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Have just spent a day at work, at a meeting for the planning of a project. Yep, back on the environmental stuff – I have 4 months work spread over the next year. That is, in theory it’s 4 months work, but in practice it could be more (although the pay won’t increase!). However, working for an environmental NGO is like that. You do what is necessary to do a good job — because it’s worthwhile and … well … don’t tell my boss, but it’s fun. If you want a 9 to 5 job, forget it. If you want challenge and a chance to see the most exciting rainforest on earth, then there’s nothing to beat it.

And in between, I squeeze in the writing. So I guess there will be more blogs from exotic places and pix of me doing copy edits on top of a rainforest tree with an orang utan or something else equally bizarre. Ok, so that’s a slight exaggeration.

One of the best things about this kind of work is my fieldwork mates. Interesting, long-term friends who share a passion, glimpses of the best places in the world — what more can anyone ask??

Watch this space.
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Some rather haphazard photos from Taman Negara (National Park) in Pahang, where we went when we left Royal Belum. We came down through the centre of the Peninsula from Jeli and Dabong to Lipis, then drove in to the Park.

We stopped for a moment in Dabong – not a good idea as it has roads no bigger than a footpath and only one of them goes anywhere – to the railway station.

The most striking thing about the area was the state of the nearby river. The logging and clearances up in the highlands (I assume) have turned the river into a brown flow of mud. So much for the government’s campaign on “Love our rivers”. Oh yeah? Now just who was the campaign aimed at, I wonder?

I guess the fishing in Dabong is now, well, up to mud.

The other nasty thing I saw in the town was the sight of three tattered Oriental Magpie Robins (Murai), missing tail feathers and looking thoroughly wretched, all sharing a tiny hanging cage hardly 30 cm across.

Are the owners being deliberately cruel? Or are they just so ignorant and stupid they can’t see the condition of these pathetic birds? And I’ll bet they feed them rice, too. There seems to be a universal belief here that all birds eat rice. After all humans do, right?

There was very nearly a nasty scene of one middle-aged lady rampaging down the footpath to rip the cage to pieces, but – alas – in the end I was too much of a coward.

Photo 1 is the Tembeling River.

Photo 7 I took from the boat while we shooting the rapids on the Tembeling on my way back from interviewing the delightful lady who runs Nusa Camp, which is upriver from the main Park entry point. A moment later the engine died when we hit a log. The boatman got us to the bank where he straightened out the propeller with a hammer…

Photos 2 and 3 show a Tualang tree on one of the trails. The base is huge – note the relative size of the two guys on my team – and the top emerges high above the canopy of the other trees. Can anyone tell me why Malaysia doesn’t make this magnificent species its national tree? It is even found in East Malaysia, where it goes by the name of Mengaris (I think that’s the right spelling). The scientific name, Koompassia excelsa, seems to be appropriately impressive-sounding.

The next photo is of a liana, just cos I thought it beautiful, and the next two show some of the boats that scurry across the confluence of the Tahan and Temebeling Rivers like water beetles, conveying people between the cheap accommodation and restaurants on one side of the river, and the Park on the other.

Alas, the project budget did not run to the many-starred hotel in the Park for us. We stayed instead in a place with a glorious view, shared bathrooms – and no hot water. Who cares? I love Taman Negara.

It’s late. More tomorrow.

Astonishing beauty…

A boat dwarfed by rainforest exuberance…

Our boatman, Along, who put up with us always wanting him to stop and turn off the engine so we could focus on the birds…and who found us our last hornbill species at the eleventh hour. Here we are at the beginning of our journey, near the Banding Island bridge on Lake Temengor, Perak.

No roads in Royal Belum – none. You travel by boat or not at all.

Flowering Bongor trees edged the lake like purple lace…

Sometimes we walked inside the forest…

Scenery…

The view from my tent.

Our camp on the upper reaches of the Perak River.

Oh, and did I mention that we saw 10 species of hornbill in a day and a half? All identified by sight, not just sound?

And you know what the most amazing thing about that is? That no one else goes there to see.

There are a number of guides who have permission to take in tourists – only one of them (Hj Silah) does ecotourism tours (the rest take in fishermen to the area). And we were only the third lot of bird watchers that Haji Silah had guided in the thirteen years of his operation. Now that is truly astonishing.

And did I mention that we saw nine species of raptor? Lesser Fish-Eagle, Osprey, Rufous-bellied Eagle, resident Oriental Honey-Buzzard, Crested Goshawk, Crested Serpent-Eagle, Changeable Hawk-Eagle, White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Blyth’s Hawk-Eagle – plus a couple we didn’t manage to identify.

So, does paradise have its snake? Yeah, always. there was the little question of permits. And those ants … more about that next time.

Contact: Silah bin Mohd Yusof : hjsilah at yahoo dot com

Remember – we wanted to find the Bornean Peacock-Pheasant.

Seems we went to the wrong place. The area where the last one anyone has ever seen in North Borneo was shot in 1996 (by the Sabah Museum) has the same name as the area around Imbak.

But there is another area with that name – seems we went to the wrong one. Next time.

At Imbak, though, we did hear a report about lots of Black Partridges, another very rarely seen rare bird… hmmm

Anyway, here are some more pix from Imbak:
Dennis and I birding in the mist early morning.
The last pix is me writing in camp at night.
The river views are behind where I was writing (remember, these buildings have no walls, which is fantastic. You feel you are living in the middle of the rainforest.)