Bukit Sarang Visit for Herpetofauna - DAY 1

The weather was very good, the sun was out from early morning and all our gears are packed in two 4x4 cars getting ready to move to Ulu Kakus for the trip to Bukit Sarang. Three of us are ready for two night trip to Bukit Sarang to do some photography on Herpetofauna and other interesting things that may come to our lense.

After almost three hours drive we reached Rh Ado, a Punan community in Ulu Kakus. It was a good bumpy ride as the road was pretty much dry and dusty. 

We settled our gears and rations on to two small long wooden boats prepared by our local boatman. Things are packed and covered with canvas, getting ready for any rain that might fall during the two hours boat ride up to Bukit Sarang. 

As we move on the boat it was very hot until we have reached under the tree canopy at Sungai Mayeng, a tributary that will lead us to Bukit Sarang. 

It is here where the birds are easily seen and heard flying across the dark shaded stream when our boat passed by. Kingfishers, flycatchers, lots of bulbul species and Fish Eagle can be seen easily accompanied by the sounds of male and female Paradise flycatchers. (No photo of the birds, keeping my camera in a save place during the boatride!)

Our first glimpse of the wildlife here was a dead baby crocodile on a fisherman’s net. Been left here for few days because the guy who owns the net was probably scared of the mother croc.

Only halfway of the journey I can see the dark clouds on top of us, as expected. Soon the rain began to hit us and we are almost one hour more to our destination. Everything was wet, I manage to put on my raincoat and the boat was filled with water instantly. We arrived at Bukit Sarang field station at around 3.30 pm with to my surprise my laptop was half submerged with water in the boat. 

Quickly open it up and take off the battery. Hoping that it will work after I dried it up later. I hope so!

Took our late lunch and turn on our generator set. While I was drying my laptop using the food dehydrator in the field station, we anxiously wait for the sun to set down. Hoping to find interesting frogs and other creatures that might lurks around in the dark environment of Bukit Sarang at night time and not to forget my very wet laptop to work!

Before we head out after another early meal for the night, I turned on my laptop and….it works!

Lucky…

I was so worried that I might not have any storage for my photos during the whole trip. All of us are gearing up for the first night walk at Bukit Sarang. Keeping extra batteries for our lights and flash in case it would be a long night if there are many things to be photographed.

The cave at Bukit Sarang is just 20 meters from the field station and I was already taking photos of frogs along the way to the cave from the station. Some Limnonectes spp and Rana glandulosa can be seen perching along the banks of Sungai Sarang next to the field station.

 

 

As we reached the cave, the huntsman spider is always the first to greet me. 

Not long after that I saw this big gecko on the cave wall. I was kneeling and at an awkward angle trying to photograph the Gecko with my big homemade diffuser.

Here are some more shots of things that I took that night.

It was very fun trying to look for this rhacoporus appendiculatus by listening to their sound, I mostly found them right next to me on leaves and branches.

 We walked for two hours and realized that we have drained our torch light batteries to nothing. We have to rush back before all of us lose the only light that we have. 

The shot of this Mock Viper was the last shot I took for the walk that night.

It was around 12 am when we reached back to our comfortable station. 

Downloaded all the photos and quickly jump to the bed, getting ready for tomorrow.

To be continued...