Journey to the graceful river of Kinabatangan

Few years ago, a group of us from the Biodiversity Conservation Programme (BIOCOP) decided to organise a study trip to the famed lower Kinabatangan river.

The Kinabatangan river is situated in the Sabah state of Malaysia, and it is the longest river in Sabah. The lower part of the Kinabatangan river has long been established to be a hotspot for biodiversity conservation, and in 1999 the 26,000 hectare Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary was declared Malaysia’s first Gift to the Earth. In 2001, the sanctuary was gazetted as a Bird Sanctuary, and work to gazette the area as a permanent wildlife sanctuary is currently underway.

To reach Kinabatangan, we took a plane from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan. The flight took 40 minutes and we were all in high spirits! In the Sandakan airport, we met the owner of the Sukau Tomanggong Riverview Lodge, Jesse. Sukau Tomanggong Riverview lodge is a simple lodge catered for wildlife photographers or birdwatchers as they have good experienced guides armed with such skills.

From the airport, it took us approximately 2.5 hours to reach the small fishing village of Sukau. The last hour of the journey was horribly bumpy and dusty, and makes one wonder is it worth the trouble to visit Kinabatangan at all?

After the one hour torture, we reached the lodge feeling tired and extremely shaken, literally! Jessie suggested for us to rest for an hour before starting our first boat ride. The accommodation was very basic with 2 persons sharing a wooden chalet with its own attached bathroom. Across the very narrow road is the riverview lodge, which has a spectacular view of the towering Tomanggong limestone outcrop and its undisturbed forest across the river.
After a nice cold shower and much needed rest, we were introduced to our guide and boatman, Adi and Samsul. On this trip Adi and Samsul took us downstream the Kinabatangan river towards Sungai Rasong and the cool breeze from cruising along in the boat was a welcoming break from the stifling heat. The wildlife was just astonishing. In the first 30 minutes going downstream, we spotted two Rhinocerous hornbill feeding on figs, three Pied hornbill flying across the river, four Jerdon’s Baza perching at different trees, and a pair of Black hornbill. Adi and Samsul are really the best guides a person could ask for. They are extremely good in spotting wildlife. Whenever anyone of us spotted something, Samsul would cut off the engine and we’d drift past silently.

We were ecstatic that we spotted so much wildlife in such short time, but Adi told us the best is still to come. They took us to a narrow tributary called Sungai Rasang, and true to his word, there were more wildlife here than in the main river. That could be due to less tourist traffic in this side. We spotted a harem of proboscis monkeys with its alpha male, several families of pig tailed macaque. But personally for me the highlight was the arrays of birdlife! In that short narrow tributary alone, we observed 16 species displaying in their natural habitats. That was real humbling to my soul!

After two hours of constant marvels, we returned to the lodge for our evening meal and wait for the sun to set before heading out for our night trip. After sunset we headed out on the boat again towards the same stretch of river. It was a calming feeling to be speeding down the river in the dark, watching the bright starry sky. We slowed down the boat regularly to spot for possible wildlife. But as we all had a long day, not everyone enjoyed the ride.

The next day, we left for another boat ride, spotting more birds. This place is a must for birders out there. Here you don’t have to spend any energy trying to look for the birds, the birds are readily available everywhere you turned! We spent the whole morning bird-watching and marvelled at the amazing wildlife of the lower Kinabatangan river.

After lunch, Adi and Samsul were highly excited and warned us to be ready for some big actions! We knew it must be the pygmy elephant! With heart pumping fast and adrenaline rushing through our veins, we got into the boat. Samsul steered the boat closer to the bank along the river and Adi told us to keep our ears and eyes opened wide! Immediately after he said that, we heard a loud roar! For me, that is the most magnificent sound I have ever heard in my life. I had always been waiting for this moment to see the pygmy elephant, but on the other hand, I was worried that the elephant might charge towards us since we were so closed to the bank! That’s life, so full of contradictions.

With much anticipation, the elephants finally showed their faces. We were all extremely excited and took tonnes of photographs. But one sad thing here is how inconsiderate some tour operators were. They drove the boat so closed to the bank and the elephants were scared off like that.

In the interval of three days stayed in Sukau, we spotted a wide range of wildlife. That should be a happy feeling right? Wrong. The only reason why wildlife was so readily spotted along the Kinabatangan river is a sad one. Much of the forests along the river had been replaced by oil palm plantations, leaving a narrow stretch of forest habitat corridor for the wildlife to live in, and that’s the sad truth behind the easily seen wildlife.
The problem of development and human encroachment into prime forests are constantly seen everywhere in the world. But Brunei is very lucky in the sense that we are not depending on forested goods as our main source of revenue, hence our forests are still relatively undisturbed. To keep the forests in such stage, we should put in more effort into forest conservation.