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Crazy Daze in Kalimantan

We picked the orangutans up from the Care Care/Clinic. They rode in the back of a ute, in a big green cage. The ute sped off in a cloud of dust. The orangutans clinging to the bars, wind in their hair, looks of confusion on their little faces. We sped off in a car after them.

About 40 minutes past small wooden villages and fresh green fields we reached a river, where a long boat was waiting. Young boys crowded around on bicycles. Young girls giggled beneath their white headscarves. Watching as the orangutans were lowered into the boat. Clouds of smoke billowed up into the sky, the distant horizon black and hazy. Newly cut forests freshly burnt to make way for much needed farmland.

We followed behind the longboat in speed boats. The sky thick with black smoke, ash falling from the heavens. Naked boys waved from the rivers edge. Topless old ladies bathing.

The small channel opened up into a huge river, the Lamandau. Saw mills covered the banks on both sides. Log trains running into the distant horizon. Thousands of trees felled and waiting for export. In the distance the charred remains of a forest now gone. Smoking, barren landscape. Barges piled sky high with timber.

We followed the river downstream, passing stilt villages, with PDI flags blowing in the wind. The proud red bull of democracy smiling down on the carnage of a burnt out forest, a thriving timber industry.

We turned off the Lamandau and into the Sungai Kotawaringan, the Kotawaringan River. A clean black water river, like the Lamandau once was. Young women smiled and waved from their fields. Their fields are still smoking, freshly cut and burned. Men with chainsaws in the distance clearing the way for the future. The tree line barely visible.

Modest huts line the rivers edge. Fishing baskets drying in the sun. Fresh rice fields luminescent in the afternoon sun. Friendly faces. Frantic waving. The people oblivious to the damage theyve caused. Oblivious to the carnage. Hello mister...

A log train approaches. It covers the width of the small river. Twisting and snaking its way downstream. We sit perched on the rivers edge waiting for it to pass. Two young boys, not more than 14 years old, skip along top the floating logs pushing and pulling, leading the train slowly down the river. There are 227 logs in total, about 80 magnificant old growth trees gone forever.

The tide is low and the rain has been a long time coming. The river becomes impassable. We turn around and make our way back to the Lamandau, where we head up stream and turn off into another small river, the Kotawaringan Lama. This is where the OFI release sites are, and this is the destination of our two orangutan friends still gripping on tightly to the front of their cage watching the chaos around them.

The mouth of the river is heavily guarded with police, forestry officers and Orangutan Foundation assistants. It is quickly apparent that the guard post is a success as we snake and wind our way up stream past a green and gnarly forest. Not a soul in sight. As is should be. The area is an old logging concession so the trees don't loom up into the distant sky. They a young and small. But they are everywhere, and they are full of life.

We reach the first release site, Camp Siswoyo, where Dono and his friend will be released and spend the rest of their days free to roam their forest home. As they were meant to. The other speed boats are docked on the crowded jetty. We meet up again with Birute. She has confiscated a baby proboscis monkey along the way. It was spotted in one of the stilt villages further down the Lamandau River. The proboscis is no more than six weeks old. She clings to Birute's side, squealing with fright, her little nose twitching about her face. Birute passes me the proboscis, she clings on for dear life, sniffing at my clothes. She smells beautiful, she's soft and fragile. She's frightened.

The rain begins to fall. The orangutans are lifted from the longboat and onto a cart, which is pushed slowly down the jetty towards camp. A short way into the forest a small ceremony is performed and the cage opened. The orangutans waste no time in climbing free. Scrambling straight into some nearby trees, and off they go into the forest. No looking back.

Late afternoon rushes in. There are another two camps to visit, so off we go. I regretfully leave the proboscis behind for somebody else to look after.

The speed boats putt slowly up river. At the second camp, Camp Ketiga, the river becomes impassable for the speed boats. The river is too low. We hop into three large canoes and continue silently upstream. The forest canopy closes in above us as the river narrows, the full moon shining through the trees. Steam rising up off the water, surrounding us. Monkeys nest above us in the tree tops, their long tails silhouetted by the moonlit sky. The rustle of leaves, the subtle splash of the oars.

It's the Borneo that people dream about.

by Elke Buhrich in Kalimantan

Elke is working to protect and preserve the orangutang of Kalimantan