Bukit Sapat Hawung - Expedition in to the heart of borneo - English &

This year we are joined by old friends and new friends. We just visited pak Sarif Udin's house, because last year he lead the porters. We hope he will join again to help with coordination. We're about to leave the village of Kelasin with a large team and lots of logistics. We will be travelling up the Tampahu River and it is bound to be very challenging. Now we have already reached 450 meters above sea level. This leech is common to this area. There will be many more on the way to the peak. Our beds are made of rice bags. For our safety we use mosquito nets. Most importantly, the drinks are delishious and cheap and we place them right here - that's cool, yeah. Today is the first day of exploration of flora and fauna. We will work our way up to 1000 meters above sea level. We will see the changes in vegetation on four different levels of altitude. At the top level we expect to find a forest covered in moss. These herbs are called Raja Mandak and Colok Adam. The one is for chest pains and the other for joint pains. They are medicinal, yup. This yellow root is a medicinal plant used for typhus and malaria. This right here. Bitter!Very bitter! We are currently at 691 meters above sea level. We have found the nest of a rodent, which signifies a healthy eco system. The environment provides the right nutrition for them. Comparing the first expedition we with the current one, we haven't found many differences in the flora and fauna. Last time we made it to 1000 meters. This time we planned to reach 1400 meters above sea level, but it is not possible. Every day we eat noodles and rice. Sometimes we add fish from the river... and salted fish. Now we are in the valley of the Tambahu River in the conservation area of Sapat Hawung. This morning we will create an inventory of orangutan food. This is Umbut Handiung, which orangutans like to eat. They like to eat the sweat middle part. Let's give it a try. The taste is not bad. This is a type of Tarantang tree. The orangutan likes to eat the youngest leaf. This is the wild mangosteen tree which produces fruit for otangutans. Very sweet! Just like normal mangosteen. We use this tape measure to identify the amount of orangutan food found along one kilomter. I am so happy to see a big tree like this. They still exist in the conservation area of Sapat Hawung. It's very rare to find giant trees like this in Kalimantan. Only in Sapat Hawung! We,Team Expedisi Sapat Hawung II, are very happy, because our mission went to plan and we reached our goals as hoped for. We saw and studied the ecological, biological and evolutionary processes of the different altitudes. So much of the Sapat Hawung conservation area calls for further expeditions. Our exploration efforts simply must continue.