool experience.
Vibe Check
3 parts joy – so much wildlife
2 parts sadness – my poor knee
Feedback
Leave a comment or question if you have any thoughts! Anything you want to know about as we go around the world? Any things you want to share as feedback, or any images that particularly spoke to you. I’ll try to read all of them as time permits!
Matti 
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