traveller Adventures with orang-utans
our region
Jungle love … a youngster and mother in semi embrace; banana peels lie scattered across a feeding platform, a tell-tale sign that a feast has been enjoyed.
everything comes to an end when a couple of long-tailed macaques frighten them away. We spend a night moored on the riverbank, immersed in the rainforest. As dusk falls, we watch neon-bright stork bill kingfishers skim across the water, and listen to the rumble of the jungle as we feast by candlelight on sweet-andsour shrimp, spicy beef, water spinach and juicy mangoes. Our crew sets up mattresses draped in mosquito netting on the deck and we fall asleep as giant fruit bats cross the starry sky. In all we make five visits to orang-utan camps, each time admiring a wide array of their humanlike interactions. One image stays with me: a tiny orang-utan gazing contentedly into the eyes of its adoring mother. Moments earlier I’d watched her let him practice climbing to the edge of a tree branch,
44 Paradise – Air Niugini’s in-flight magazine
but now her long red arms envelop him in complete security.
Air Niugini flies from Port Moresby to Bali every Monday. See airniugini. com.pg.
To support the orang-utans, the annual Trans Borneo Challenge is a 900-kilometre trek across Borneo by NEED TO KNOW bus, boat and foot. SEEING THE ORANG-UTANS Participants are All Orangutan Odysseys trips begin and end required to raise in Bali or Jakarta and include internal flights, park fees, accommoda tion, boat travel and money to help most meals. The trips range from 7 to 12 days. fund orang-utan HOW MUCH? From PGK5225. projects. The next MORE INFORMATION orangutanodysse ys.com. challenge starts on August 19, which is World OrangUtan Day.