Itinerary
Day 1: from London to Kota Kinabalu (via Kuala Lumpur or Singapore).
Day 2: Arrive in Kota Kinabalu and transfer by bus to the hotel for an overnight stay. Welcome dinner tonight.
Day 3:Transfer by bus to Kota Belud, from where you commence the trek, passing through villages, farms and primary jungle. Today’s trek takes about 5 hours before setting up camp at Kaung village.
Day 4: Spend the day trekking through primary jungle to reach the second camp. Walk for approximately 6 hours, learning about jungle survival and how to identify edible fruits and foods en route.
Day 5: Continue trekking through primary jungle to reach tonight’s camp. After approximately 5 hours of trekking you will arrive and spend the rest of the day learning some more jungle survival skills.
Day 6: Today you will follow part of the track dating from the days of Sir Hugh Low’s exploration of Mt Kinabalu before arriving at the village of Kiau where we spend the last night with our trekking team.
Day 7: Set off this morning for Sukau, stopping for lunch en route. After settling into the homestay accommodation, receive a briefing on the orang-utan conservation project.
Day 8: Depart this morning for the orang-utan study site. Join the research officers in their daily routine to record and observe wild orang-utans’ behaviour. In the afternoon, proceed to do a line transact, looking for new and old orang-utans’ nests in the forest. The information is crucial to understand the density of orang-utans in the study site. Return to the village late afternoon, with a detour to one of the tributaries to search for other wildlife of the Kinabatangan area.
Days 9: Today is the second phase of observing wild orang-utans with the research officers. In the afternoon, proceed to the phenology site. This is where four plots of land are being used to analyse fruits and leaves of tree species that are consumed by orang-utans. This will enable scientists to determine what type of trees are suitable for reforestation in a way which provides a natural habitat for the orang-utan and the quantity of food source required for their survival.
Day 10:We proceed to the study for another morning observation of orang-utan behaviour. After lunch, continue to the reforestation site to help with the planting of trees in degraded forest areas. Other activities include the identifying and collection of wild seedlings for sampling at the research station.
Day 11: A morning visit to the Sepilok orang-utan sanctuary before an afternoon flight back to Kota Kinabalu, and on to London (via Kuala Lumpur or Singapore).
Day 12: Morning arrival into London.