Day 210 - 214 Jungle Trekking

After the adventurous journey yesterday, we were picked up by the jungle lodge and once all the details for today's jungle trekking were clarified, we were taken to our bungalow. After a 15-minute walk, which already took us into the rainforest, we stood in front of our bungalows. A really great place. But as it had just started raining, we quickly retreated to our bungalow and caught up on some missed sleep.

This morning after breakfast, we packed our equipment for the next 5 days in the jungle into our day backpack and then the trekking began. Our group consisted of Moritz and me, plus a guide and a porter. It was stated on the website that one must be in reasonably good physical condition for the trekking, and we quickly realized why. It was truly an authentic jungle trekking, there was no real path. We climbed, slid, yes, it was quite slippery, thanks to yesterday's rain, crawled and hiked through the jungle. Our guide with a machete in front to clear the way a bit. What fun. We could already hear the monkeys screaming in the distance.

After fighting our way through the jungle for two hours, our guide spotted an orangutan family high up in a tree eating. We naturally stopped to watch the animals for a while. That's exactly why we came to Kudah, because here is one of the few places where you can observe these endangered animals in the wild. It was fascinating to watch them. How casually they moved. When we approached a little closer to get a better view, we seemed to annoy them a bit because they started throwing big branches down. So we moved back a bit.

After observing them for about two hours, we set off again into the jungle.

We passed by a small cave full of bats.

We also caught sight of a group of black gibbons. It was incredible how quickly and confidently they swung from one branch to another. It was impossible to take a photo, they were too fast for that. But it was great to watch them.

In the evening, we left the rainforest again and climbed a small hill where a small hut stood. Our camp for the night. From here, we had a great view over the rainforest.

Our guide started preparing dinner over the fire together with our porter and we processed our impressions from the first day.

After dinner, we lit a fire to keep warm as it got a bit chilly after the sun had set. But we couldn't sit by the campfire for too long, as it started raining. So we retired to our tent quite early and went to sleep.

The next morning, we were woken up by the rooster.

The rain was over and after breakfast, we headed back into the rainforest. Today, the goal was to reach a higher elevation to marvel at the mossy forest.

We slowly fought our way up the muddy and slippery ground. Always on the lookout for orangutans. Because here in this part of the forest, the leader is said to sometimes be found. But on the ascent, we weren't lucky and didn't see any orangutans. But the forest changed steadily. When we reached a certain height and arrived in the mossy forest, it was a completely different landscape than earlier in the day. Moss grew above all the trees and made the whole scenery very special. It was a nice change from the rainforest.

We didn't go all the way to the top of the mountain, unfortunately we didn't have enough time for that. So we made our way back down. It started raining again halfway through and made the path even more slippery than it already was. But that didn't stop us from fighting our way through the forest in search of the monkeys. Unfortunately, we didn't find any today. Our guide explained that's just nature.

So we returned to our camp and enjoyed another great meal.

On the third day, we packed up our camp and moved to another part of the rainforest. The path did not get any easier either, we had to climb over fallen trees, cross streams, and scramble up or slide down slopes.

By now, we were all a bit dirty. But everyone was in a great mood. And today we found them again. Another family of orangutans sitting in a tree, leisurely eating their fruits. It was fun to watch them again. It was interesting to see the poses the monkeys would take to reach the fruits. Hanging by one foot upside down or doing splits between two trees, it all looked so easy. I couldn't get enough of it.

But eventually, we had to move on to reach our camp. To do so, we had to cross a river and then climb and balance on rocks along its bank to get to the path to the camp.

The camp was beautifully located on a clearing right by the river.

In the morning of the 4th day, Moritz felt a bit sick and unwell, so he stayed at the camp to recover. I set off into the rainforest with our guide. Shortly after we set off, we were greeted by a horde of gibbons swinging from tree to tree.

After watching them for a while and they disappeared from our sight, we continued. On the way, we found countless orangutan nests, some 3 weeks old, some only a few days old. But there was no sign of the monkeys themselves. My guide explained that there is no food for them here, so they only come here to sleep. So we enjoyed the flora instead.

We passed by a small waterfall

and a viewpoint where you could have a great view of the valley with the village of Kedah.

Since we couldn't find any monkeys here, we decided to return to the spot where we found the orangutans yesterday. And indeed, they were still there or there again. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the monkeys. We dared to get a little closer, but the monkeys showed us, when we got too close, by throwing branches down.

As it was slowly time to return to the camp, it started raining lightly again. But when we arrived at the camp, the rain was already over. Since we had the river right next to our camp, it was time for a little shower. The water was quite cold and you didn't want to sit in the river for more than a few minutes. But it was a nice refreshment and we could warm up by the fire afterwards.

And then the last day of our trekking came. After breakfast and packing up the camp, we set off again.

Since the path to the bungalows wasn't too far, we visited the orangutans again. And today, we were particularly lucky. One of the orangutans came down from the tall trees where they had been moving in the last few days to a lower tree. So we could observe and photograph him particularly well. It was great fun to watch them again and time flew by too quickly.

Our guides, who have seen the monkeys many times before, found it only mildly exciting and started braiding bracelets for us.

And then it was time to leave the rainforest. We set off one last time, crossing the forest to get back to our bungalow.

We arrived at the camp just in time. Shortly after we arrived and were supplied with tea, it started pouring down rain. It would have been really cool to have a nice warm shower now to wash off all the dirt from the past few days, but there was no proper shower in the bungalow, let alone hot water. So we washed ourselves as in the old days, pouring a bucket of water over our heads. But it somehow belonged to this adventure. After our backpacks were packed again, we headed back to the office, where the minibus was already waiting for us. Our next destination is Pulau Weh, an island in the far west of Indonesia, to relax on the beach after the intense past few days.