Borneo is known for it’s fascinating wildlife and unique habitats. If you want to get a glipmse of Borneo’s stunning wildlife and rainforest the Kinabatang river is where you should head.
560 km in length, it is the second largest river in Malaysia and it’s home to much wildlife. A narrow corridor of rainforest hugs the Kinabatang, strangled on each side by oil palm plantations. This, sadly, is the reason why it is such a great wildlife spotting location.
The little village of Sukau nested on the Northern river bank is the perfect spot to embark on a cruise. Sukau is about 130km from Sandakan, and many packaged tours can be organised from there. However, once in Sukau, it is really easy and cheap to organise your accomodation and cruises by yourself. Many homestays offer the same accom and boat cruises as the tour groups, but for much cheaper.
After riding our motobikes for about 2,5 hours, we drove to the end of the village and after shopping around for places to stay, ended up meeting Ezall, our host and guide for the trip. Ezall was absolutely lovely, and an amazing wealth of knowledge about wildlife and Borneo in general. We stayed at his family house, called “Mustara Homestay“. He organised 2 cruises – an afternoon one and a night time one – lead by local Captain Eadie aka Eagle Eyes, aka Captain Jack Sparrow. We arrived at Ezall’s doorstep, but I would advise you to whatsapp him a few days in advance so he can organise a boat and a captain.
We jumped on the boat around 4pm ready to spot some wildlife. Kinabatang river is home to many unique species such as pygmy elephants, orangutans, probiscis monkeys, saltwater crocodile and many birds such as kingfishers, owls and broadbills.
We were lucky enough to see a family of 20 pygmy elephants with about 4 babies having a bath in the river and eating shoots on the river’s edge. Although they are called pygmy, and are meaned to be the smallest breed of elephant, they were still enormous and quite impressive!
Because we didn’t book a tour in Sandakan and went with Ezall we had the boat for ourselves (3 people instead of 10 to 15) and the freedom to stay as long as we wanted to observe the wildlife, which was amazing. We were so close to the elephant that I almost felt like a voyeur looking at a private family moment.
Further up the river we spotted a family of the famous Proboscis Monkeys chilling and eating fruit in a fig tree with some long tailed macaques. The Proboscis monkeys have these huge comical noses, and have been nicknamed Drunk Dutchmen, as the Malay people thought they resembled early Dutch settlers with their big noses and round bellies.
After a delicious Mee Goreng at the bazar, we were ready to embark on our night cruise to see nocturnal animals. Captain Eagle Eye showed us how he earned his name! He can spot a tiny bird in the dark from 20 meters away while navigating the river in a pitch black darkness, dodging huge fallen trees and logs that float downstream. At one point he killed the engine and turned off the spot light and we just drifted in complete darkness listening to the sounds of the jungle. The lack of vision and overload of sound was eery and intoxicating. The gentle sound of the water splashing against the boat and the chorus of insects singing for backgroung was mesmerising.
We saw some beautiful fireflies along the river before spotting an owl hiding in the branches and got extremely close to a red breasted kingfisher. A bat, a civet, a snake bird and two pairs of broadbills topped off a cool night on the river. The only animal we wish we’d seen was a saltwater crocodile. Ezall said that the most recent one he saw was 4 metres long, and he even met Steve Irwin when he came to Sukau many years ago.
I would highly recommend to spend a couple of days in Sukau to get a glimpse of the fascinating wildlife of Borneo! And if you have time, go have a look at the Gomantang Caves, famous for their concentration of swiftlets and bats. The swiftlet nests are really popular in chinese cuisine as ‘bird nest soup’. Beware: it stinks and there are many cockroaches.
Budgeting:
If booked in Sandakan, a 2D/1N tour will cost you about 400 MR (130 AUD). If you manage to get to Sukau by yourself and organize accomodation and cruises in town, you can find much cheaper prices.
What we paid:
- Accomodation : 50 MR/room (room for 2 people)
- Cruises: 50 RM/cruise. We did 2.
- Dinner: 5 RM at the bazar
- TOTAL = 125 MR per person
The entrance fee for the cave is 30 MR.
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