Bako; a lovely little Bornean park

A lot of people these days seem to visit Malaysian Borneo, with their focus mostly on Sabah - mighty Mount Kinabalu, the Orangutan and Sun Bear rehabilitation centres at Sepilok, the grim Second World War sites at Sandakan and Kundasang and perhaps the caves at Gomantong where swiftlet nests are still harvested for bird-saliva soup. All of these places, and more, are worthy of our focus and I'll doubtless be introducing most of them here in due course.

Today however I want to go west from Sabah, to the less-visited state of Sarawak, and an often-overlooked but delightful little national park on a South China Sea peninsula just 40km from the state capital Kuching. It is relatively popular as a day destination from Kuching, but I would highly recommend an overnight stay in the basic but quite adequate cabins; a restaurant provides all meals.

Bako National Park, the oldest in Sarawak (gazetted in 1957) is indicated by the red arrow.

After arriving at the little port of Kampung Bako ('kampung' meaning a village), we take to small boats to travel a short distance down the Bako River, then along a spectacular sandstone coastline where the rainforest comes down to the sea.

Boat returning from the sea with a catch of jellyfish; perhaps surprisingly there is a big market
in jellyfish for consumption in other parts of Asia.

Part of the catch; tentacles are cut off before the animals are taken on board.

Above and below, the rainforest comes right to the sea among weathered sandstone stacks.

The landing is among mangroves, with a board walk for the short distance to the accommodation, scattered around a clearing in the rainforest, just above the beach.

View from the landing of the beach and headland that fronts the accommodation.

Close-up of headland at the end of the beach.

The cabins (quite a few of which were closed, presumably for upgrading, when we were there in May 2016) are set into the forest edge and wildlife is prolific.

Typical cabin, run by the parks service.

The most immediately obvious residents are the Bearded Pigs Sus barbatus and the Long-tailed Macaques Macaca fascicularis, both of which forage around the complex.

The pigs, native to Peninsular Malaysia and adjacent islands including Borneo and Sumatra,
are content to keep their distance and wait for pickings.

The macaques however are not! They will seize food from plates if allowed (there is a constant battle between them and
restaurant staff) and can be quite menacing if they think food is being withheld - for instance in any plastic bag sighted!

Many less intrusive animals are present however - birding in Borneo can be quite a challenge, but around the cabins at Bako it can be easier than in some other sites. Even before them however, there are animals along the mangrove boardwalk when first you disembark.

Fiddler Crabs challenge each other with an enlarged claw whose sole purpose is for display -
it is non-functional as far as feeding is concerned.

Hermit Crabs, protected by scavenged sea snail shells, also roam the mud flats.

Mudskippers, re-enacting the drama of life moving ashore, are among the welcoming committees.

Mangrove Skink Emoia atrocostata on the sand at the landing.
This widespread skink specialises in coastal habitats on islands throughout the western Pacific
and in Queensland.

Reptiles are quite evident throughout any stay at Bako in fact.

Green Crested Lizards Bronchocela cristatella are incredibly agile, skipping through tree foliage, and hurling
themselves out into space.

Wagler's Pit Viper Tropidolaemus wagleri on the other hand waits patiently and immobile for prey to come within
striking range. The 'pit' refers to the heat-sensing indentation between eye and nostril. This one was in a
small bush very close to the ground, but they can also be found high in trees.

In addition to the macaques, two other monkey species are present, neither of which are interested in interacting with humans.

Silvered Leaf Monkeys Trachypithecus cristatus are also found in Sumatra and mainland Malaysia.
The strikingly orange babies darken quickly. These monkeys subsist almost exclusively on leaves, and
can manage tough foliage unavailable to other monkeys.

Perhaps the stars however are the Proboscis Monkeys, endemic to Borneo. Most people see habituated Proboscises at feeding stations, but Bako is an excellent place to see them in the wild.

The huge gut is a vat for digesting leaves through bacterial action (like a ruminant mammal) but in
fact Proboscis Monkeys also eat a lot of more readily digestible fruit.

For those with a particular interest in mammals, another resident is of at least equal interest.

The Sunda Colugo Galeopterus variegatus is carelessly referred to as a 'flying lemur' - it doesn't fly
(though it is probably the most consummate glider among mammals, with flaps from wrist to ankle
to tail tip, and between fingers and toes) and is most certainly not a lemur. The two species comprise
an entire Order, whose closest relatives do seem to be primates. (In fact there may be more than the two species,
with the possibility mooted that the south-east Asian mainland, Bornean and Javan populations all represent separate species, in addition to the Philippines Colugo.) They roost like this during the day, on tree trunks.

And so to the birds - just a few sample species here of the many present.

Red-crowned Barbets Psilopogon rafflesii can be seen wherever trees are fruiting.

Asian Fairy-bluebird Irena puella; a member of a family of just two Asian fruit-eaters.
This one is found across southern Asia, the other just in the Philippines.

The Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher Ceyx erithaca is a tiny (13cm) forest kingfisher.

Blue-throated Bee-eaters Merops viridis sit out in the open watching for insects, often near the sea.

All of these can be found in the lowland rainforest and clearings close to the accommodation, but an only moderately strenuous short climb up a formed track to the plateau above leads to a different world. This is the kerangas, a heathy low-growing forest which subsists on low-nutrient acidic sands (the name is based on a local word meaning 'land where rice cannot grow'!). This habitat tends to be lower in animal diversity but is nonetheless fascinating, and is notable for pitcher plants, insect-eating plants which supplement their otherwise low nitrogen intake thus. They will surely be getting their own posting here soon!

Looking out towards Santubong Island, from where Alfred Russel Wallace purportedly wrote an historic
letter to Charles Darwin.

Nepenthes albomarginata; the white rim below the mouth of the pitcher has been shown to attract termites
to their doom in the liquid. (The rim on this one is fading to brown.)

Nepenthes rafflesiana, a very large and hugely variably coloured pitcher.
This is an upper pitcher; the plant is a climber and the twist of the stem around the branch
of the supporting shrub can be clearly seen.

The ant plants - various species which employ ants to bring them food in the form of droppings and other food waste, in exchange for shelter in hollow structures - are also found in this low-nitrogen habitat. 

Myrmecodia sp. (Family Rubiaceae), an epiphytic ant plant growing on a tree trunk.
They are abundant in the kerangas; the holes in the woody bulb where the ants enter are clearly visible.

Dischidia species, twiners in a quite separate family, Apocyanaceae, pursue similar aims by different methods. They have two quite different types of leaf - 'normal' fleshy leaves, as can be seen in the photo above growing around the unrelated ant plant, and larger enclosed leaves which accumulate nutrient within, and which offer shelter to foraging ants.

'Ant accomodating' Dischidia leaves.

As I said, a fascinating habitat indeed, and one which you might like to contemplate with a drink down by the sea again, while you watch the sunset over the South China Sea.

As I hope I also said, Bako is a bit special, and you could do much worse than visiting it as your introduction to Borneo.

BACK ON WEDNESDAY

Cobbold Gorge: a Gulf Country secret

I only recently discovered the concept of 'infinity pools' - I don't doubt that they're old hat to you, but just in case, they're an above-ground swimming pool from which you can look out across the landscape. One place where you might not expect one is on a working cattle station in the semi-arid tropical savannah country of north Queensland. Nonetheless, Robin Hood Station (!) boasts such a pool and it attracts not just hot outback travellers.

Pale-headed Rosellas Platycercus adscitus, having an early morning drink from the pool at Robin Hood Station.

The station has set up accommodation - motel-type rooms and camping, plus a restaurant and of course the pool - to encourage people to visit their chief attraction, which is Cobbold Gorge, still not well-known. It seems to have only been discovered by Europeans in the 1990s, when the current owner and a couple of mates paddled up Cobbold Creek from the Robertson River. Robin Hood Station (allegedly named because it adjoined Sherwood Lease!) was only taken up in 1901 - this is still relatively wild and remote country - and now covers 330,000 hectares (3,000 square kilometres). In 2009 the family signed a Nature Refuge Agreement with the Queensland government to create a 4700ha Nature Refuge around the gorge – a commitment to manage it sustainably in perpetuity, binding on future owners too. The station is generally known now as Cobbold Gorge Station, which is how I'll refer to it here.

Georgetown, the largest town in the inland Gulf Savannah, is 400km west of Cairns on the sealed Gulf Develpment Road. From there the station is another 85km on back roads, 55km of them unsealed (but 'good dirt', as my dad would have said). 

The approximate location of Cobbold Gorge is indicated by the end of the red arrow.

I stayed there last year for the first time with a group I was escorting in tropical Queensland and am happy to recommend it to you. (I feel I must emphasise that when I do feature a private establishment like this one in a blog posting it is only ever because I really believe it deserves it - I will never accept any form of concession or other 'freebie' in return for writing about it, as is standard practice in newspaper travel pages.)

I will of course get to the gorge shortly, but this country is worth visiting for its own sake, though when we were there it was heavily droughted. I understand that things are much better now after heavy rains - more than 300mm - in March of this year. 

For people staying at the accommodation the focus is the 'Home Dam', a large dam immediately below the restaurant and administration buildings.

Home Dam, Cobbold Gorge Station, in late afternoon light.
Even in drought it was pretty full.

Away from that the woodlands are rich and varied, even in drought.

The canopy stays green even in harsh times - this country lives with drought
as part of its life.

The ground cover however dies back, leaving seeds and underground structures to flourish
when the rains do come.

Termite mounds are a key part of the landscape; unimaginable millions of termites recycle the nutrients
in grass and ground litter, reducing the fire fuel load and providing food for the greatest dryland lizard
diversity in the world

Darwin Stringybark Eucalyptus tetrodonta is widespread across northern Australia.

A diversity of other trees and shrubs is also present.

Soapbush Wattle Acacia holosericea. This is a large wattle with big leathery phyllodes ('leaves')
which contain saponins used to create a soapy lather, which can also be used to stun fish by depleting oxygen levels in water.

Quinine Bush Petalostigma pubescens Family Picrodendraceae. While in the same family as the
South American quinine tree, it is not clear that this plant also contains the chemical. The bark is certainly bitter,
and is used by northern indigenous people as an antiseptic and a contraceptive.

Cooktown Ironwood Erythrophleum chlorostachys family Fabaceae.
Found across northern Australia, the timber is valued for its hardness and density;
the foliage is highly toxic to stock and indeed all parts of the tree are potentially fatal to mammals.

Leichardt's Breadfruit Tree Gardenia vilhelmii, family Rubiaceae.
We certainly know that Ludwig Leichardt sustained himself on some Gardenia fruits on his ultimately
doomed journeys across northern Australia; this may well have been one of them.
(The better-known breadfruits belong to the fig family, Moraceae.)

Hibiscus sp.; sorry I can't do better than this.

 .

Batwing Coral Tree Erythrina vespertilio, family Fabaceae.
The first common name and the species name come from the shape of the leaves; 'coral' from the red flowers.

Even in drought there are many birds, though the property dams are of course important attractors.

A few of the vast numbers of White-browed Woodswallows Artamus superciliosus and Masked Woodswallows A. personatus coming in to drink in the late afternoon.

And at the water's edge (along with a few green Buderigars).

White-browed (female, above) and Masked Woodswallows.
Theirs is a fascinating story; they are usually found together, their calls are apparently indistinguishable,
as is their DNA. But they are very different physically and while they commonly breed in mixed colonies,
they never seem to interbreed!

Red-winged Parrot pair Aprosmictus erythropterus (male on the right).

Squatter Pigeon Geophaps scripta foraging quietly on a station track.

Black-necked Stork Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus flying over the dam.

And one can hardly overlook the Pied Butcherbirds Cracticus nigrogularis which come to scrounge (or demand) scraps from the tables.

Insects were perhaps less evident than one might expect, due to the drought, but were not entirely absent.

Moth in our room.

Longicorn Beetle family Cerambycidae.

And this one actually was absent... It is an ex-caterpillar, consumed by a fungus.

And so to the sandstone gorge itself, accessed by small electrically-powered boats (it is very narrow in parts). One of its features is a population of Freshwater Crocodiles Crocodylus johnstonii, but it was too cold for them to be basking when we visited.

Cobbold Creek, lined with River Red Gums Eucalyptus camaldulensis just below the gorge.

Part of the gorge from above.

The next four pictures are a selection from inside the gorge.

Reflections of water ripples on the wall of the gorge.

Golden Orbweb Spider web inside the gorge.

And I hope that is enough to encourage you, next time you visit the gulf country, to detour and spend a couple of nights at the station. I truly don't think you'll be disappointed.

I am now back from Borneo but still working on my pictures; I certainly hope to be ready to offer you something from that fascinating part of the world by next week. 

BACK ON THURSDAY