Rebecca Withams: Indonesia trip 2016
12th-13th June
After a mad rush of packing and buying jungle gear, we all met at Heathrow Airport, with me being late as usual so not meeting up with everyone until right before the flight! Ahead of us we had a 12 hour flight to Singapore, a rushed transfer to the next terminal to catch the 1.5 hour flight to Medan. Flying into Medan through a lightning storm was certainly an amazing, if slightly scary start to our time in Sumatra! Landing in Medan at around 8pm, met by incredibly humid heat, and another 2 hour journey to the hotel. Getting cash out was also an experience, as 1,000,000 rupiah was around £55! After such a long day we finally got to the hotel, and went in search of food in the rain, ending up in a street stall eating very spicy yet tasty noodle soup, costing the equivalent of 75p for the whole meal! Finally, back to the hotel, and bed. Here we met up with a few others who have been researching in Sumatra for a while, Emma and Chris.
14-18th June- Ketambe
Early start and a long drive to Ketambe, a village in the middle of two valleys in the Leuser ecosystem. A bit of a culture shock, in both Medan and driving through rural areas, as it is so different from the UK in so many ways. First experience of Sumatran wildlife came in the form of a coffee stealing pig-tailed macaque, at our first pit stop, along with the first experience of the delight that is squat toilets! The journey continues, spotting volcanoes, mosques and many happy, smiling locals waving along the way.
Finally reaching Ketambe, and crossing a fast flowing river in a very small boat, we reached the research centre, with loads of long tail macaques running around! The group split into 2, half staying on the research site, and the other staying in a guesthouse on the other side of the river. We then went for our first forest walk, supposed to be a short one as we weren’t prepared to go straight into a trek with all our jungle gear in our backpacks in the other side of the river! After at least an hours walk later in totally unsuitable flip flops, covered in leeches and mosquito bites, the rain started so we swiftly retreated back to the other side of the river, to a lovely guesthouse with really nice food! Early morning vocalisation calls is a key part of the research already in progress by Emma and Chris, involving 4am wake ups and the group trekking to three points, set out the previous night. Each group would stay there all morning to record the calls of gibbons, languars and siamungs, with an estimation of distance from each point, and the direction of calls. Unfortunately the group based station side couldn’t do the vocalisation call records that morning due to torrential rain!
After we came across the river again, we went for our first jungle trek, this time properly prepared with boots and football socks to stop the leeches getting through, and the rainforest is amazing! Full of trees that are impossibly tall, with thousands of butterflies and insects flying around, flowers and many different plants and fungi, strangler figs making the craziest looking trees, hornbills flying around, and most exciting of all, we spotted an orangutan! A wild female orangutan with a baby was spotted high up in the trees by our excellent guide, following her up very steep slopes, never seeming scared of us, just interested in these people staring up at her! Thomas Langurs were also spotted, as well as hornbills and thousands of butterflies.
19th-21st June- Langsa
After a long journey back to Medan to head to Langsa, two very long days travelling! Here in Langsa we looked at human-elephant conflict, concentrating on the destruction of palm oil plantations by elephants. The land the palm oil plantations are on are part of the Sumatran Elephants range, where they have had free access for thousands of years, so carry on to use the land as they always have, destroying the plantation as they go. HAkA is a foundation that aims to reduce and deal with human-elephant conflict through a number of methods to help protect the plantation from the elephants, and the elephants from the people. Most commonly used methods are building huge trenches around the plantation to prevent elephants entering, fireworks to scare the elephants away, and finally as the last resort, tame elephants to back the wild elephants away. Elephants prefer the constant food supply that is found in the plantations rather than foraging in the jungle, as it is easier for them.
An elephant destroyed plantation was visited, and it was very visible to see the destruction that they have caused, as the massive impact on the workers lives, by taking out houses which lead to fires. The fireworks are no longer effective as the elephants have realised that it is just noise and doesn’t harm them, so other methods are in the planning stages. Unfortunately some plantation owners cannot afford to invest in elephant deterrent methods, and choose a quicker and easier solution such as poison. The few days in Langsa really showed how big human-elephant conflict, and the major issues caused for both the elephants and the people whose livelihoods are being destroyed. We also made it onto local TV because of an interview with a plantation owner!
22-25th June- Bukit Lawang
Journey to Bukit Lewang! Bukit Lewang is much more of a tourist hotspot, with treks more orientated towards the tourist rather than a research forest. Here, we focused to the questionnaires element, asking tourists about their experience jungle trekking in Bukit Lewang. We went on our own jungle trek, camping next to a beautiful river overnight, swimming in a secluded waterfall and tubing down the river, back to our hotel, the very environmentally friendly Eco-Lodge. Trekking in Bukit was different, as the jungle was a lot hillier, but also more open.
Upon entering the jungle there were 2 signs, highlighting the do’s/don’t’s of the jungle, focused on tourists. Bukit Lewang was used as an orangutan rehabilitation site, leading to them being slightly habituated, and used to people. This means the orangutans happily come down to the floor, and up to groups of people. There used to be a feeding platform, with feeding times twice a day, where guides would feed the orangutans, and tourists take photos. Since then, this has stopped, and feeding has been banned, leading to orangutans associating food with the guides, which has led to aggression with certain individuals. One in particular, Mina, is a rehabilitated orangutan, who has become extremely violent multiple times, because she wants food from the guides. She has attacked over 100 times, putting someone in hospital. We came across Mina and her baby around an hour into our trek, and the guides had to give her food to keep her happy. They then had to cut sticks as she started to follow and chase us through the jungle, for about 20 minutes! As amazing as it was to see a fully grown orangutan and her baby so close up, it was also scary, hearing what she has done to people in the past, purely because she hasn’t got the food that she wanted, and a major difference to the truly wild mother and baby we saw in Ketambe.
Our camp for the night was on the rocky shores of a fast flowing, crystal clear river, with real Sumatran food for dinner, and jungle games until bed! The next day we trekked down to a waterfall, with crystal clear water and jungle make up (clay)! We then tubed back down the river after lunch, a highly amusing experience in its self! The next day consisted of giving questionnaires out to tourists, and seeing how much they know about the importance of orangutan conservation in Bukit Lewang, and how much the guides educate the tourists on the issue of feeding the wildlife, both before and during their jungle trek.
25-27th June- Tangkahan
A 3 hour motorbike ride to Tangkahan through rural Sumatra was so much fun, even on dirt tracks and getting covered in orange dust! We arrived in our guesthouse, on the banks of another beautiful crystal clear river, perfect for swimming and jumping off rocks! Here we were focusing on tourism and elephants. We visited an elephant rehabilitation site, and washed the elephants in the river, including three babies!
We also walked upstream to a little waterfall, and found rocks perfect for climbing and jumping off of! The evenings consisted of building bonfires on the riverbank, singing and drinking Bintang, a perfect end to our time in Sumatra.
We left very early on the 27th to get back to Medan, to leave the next day. That night we looked at all the photos of our trip and ate together one last time, and laughed about all the things that had happened during our time in Sumatra. We left very early the next morning for the airport, everyone to fly home, and for me to continue the Indonesian adventure in Bali!
