Semenggok is a jungle area not far from Annah Rais dedicated to helping animals and returning them to the wild. Its minimalist in the conservationist way but nice enough. They do, however, have cells for the naughty crocodiles that come their way.
Naturally we went straight to the croco-prison. The first cell was empty but showed the lay-out: a concrete floor with inlaid rocks sloping down to the water filled bottom 4 meters. The second cell held a very grumpy log floating in the water. You could tell from the look in his eyes that 4m of water was not enough for a log of his size. Apparently he'd been very naughty and menaced villagers a long way away. He was being held until they could find a place for him.
The third cell held Sarawak national staring champion. A fantastic crocodile about 4m long, and completely determined to bore a hole in the cell using only his eyes. He lay diagonally across the dry part of the cell looking to long for it. I gingerly moved in front of him for a photo of that malevolent gaze, and felt sure that he was only waiting for the steel rebars to melt before devouring me. A single move from him would have scared me to death anyway.
We walked back to look at the pitcher plants and idly noticed a crocodile in the first cell. Problems with Bornean Travel #3: even when you can't see any logs, there are crocodiles.
The pitcher plants were cute and plentiful as they grow like carnivorous weeds in the park. We also saw a snake slide calmly through the jugs on its way to somewhere with more mice.
Finally we were called to the lectern and had the plan explained to us. The rangers gave the usual warning that these are wild animals and not to do anything that would leave us with fewer limbs. He also mentioned that the orang-utans make their own plans and we might not feature in their calendar. As he said this I took photos of a nearby gecko.
He led us a short way into the jungle on a track very much the same as the ones at home. We took pictures of trees and tried not to trip on the roots. 5 minutes later we stopped in a clearing across from a ranger and feeding platforms. Then we waited...
Naturally I got bored and I had a camera. I wandered away from the crowd to see if I could find and photograph the cause of the very noisy background sound. Photographs proved impossible as it was some kind of leaf roller high up in the trees. Malaysian squirrels were also impossible to photo as they move constantly.
More amenable to photographs were the millions of ants trekking to a tree right beside the view platform. Literally millions, streaming from high up in the tree, guarded by soldier ants, and moving implacably. Bizarrely I felt horrified by and for the ants: they could be crushed easily but there were so many of them and so organised that Hollywood hyperbole seemed actually possible.
The orangutans never did show up and I left Semenggoh a bit disappointed. It was an awesome place though and I felt it was well worth it. Meeting my tribe will have to wait for another day.
No comments:
Post a Comment