Bilit Adventure Lodge

An eco-tour up the Kinabatangan River in Borneo had become a bucket item for us on this trip. It was finally here!

We walked up to our pickup point at Wisma Ku, about 6 blocks from our hotel. We drove a bit and stopped for lunch at the Sepilok Jungle Resort, a luxury spot, not too deep in the rain forest.

We then climbed back into the van and proceeded to drive two hours over some rough roads. Robert, our guide, told us there would be potholes. He didn’t mention that the potholes themselves had potholes. It was a rough drive, primarily through palm oil plantations. Eventually we made it to the village of Bilit, where we boarded a boat that took us to the lodge.

There had been unusually heavy rains in January and February, and the area still had vestiges of the flooding.

After going to our rooms, we had afternoon tea, then went out on a boat in search of wildlife.

Perhaps the highpoint of this trip was seeing pygmy elephants in the wild. We came upon a troop of 10-15 of the beasts, including a baby. I got some pics, but Robert got some videos.

After dinner, I put on a pair of “wellies” and went on the nighttime walk. As I mentioned, there was still residual flooding, and the mud and water were deep. Nonetheless, we saw some things.

It was so dismal with the mud and flood, that they cancelled future walks, day and night, so as not to ruin the jungle.

The next morning we took off on a 6:00 a.m. river cruise. It proved to be very productive. We saw 4 tant of the eight varieties of hornbill, although we only saw the Rhinoceros Hornbill flying, no picture.

We had a bunch of time, what with the walk being cancelled. Did some batiks. Went on another river cruise after afternoon tea. We rushed downstream. Apparently, the elephants we’d seen walking toward a river the day before were now at the river. We turned into the river, and before long we saw over a dozen other boats. I was told that in the summer high season, there might be as many as 50 boats. Ugh!

It was pretty great! When it was time for a baby to cross, mom and another female would go on either side to make sure it was safe.

We went on and saw a few more things including beautiful skies. We also had a full moon.

The next morning we took off after breakfast and headed back to Sandakan.

This was a great experience. I was a bit surprised that we didn’t see more animals, and how far away many of them were. On the other hand, we could look forward to going to the Sepilok animal rehabilitation centers in another few days.