Tangkoko National Park

Today we started our day early at 5:30 am with delicious pancakes because at 6:00 am our morning tour into the rainforest with our guide Aceh began.

Excitedly, we followed Aceh on foot into the national park. First on a paved path, then on a trail until we finally ended up in the middle of the jungle. After a short time, our first encounter with animals - what a beautiful feeling. We saw a black crested macaque, then 2,3,4,5. Suddenly, we found ourselves in the middle of the group of these endangered monkeys that are only found here in Sulawesi worldwide. They seemed very playful and peaceful, stayed around us for a while, and then moved on.

Other highlights in the morning were a kingfisher, the impressive rhinoceros hornbill, and several cuscus. The cuscus is a marsupial that lives high up in the trees. We were lucky and saw a family with 3 animals and a single specimen that watched us from its resting place high up in the trees. In addition, we saw owls and a second macaque family.

In the evening tour, the heroes were clearly the tarsiers (spectral tarsiers). They are the smallest and, in our opinion, the cutest monkeys in the world.😁 They only grow 9-14 cm tall, sleep in tree cavities during the day, and only go foraging in the evening. They have huge bulging eyes for their body size, have alien-like fingers, and move quickly from branch to branch, which we were able to witness live here in Tangkoko.

At the end of our jungle tour, we still caught a glimpse of the Sulawesi black tarantula. These spiders sleep in tree holes during the day and are nocturnal. We could hardly believe our eyes how big these spiders really get. In terms of size, they are comparable to a palm including fingers. These animals can reach a leg span of 25cm, simply incredible.🙈.....hopefully we will NEVER encounter them in our room. Our guide told us that these creatures never leave the national park. Not entirely convinced, but somewhat reassured, we ended our tour.

So, enough for today. An excellent Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice) + beer before going to sleep & then off to bed. It was a beautiful, adventurous, but exhausting day. Good night!👋