I woke up at 08:00 the morning of October the 9th, 2018, after a weird night of sleep. I was tired after having spent a journey travelling from Yogyakarta to Ketambe but, the excitement and the situation made it kind of hard for me to sleep. It was my first time sleeping so close to a jungle. There was the sound of the river flowing but also some weirder ones coming from animals. Sleeping inside a mosquito net was also a very peculiar experience. Sleep apart, as I came out of the room, I felt ready for my 2D1N trek in the jungle of Ketambe.
After having breakfast (cooked and paid at Leuser Guesthouse) and arranging a few last stuff, we left the guesthouse and started to walk into the jungle. It was around 09:00 and I was walking next to my guide: Sukarno. A brown-looking river welcomed us and, after a couple of minutes walking, it felt like we were already deep inside the jungle.
Day 1 in the jungle of Ketambe
We had been walking just for 5 minutes when my guide told me to stop. He pointed out to the top of a tree and made me a sign to look in that direction. In the beginning I didn’t see anything but, after a little bit, I started to appreciate a black shape. It was a black gibbon. He was far away from us so I couldn’t take a proper picture. But, according to Sukarno, the further away the better. Apparently they are kind of dangerous and also hard to spot. Our luck level was up already 🙂
After the first glimpse of a monkey and the first feelings of what being in a jungle was like, we walked outside of the jungle and back to the main road. So, just to give you an idea, the further you drive into the village of Ketambe, the closer you are to the jungle. At some point, you are on the main road surrounded by jungle. So, when you are at the edge of the jungle, you can come it or out of it easily. When you are deep inside the jungle of Ketambe, the story is slightly different. We didn’t stay long on the main road. We walked for a few minutes and, right away, we made it back into the jungle. This time though we wouldn’t be coming out of it as early…
My first-ever encounter with an orangutan
We had just walked a few steps in the jungle when, once again, Sukarno made me a sign to stop. I started to hear a noise. My heart was beating kind of hard but the sound was a different one. I looked up and saw a big shape. It wasn’t black but reddish and it was way clearer than the black gibbon. I was seeing the first orangutan of my life.
I couldn’t believe it. After travelling all the way from Yogyakarta to Ketambe for that moment, it was really happening. I stared at him and he looked at me in the eye. It was crazy. It was magical. He kept on swaying and started to get closer and closer to me. At some point he started to throw pieces of wood and fruits leftovers. While he was doing that, he kept staring at me, just like a human being. He was so close to me that I thought he was going to get me. I started to walk away and, in the end, I made it alive lol.
I don’t consider myself as an easily scared person. But, right there, with the heat, the humidity, the excitement of the situation, the way he was staring at me and the closer and closer he was getting… When I went back to where Sukarno was and I explained him how I felt he laughed at me. He told me they are not dangerous and, if you keep the distances, nothing bad should happen. It was an speechless encounter and I will remember it forever 🙂
About orangutans
The name “orangutan” is derived from the Malay and Indonesian words “orang” (person) and “utan” (forest). The “people of the forest” are one of the most intelligent non-human primates. The main predators of orangutans are tigers, leopards, wild dogs and crocodiles. The absence of tigers in Borneo may explain why orangutans are found more often on the ground (compared to the ones in Sumatra).
Orangutans are the most arboreal of the great apes, spending nearly all their time in the trees. They use the trees as a source of food but also as a house, building specialized nests both for day and night use. Compared to other great apes, they live a more solitary lifestyle. That doesn’t mean you can’t see couples or small groups of orangutans (more on this later). They are kind of noisy, specially when they are eating. So, when you hear their noises, it is easy to spot them. They have a favourite food in the jungle of Ketambe. It is a fruit whose shell they open and then they eat the meat inside. It looks like this:
Daintree National Park vs Ketambe’s jungle
After the excitement and fear of my first-ever encounter with an orangutan, we kept walking, getting deeper and deeper inside the jungle of Ketambe. It was pretty hot and humid. I was sweating all the time, regardless of whether we were moving or idle. Literally speaking it wasn’t my first time in a jungle. A little over a month ago I had made it with some friends to the Daintree National Park (the oldest rainforest in the world), back in Australia.
That being said, the way I was feeling in the jungle of Ketambe was different. The vegetation was different, being ticker the one of Ketambe. The same goes for the fauna. At Daintree we could run into cassowaries, crocodiles, lizards, spiders and other animals. During our 2D1N trek in the jungle of Ketambe we could run into different types of monkeys (black gibbons, orangutans, Thomas leafs, etc.), ants, frogs, leeches, etc. That was in that particular area. Sukarno told me that, in other longer treks they did, they could ran into animals as interesting as tigers, cobras, pythons, tarantulas and elephants. So, there were more than a few differences between the jungle of Daintree and the one of Ketambe. Which one would you like to visit? 😉
Orangutans all around the jungle of Ketambe!
We hadn’t been walking for long when, once again, Sukarno made me a subtle sign to stop. I could hear some noises. It was like the sound of something breaking and dropping. I looked up and, again, I couldn’t believe my eyes. This time it wasn’t “just” an orangutan, but a mom with her baby! They were really cute! We stayed there, staring at them for as long as they allowed us. After a while, they started swaying on the lianas and got out of sight. It was crazy. I had been in the jungle of Ketambe for around an hour and I had already seen 3 orangutans! Do you want to know what a swaying orangutan look like? 😉
Sukarno (my guide) whose name shared with the first president of Indonesia, was very kind and knowledgeable. His English wasn’t the best and, due to that, we couldn’t speak much. But he made up for his lack of English with his way of being. He was relentless, always try to spot something so I could enjoy. He didn’t have a map or a GPS, but he didn’t need them, he knew exactly where he was all the time. By just checking out a tree, a path or a brook, he knew where we were and where to go next. He looked like this:
Do you believe in karma? The philosophy of karma is associated with the idea of rebirth in many school of Indian religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism) as well as Taoism. It refers to the spiritual principle of cause and effect where, the intent and actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect). We could say I believe in karma halfway. Or, better said, I’d like to believe in it. I like to think that positive actions have positive reactions. But, at the same time, sometimes it is very hard to stand up for karma. How could karma explain all the people who died a couple of weeks ago due to a tsunami in Célebes? I would say most of those people were doing good karma and yet…
Anyway, why am I talking about karma now? Well, because it is one way I could use to explain why, 30 minutes after having seen the mom with her baby, we saw another mom with her baby! It was my second mom-baby couple and my 5th orangutan of the day. It was unbelievable! That time though, other than seeing those amazing apes, we also saw some human primates. We met a guide and 3 girls from Belgium and Germany. They were the first people we met in the jungle and, just like us, they were trying to spot some orangutans 🙂
Lunch and nap by the river in the jungle of Ketambe
We had already seen five orangutans, can you believe it? We couldn’t. Sukarno told me he had never seen so many in such a short period of time. I told him it was thanks to my good karma 😉. We started to walk to what it would be our campsite, where we would be having lunch but also dinner and breakfast the next day. It was also the place to have some rest and spend the night. On the way there… Boom! Two more orangutans! This time they were further away so I couldn’t distinguish if they were a mom with her baby, a couple or two individuals. Like always, we spot them thanks to the fruits’ leftovers and to the sounds they were making, as they were eating and dropping the fruits.
We arrived at the campsite and the location was just amazing. We were set by a beautiful river, with some rocks and plenty of vegetation. The son of the owner, Habibi, was already there waiting for us. He was the porter and the cook and, even if he was kind of young, he was very mature for his age. He knew very well what he was doing. The food was amazing! A little after lunch we went to the river to take a swim and we met two girls, one from Switzerland and one from France. Their campsite was a little further away but they had come here to enjoy the river. When I told them I had already seen 7 orangutans they couldn’t believe it. But I couldn’t believe it either!
I spoke with them for a while. They were doing a 3D2N trek. It was also their first time in the jungle and they were just as amazed as I was. They hadn’t seen as many orangutans but they were pretty impressed by the ones they saw. After a while we said goodbye and I went to my tent to take a well deserved nap. I spent most of it dreaming of orangutans 🙂
More orangutans, human beings and… Thomas leafs!
I felt very good after the nap, ready for more. We left the campsite and went back to where the action was taking place. This time we took a different path, in order to make it to an area we hadn’t been before. After a little while of walking, we started to hear the magical sound once again. We kept on walking until we made it to an area whose soil looked like this:
Do you recognize them? Bingo! The orangutans’ favourite fruit. I couldn’t believe how lucky we were. We had just found two more orangutans! Some of you might be thinking I’m making the whole thing up, but I swear I’m not. Sukarno told me he hadn’t met as many orangutans in the same day. Thus, it really was a milestone and it was happening right then and there. We started to joke about our good karma 🙂 This time there were two adults. One of them looked like this, as he was eating:
The spot where we had found those two orangutans was by a huge tree. We were not the only ones there. There was also a couple of human beings and the four of us were enjoying the show in silence. After the orangutans left, we exchanged some words. We all were pretty amazed by the power of mother nature yet once again. If you do the math, so far we had met 8 human beings and 9 orangutans. Crazy, isn’t?
If you go to other places like Borneo, you can see more, but they won’t be in real wildness, since most of them are there rehabilitating. From what I read, Bukit Lawang is something in between Borneo and Ketambe. It can be that you make it to Ketambe and you don’t see a single orangutan, it all depends on your “luck”, “karma” or whatever you want to name. I guess it also depends on your guide, and mine was very good 😉
We left the giant tree and kept on walking. The first day of our 2D1N trek in the jungle of Ketambe would be soon coming to an end. But what a day it was being! The cherry on the cake came a little after we had left the tree. This time, there was pretty much no sound or, at least, it was way softer than the one caused by orangutans. Sukarno told me to check the top of a tree and it was there when I saw, for the first time of my life, the beautiful and cool Thomas leaf monkey. It looked like this:
After further checking we realised there were 5 in total! One of them was a pretty cute baby. Their colour (black and white) is beautiful and they have a very long tail. They are endemic of Northern Sumatra and they love eating leaves, as its name implies. Like the orangutans, they are in risk of extinction due to the destruction of their habitat. If we don’t take care of them they could soon become extinct. Please, let’s enjoy them but let them live in peace!
I said that was the cherry on the cake but… the cherry got bigger. As we were awing to the beauty of mother nature, two orangutans came very close to the Thomas leaf! Again, a mom and her baby. What a time to be alive! We stayed there, idle, smiling, awing, enjoying. It was a magical feeling, being there, in the middle of the jungle, seeing such beautiful creatures.
A night in the jungle of Ketambe
Being in the jungle idle is a peculiar feeling. You feel the heat and the humidity. You can hear plenty of weird noises and, during most of the time, you see nothing but vegetation. That, however, can change very fast. I started to feel something on my leg and, when I realised, there was a leech making its way through my anti-leech sock, trying to suck my blood! Sukarno helped me out and, fortunately, everything went alright.
We also saw huge ants, butterflies and mushrooms. Yes, everything in the jungle is huge!
Yes, the above picture depicts a giant mushroom with some funny guests. You don’t believe that’s a mushroom? Let me show you another pic:
Yes, the jungle is both dangerous and beautiful, like life itself sometimes 😉 After an incredible journey we walked back to the campsite, where Habibi was waiting for us. I went for a swim and got ready for dinner. It was delicious and it looked like this:
He brought most of the stuff with him and cooked most of them on the spot. I loved it all. The darkness started to fall over us and we kind of talk for a while, as we enjoyed the moment and the landscape. They had built a tent and used some palm trees as carpets. It was really cool. I put my swimsuit inside a bag and used it as a pillow. The first day of my 2D1N trek in the jungle of Ketambe had been incredible. I had seen a black gibbon, 11 orangutans and 5 Thomas leaf. Can you believe it? What a day that was. With all that joy in my mind I got ready for my first-ever night sleeping in the jungle 🙂
Day 2 in the jungle of Ketambe
We survived a stormy night
I didn’t sleep much. I was kind of dreaming there was a storm and it was pouring. When I woke up, I realised it hadn’t been a dream. It was pouring the whole night! I don’t really know how but we made it alive. The tent didn’t look very resistant but we didn’t get a single drop inside. I guess Sukarno and Habibi knew what they were doing 🙂
I woke up the morning of October the 10th, 2018, with a lot of pain on my neck. It hadn’t been the best night of my life but, at least, I didn’t get many mosquito bites. October the 10th… It was exactly a year since I left Barcelona. Who would have told me that a year later I would be sleeping in the jungle and seeing orangutans? When I decided to leave my comfort zone and travel to the other corner of the world, I couldn’t even dream with such a year. It wasn’t like I didn’t have a single problem during the whole year, but I managed to stay positive, embrace changes and keep moving forward.
I spent 11 amazing months in Australia and I was about to start my 4th week in Indonesia. Both during my time in Australia and Indonesia I met incredible people. I enjoyed beautiful landscapes and experiences. And, none of this would have been possible if, one day, I hadn’t decided to leave everything behind and jump into the unknown. Cheers to that!
After saying “selamat pagi” to Sukarno and Habibi I went to the river to take a shower. I met one of the girls I had met the day before. She was just 18 and was born in Germany. She told me that in some areas of Germany there was some sort of tradition where, after turning 18, grandparents gave some savings to their grandchildren. In her case, she had got kind of a lot of money and, because she didn’t know what to do after high school, she decided to travel. Not bad huh? I think travelling is a good way to help making up your mind 🙂
Back to the action in the jungle of Ketambe
We shared our stories while having breakfast and by 09:30 I went back to the jungle with Sukarno. We were walking for a while and then kind of stopped by a huge fallen tree to have a break.
I was standing and I felt something on my leg. Another leech was trying to make its way through my anti-leech sock! That’s the jungle right there. Heat, humidity, peace, fear, beauty, danger… Leeches, mosquitos, huge ants and mushrooms, monkeys… Welcome back to the jungle, the cycle of life!
We had been walking for a while when we heard the unmistakable (by now) sound the orangutans make when they eat. We walked a little further and found a mum with her baby on the top of a tree. They are so cute and amazing! The way they sway through the lianas is really graceful, like if they were flying! But that wasn’t all. Right after they left, we met two adults! They were eating and one of them looked like this:
We had seen 11 orangutans during the first day of my 2D1N trek in the jungle of Ketambe and the second day couldn’t have started better. Within a couple of hours we had seen 4 more. That made a total of 15 in 2 days! Crazy, isn’t? 🙂 To celebrate that milestone I did what I knew best: spinning around.
So long Ketambe jungle!
We went back to the campsite to have lunch and lay down for a bit. I was kind of tired. Trekking in the jungle is kind of exhausting :). Thanks to Habibi we had yet another amazing lunch and thanks to mother nature we enjoyed yet another spectacular landscape. I took a short nap and, after getting my backpack, we started the way back to Leuser Guesthouse.
It took us a while to “leave” the jungle. Some parts were steep and slippery, which just reminded me to tell you that, if you can, avoid going to the jungle with running shoes (just as I did lol). Instead, bring some proper trekking shoes, something which kind of grips to the slippery soil. You will thank me later 😉
As we were about to make it to the main road, some “friends” came to say goodbye. The orangutans are amazing and they were the main reason why I went on a 2D1N trek in the jungle of Ketambe. But I wasn’t taking into account the Thomas leaf monkeys, the cutest monkeys I’ve ever seen 🙂
Eventually we made it back to the guesthouse in one piece. On the one hand it looked like I had been in the jungle for a few hours. On the other hand though, it seemed I had been there for months. Being in the jungle was a once in a lifetime experience where you have it all: peace, danger and beauty. Seeing creatures as incredible as the orangutans or the Thomas leaf made me think how lucky we are to be alive. How lucky we are to have been born in such a priceless place. That being said, it seems like the fact that we are alive is the worst thing that can happen to planet Earth. I hope we don’t realize too late and we learn to appreciate what we have, which, unfortunately, won’t last forever.
