The last week has totally flown by. We began our new Youth Ranger Programme, which encourages children to protect the jungle, more English classes and another days for girls session, on top of all our sport classes.
Youth Ranger has been a big hit here, with one of my personal highlights being hearing all the children’s animal noise impressions from the office. I also especially enjoyed teaching the topic of food this week, although some of my classes are proving that I need to up my lesson planning game, as they are getting through my activities faster and faster each week!
This week, we held our first pub quiz in a different location to our usual reliable home Indah. While at first we got off to a quiet start, after about an hour we managed to round up two lively teams who battled over conservation, history, music and Indonesian questions. It was nice to spend some time in a different part of town for once, although unsurprisingly we sang all the same songs as we always do at Indah! I hope by the time I leave Bukit Lawang I’ve managed to teach them at least one new song!
On Friday night, after a quick shower in the river, it was time to pack for the jungle! None of us really knew what we needed, but we did our best to assemble what we thought would be useful in waterproof bags. We also added our toy monkeys onto our backpacks, so even if we didn’t find any monkeys, we would be sure to have some in our photos! For once we went to bed at a reasonable time and the next morning we were up and ready to go.
Our guides picked us up in a bershak (tuk-tuk) at 9am. The 5 of us and our bags (and monkeys) squeezed into the vehicle and we were off! We stopped briefly in town to pick up some food, then set off to the edge of the Jungle. I’ve made the walk up to the gate many times before, but it was so exciting to finally head through it and collect our passes off the rangers! These are effectively paper licences which make it legal for you to enter the jungle. They also dissolve very quickly in your pocket when you sweat.
Almost immediately after entering the jungle, we came across a Mum and baby orangutan. A rather exciting chase ensued as we became caught between the two of them – every time we ran one way one would follow. It’s not easy to run in the jungle and we were relieved when we eventually made it away from the pair! After this incident, one of our guides decided to inform us that they were most likely trying to attack our toy monkeys! Toy monkeys went quickly into bags after this, but I feel it could have been mentioned before we entered the jungle!
After a few more Orangutuan sightings in the distance and an explanation of various types of trees, parasites, giant aunts and roots by our guide, we began a steep climb into the jungle. Our guides hadn’t been into the Jungle in about 6 months themselves, and yet they knew the route perfectly, pushing through undergrowth with no map of compass and yet heading exactly where they wanted. Their knowledge really is incredible – they know which plants are medicine, what animal made which prints, which trees the illegal loggers get the most money for and which insects are poisonous.
The guides also have named a large amount of the Orangutans in the Jungle. This in itself is indicative of the rather complex relationship between humanity and nature here in Bukit Lawang. Jungle Trekking is itself, a massively complicated moral issue – is it right to barge into such a unique habitat, potentially damaging it? Is it right that many of the guides smoke in the jungle and feed the orangutans so that tourists can take photos of them, potentially passing on deadly diseases while simultaneously encouraging an unnatural dependence? No. BUT, while the jungle makes local people money, the jungle will survive the onslaught of palm oil plantations. The moment that Jungle Trekking Tourism ends, the Lueser Eco-System will become a plantation and so this Eco-Tourism needs to continue for the jungle to survive.
About half way through the first day of our trek we were alerted that we were approaching ‘Mina’, a notoriously aggressive Orangutan. Our guide climbed (literally – jungle climbing might be a more accurate description than trekking) up ahead of us, shouting back to us when it was safe to follow him. I was very grateful not to have to run back down a sheer cliff edge. But when we finally reached Mina, our guide placated her using fruit.
I won’t name our guide here, since he is a close friend of ours who I deeply respect and I greatly appreciate being kept safe, as Mina has been known to bite. But this kind of feeding, was more than just allowing us to pass by safely, he continued to feed her as other tourists took photos of her. This is the crux of the problem here in Bukit Lawang. People want a photo of an orangutan and they don’t care at what cost that comes to the animal itself. We know that tourists have even complained to their guides that their trek has not been worthwhile if they don’t get that sacred orangutan picture. So the guides, who need happy tourists to make a living, continue to feed and potentially harm the very animals that Eco-tourism relies on. It’s a complex issue, but one that could be somewhat resolved if we Westerners come off our phones for a few moments and accept that seeing is more important than capturing a close up photo.
After this incident, we were hasty in passing Orangutans, which seemed to surprise our guides, but we were there to enjoy the jungle, not to make sure we got that perfect Instagram. After climbing ‘brother mountain’, we began a vertical climb up ‘papa mountain’. The game of ‘will this root support my weight’ is very exciting at a great height! The view from the top was completely breathtaking. It is mind blowing to think how much of the earths surface once looked like this.
Climbing back down was a challenge, but after a few bumps we made it safely to the river at the bottom of the valley, where we were chauffeured across in big rubber rings. It was a relief to get to camp, especially as we had run out of water.
It gets dark very early here, so after a quick river shower, we had a meal, then headed under cover just before the storm hit, to play cards by candlelight, after our guides showed us some rather sceptical magic tricks. We fell asleep listening to the sound of the storm and the river roar next to us – it was quite exciting hearing the water rise without knowing how close it’s getting!
The next day was far more relaxed, although just as much fun, as we swam in a nearby waterfall and had our faces painted jungle style! We then packed up camp and after a delicious lunch climbed into our watertaxi to head back down river.
This is where things got interesting – when I say water taxi – I mean 4 giant rubber rings tied together with our bags wrapped in plastic and tied on top. You steer this contraption with 2 large sticks. After being lulled into a false sense of security, we went over a waterfall. The guide at the front came out of the boat completely and the ropes tying the bags on snapped. I managed to grab one of the bags, as the other flew off the back and was quickly followed into the water by another of our guides. We pulled into shore to retie the bags and there was a change of drivers – a man wearing the shortest shorts I ever did see appeared from nowhere and took control of our vessel. I do enjoy placing my life in the hands of someone I’ve never spoken to.
Luckily short shorts was obviously an expert rubber ring steerer, as the rest of the rapids were less dramatic and we made it back to town in one piece- although I did fall out of the ring trying to get to land as my leg was so numb from being squashed into the ring that I simply fell over when I tried to put weight on it!
Last night was spent recovering, back to work today! I especially enjoyed our activity on ‘animal tracks’ today, which involved a lot of painty feet and laughter!
We’re looking forward to taking some of our students to the jungle soon, but we need to find a guide who we can be sure will set a good example to them, we need to find a real life role model for them who will live up to what we’re teaching here.
Rosie Roams 