'Cruising has two pleasures. One is to go out in wider waters from a sheltered place. The other is to go into a sheltered place from wider waters".
-Howard Bloomfield

One of the highlights of our cruising so far was the visit to the Tangjung Puting
Orang-utan Sanctuary. We sailed Long White Cloud up the Kumai River on the south coast of Borneo, Indonesia. As we neared the entrance to the river the blue sky disappeared under smoke from the forest fires that are a regular occurrence. The fires are so bad, it can be difficult to see the town the sides of the river at times. We where taken up a small secondary river in a small riverboat, aptly named a 'klotock'. Like other Indonesian water craft they get about without a muffler and makes exactly that noise - klotock, klotock, klotock - at ear splitting decibels! When you're on the yacht it's fine, they are usually just passing, and at a reasonable distance; at least you know they can't sneak up on you. Once aboard it's monotonous and loud, but you do get use to it.
We spent two days up the river with the monkeys and had a wonderful time. We slept on the top deck, they cooked what can only be described as restaurant quality food (all on one small primus) and we showered and toileted on the overhanging poop deck (that's must be where the name came from!). We saw crocodiles, iguanas, exotic birds to numerous to mention (even if we knew the names), long tail grey monkeys, proboscis monkeys, gibbons and of course the Orang-utans (both in the wild and the ones the staff are rehabilitating).

The Orang-utans are the only great apes outside Africa. Canadian researcher Dr Birute Goldikas began this sanctuary in the 1970's and has been taking in orang-utans since then. This is a very hands-off operation where the animals live in the wild and can come and go as they wish. The food is put on a platform and left there for them to take if they wish. As visitors we entered the jungle and could hear the orang-utans swinging through the trees to meet up with the food and to interact with us, our evolutionary cousins? It is all too easy to forget that these primates in the wild have a deceptively long and powerful reach. They love to snatch cameras and investigate their inner workings and seem to think that any water bottle is for them...the lid being no stumbling block to consuming the contents. They are just so like us in many ways it uncanny.

12 million people live in Borneo, with 9 million in settlements along the rivers in Kalimantan. Timber and mining interests have penetrated deep into the rain forests with their chain sawing, bulldozing and associated burning. According to the local people we met it seemed to be increasing by the year. When we were in the river we saw massive 'rafts' of milled timber being towed down towards the river mouth.
Having seen the abject poverty in which many of these people live, our eyes were opened to both sides of the great conservation debate.

This was a unique experience.