The second day at Danum

Danum Valley

After yesterday’s great successes, today was to be another day running around the jungle searching for animals. We trekked early morning, morning, afternoon and night. We did long canopy walks (there is only one that they set up by hand(!) that is about 250 meters long), long treks up hills and down to waterfalls through the pristine jungle and a night walk that gave Ms. Cupcake the chills. Since we were pretty active, Ryan was able to take us to bits that very few people go to, certainly increasing our chances of wildlife spotting.

Danum Valley

Overall, we trekked more than 10k throughout the various trails and forest at the lodge and were indeed successful again, albeit less so. We saw the giant squirrel and the pygmy squirrel (Ms. Cupcake’s new favorite animal), lots of new birds, the long-tailed macaque and came disturbingly close (ok, so it was about 30 feet but disturbing enough for us, nonetheless) to a black spitting cobra. Almost more importantly, we just had a great time. This was exactly what we had wanted to do here – traipse through jungle looking for animals – so it was a pretty perfect experience. Unlike in African savannahs and plains where the animals are just right there, easy to spot, you have to work for it in the jungle. That, to me, is much more exciting.

Don't remember what kind of lizard this is.

Long Tailed Macaque

Black hornbill

Ryan was full of great information and was able to stop on dime once we spotted something. Though my legs were truly hurting, a brief afternoon respite in our Jacuzzi made all the difference for the night trekking. During said respite, we were even able to see Red-Leaf monkeys and a rhinoceros hornbill right in front of the room.

Pygmy Squirrel

The canopy walk at the lodge.

Borneo Rainforest Lodge is Danum Valley is a great place. It is one that we will undoubtedly come back to again. It gives you the chance to be closer than you have ever been with nature without any of it being contrived. The accommodations are stellar, the food is superb (especially the Malay dishes, like stir-fried wild ferns, pumpkin in coconut, lamb kuzi and lamb rendang) and the staff is some of the friendliest you will encounter anywhere.

We fall asleep one more time to the sounds of the jungle. Despite the bats circling outside our window, we are going to be really sad to leave.