Borneo Part Three: Kinabatangan River

Kinabatangan River Exploring

June 2018

After a 2 1/2 hour boat ride from the coast, we arrived at Sukau Rainforest Lodge, which has been named "One of the World's Top 50 Jungle Lodges" by National Geographic Adventure.  The resort is  set on the banks of one of Borneo's most important waterways, the Kinabatangan River, which would be our highway to wildlife viewing for the next three days with our guide Dixon.

Our first night at Sukau wearing our sarongs to dinner.

6:00 am and ready to head out on the river with Dixon!

At Sukau, we began each day at 5:30 am to walk down to the boat dock to meet our guide and head out on the river for about 3 hours looking for wildlife and birds.  Wow! what a wonderland of nature the Kinabatangan and its tributary rivers offer.  In our first day we saw a heard of Pygmy Elephants on shore and crossing the river.  We were lucky and saw this herd on each of our three days at Sukau.

Part of the herd seen from our boat.

A mother an two babies swimming across the river.

Getting out after a long swim.

Peaceful morning view of one of many side rivers.

In addition to elephants, the birdwatching was amazing thanks to our guide spotting birds along the way.  We also saw Proboscis monkey, Hornbills, crocodiles, snakes and much more. After the morning boat tour, we returned to the lodge for a big breakfast and then we relaxed during the heat of the day at the pool or napping in our room.  Late in the day around 4 pm, we went out with Dixon for another boat tour and returned for dinner around 7 pm.  Then we finished the day with a night boat tour where our guide would use a spotlight to catch birds and animals sitting in the trees along the river.  The night tours were the best and be even got to see a rare Bear Cat one night and a python snake.

Broad Bill Kingfisher

Giant Squirrel 

Red Leaf Monkey

Proboscis mother with baby.

Pied Hornbill, one of five Hornbills species in Borneo.

Pig Tailed Macaque with baby.

As you can see from these photos, our all too short three days at Sukau were wonderful.  These are just a few of hundreds of wildlife photos I took.  The Resort staff, the food and the guides were great, this is the place to go to see wildlife along the Kinabatangan River in Borneo!