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Up early because our bags are picked up at 8am.  We paid last night so we can have breakfast and go straight into the Permai van to the airport.  It’s less than an hour.  Domestic check-in is fast and we are at the gate before our ATR-72 (Wings of Love) arrives.

Descent into Mulu:

It’s just over an hour over rain forest and large scale agriculture.  Tarmac landing strip.

The terminal is simple and our luggage is out first.  A lady with a truck takes us to the resort (1km or so) and Jane arranges for her to pick us up Thurday 22nd.

You enter the park over a 1 track wide suspension bridge and reception is efficient.  They have arranged a single Chalet for us for the whole period, so no moves and splits as originally communicated via email.

It’s a bit enormous.  Large living room, 2x bedrooms for 4x people, kitchen, etc.  We take it very easy and some even sleep:

Enormous rain comes down, and we meet some Canadians who shelter on our patio and come to admire the house.  They’re from Vancouver.

Thank God they have spag-bol:

Out first animal encounters:

Big tree:

In the evening after dinner we should do the evening walk and fortunately it stopped raining.  Henry, our guide, tells us that he will take us a different route because of the fire ants on the forest floor.  I talk to him and he asks about England.  With the help of all involved we manage to spot a large number of animals:

Mating stick insects ad a large gecko.

Poisonous caterpillars (do not touch!)

Stick insects and another stripy gecko.

Another gecko and a large snail.

Left a kingfisher and right a different sleeping bird.  Just above head height over the path.

A toad and a frog.  These frogs are responsible for 40% of the forest noise (wak? wak? wak? all night long)

Look closely: A very large spider on the tree and another surprised gecko.

We do the tour together with an English family from Lancashire.  Three very nice kids.  Girl has a horse, about to receive school results.  Boy into sailing, about to by RS200 with a friend. Husband bridge engineer, involved in Sizewell-B build.

We also see fireflies (at arms length) and luminous leaves and twigs (due to fungi) as well as a luminous mushroom.

 

Reward after night walk – large milkshakes:

One of the squirrels you see at breakfast in Permai.

9am At the boat house.  We join and english family (Matt and Jacky) and their two kids for the 3-in-1 tour.  We start dolphin watching again but this time it’s very successful.  We see many of them in large groups and get some nice photos (as far as possible).

There are lots of fishermen here and our guide says they don’t mind the dolphins at all:

We continue up river to go round the island and moor at the village we saw the day before.  We have a short tour.  Lots of wood and a football pitch that disappears under water quite often!

Funny fishes with long snouts swimming there.  Our guide says swimming here is a bad idea because of the crocks.

Next stop – mangrove forest to spot crocodiles.  We spot a juvenile immediately sliding into the water and then nothing.  Our guide says that with the high tide they are normally at the bottom.

We carry on via bird island to the Satang island ad anchor next to a rocky shore.  Snorkeling is ok, not the best visibility today, but we see 3x kinds of fish (brown, stripy and spotty with a yellow head).

We stop off at the beach on Santos where they collect the turtle eggs to protect them and have lunch there.

 Then it’s back to Permai.  We get the kite out and it flies well with Alex on the rope.

Just before I want to leave Emma gets hit by a jellyfish.

The lady at the restaurant (remember the pineapple yesterday) hands us over to one of the resort people who gets us a bowl of vinegar and cotton wool.  This works well and Emma spends most of the day dabbing it.

When Emma and I get back, it’s clear that monkeys have been in the cabin.  They have stolen an apple and left one half-eaten in the middle of the floor.  They have been sitting eating on the table, and then on Emma’s bed.  I clean up and Emma insists that we swap beds.

Here is what’t left of the apples – not much!

Another day.  Last minute decision – we go the the 2nd beach which is closer to our hut.  Emma makes a sandcastle with a moat and a bridge.  I fish but so close in-shore they are too small and just nibble the snail from my hook.  The snails we use for bait are truly well armoured and Alex and I really need to hit them very hard to break the shells.

After lunch we have plenty of time to wash and do diaries and we are at the boat for our mangrove tour very early.

A tractor for moving luggage and a huge pineapple.

We have the blue boat with Cindy as our guide.  An italian couple with 2x kids join us.  There are loads of mud skippers and blue crabs here.

The village on the island and a floating fishery.  Lots of crocodiles here so nobody swims.

Santubong in the background and a tug anchored offshore because of approaching bad weather.

Alex’ favourite drink.

Update: While having dinner this cheeky bat was cruising through the restaurant every minute or so.  I caught it with flash: