🇮🇩🦧 The wet season was just on the cusp of arriving in the jungle of Gunung Leuser National Park, and we could feel the rain closing in on us. We set off in the dense and lush rainforest, following our cheerful guides Yusup and Abdul Kohar. Soon, they spotted an Orangutan on a parallel ridge, the telltale movement of branches and flash of orange visible from hundreds of metres away. Pushing through the undergrowth, and hauling on vines, roots and creepers brought us to the orangutan, a mature male with magnificent cheek plates characteristic of only the dominant males. We watched him effortlessly swing down to within ten or so metres of us, picking and eating fruit as he went, curiously eyeing us off. Then the rain started to come down in huge drowning drops. Orangutans, like most humans, prefer to avoid a soaking where possible; so we watched as this guy picked branches of big leaves then arranged them over his head like an umbrella. We left him waiting for the rain to cease as his thick burnt-orange coat became wetter and wetter.
He would have been waiting a while, as the relentless downpour continued for the next four hours! In the warm jungle atmosphere, the rain was like a refreshing shower, soaking us completely, shoes full of water as we squelched around the steep jungle tracks with big smiles. Rivulets ran down the tracks, contributing to the deep rumble of the rainforest under rain. There’s something just so satisfying about being out in the weather just copping it, although I’m not sure many of the other tourists we passed would agree…
The rest of the day included sightings of another male orangutan, thomas leaf monkeys, pig tailed macaques, and a very soaked great argus – a peacock-like bird.
The orangutans we saw on day one are semi-wild, remnants and descendants of individuals rehomed here over the decades at a centre that operated until the early 2000s. The need for rehoming arose primarily due to the massive scale of jungle habitat destruction with the expansion of palm oil plantations in Sumatra, as well as recovery from the pet trade. In many cases mother orangutans were/are shot with young babies then taken to be sold as pets.
The Gunung Leuser National Park is the last bastion of connected and intact jungle habitats in northern sumatra, supporting orangutans, the last populations of sumatran tigers and rhinoceros, elephants, sun bears, and many other critically endangered or endangered species. The national park is a world heritage sight covering almost 8,000 square kilometres, around the size of the Melbourne metropolitan area.
Our five day trek took us beyond the population of semi-wild orangutans and into slightly more remote areas of the jungle. Five days also gave us enough time to adapt to the jungle sounds and become more adept at spotting telltale signs of primates, identifying animal calls or spotting birds. We also got quite used to the delicious and diverse food served up by our jungle cooks/guides/porters, dining on fresh pineapple and watermelon at every stop, with candlelight vegetarian banquets each evening. A stark contrast to our usual frugal and lightweight hiking meals. But we enjoyed these jungle luxuries, and especially sharing meals with our guides, learning more about their lives and dedication to the jungle.
Our guides had received word of elephants in the vicinity of our last camp, apparently a very very rare occurrence as the herds of elephants make long migratory loops in the park. It\’s hard to imagine elephants making their way through these steep valleys with their dense forest, but we headed further upriver to see for ourselves. The Bohorok river was pumping after the previous night’s downpour, threatening to carry us away as we made our way across and upriver. With no paths in this part of the jungle, battling upriver is the only way. After a couple of hours and shoes and socks full of river gravel, we spotted traces of elephants. Smashed bamboo, a trail of destruction in the forest, and monstrous footprints. With a sense of anticipation and awe we followed these signs through the jungle and across the river several more times, our guides Ajar and Yusup slashing away with their machetes in front of us. We were perhaps a day late for the elephants but we did find many coconut sized droppings, perfect mulch for a veggie garden. It was a magical and exciting feeling to be on the trace of such wild, wise and powerful creatures. A comfort to know that they’re still here, traipsing the same ground their ancestors have for thousands of years.
All the while during our jungle odyssey we felt a divergence between the feelings inspired by the jungle and the reality of the threats facing this environment today. Such a wild untouched and inhospitable rainforest inspires a feeling of permanence; why shouldn’t an ecosystem that’s survived in this state for millennia not continue to do so? Yet our knowledge and the reality of the human activity just a few km away at the border of the park, underline the myriad of unprecedented threats to this jungle ecosystem. Lax governance and almost nonexistent enforcement of environmental regulations see remaining jungle habitat continue to be destroyed in favour of palm oil plantations (with much of the palm oil used to produce biofuels), this is occurring even in the national park. The illegal animal trade remains very active, most notably for ingredients in Chinese medicine, not to mention the threats of pollution and climate change. In short, it was a privilege to be able to experience this environment as it still stands, and we’ll do our best to turn the experience into further motivation to temper the negative impacts of insatiable human activity.
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