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SARAWAK: Kelabit Highlands
SARAWAK: Kelabit Highlands
June 2009. A 6-day walk from Bario, Sarawak, towards the Kalimantan border. We are 4: Irwan (a local hunter), David (his helper), my two daughters (11 and 9 year old), my husband and myself. We intend to eat what nature has on offer along the way and, as food, we have with us only a few packs of instant noodles.
The loop we walked, with the 5 overnight places.
Arrival in Bario
Arrival in Bario
We fly from Miri (Sarawak, 1h30 drive from our home in Brunei) to Bario, in the Kelabit Highlands. Flight duration = 50 min.
Forests and
Oil palm plantations ...
Landed in Bario.
Bario. 1200m altitide. Cooler air than in Brunei !
Rice paddies. Bario rice is famous.
The forest around Bario is 'Kerangas' - 'where rice does not grow' (because the soil is too poor), The trees are small (2 m) and the vegetation very different than the other rainforest types. There are 19 species of Rhododendrons - red ones and white ones.
Rhododendron (suaveolens)
Burmannia sp. probably longifolia.
First night in a local guesthouse in Bario (De Plateau), the 'Queen of the Orchids' behind Silène: Grammatophyllum speciosum, the heaviest orchid in the world....
Grammatophyllum speciosum blooms only once every two to four years but remains in bloom for up to two months.
Friendly furry hanging from the roof. Fruit Bat (Cynopterus sp.) - feeds on fruits.
Day 1
Day 1
Ready to go. Everyone with a backpack. We have a guide, Irwan, and a porter, David, for a little food and equipment. Since we cannot carry food for 6 people x 6 days, we will use what the forest has to offer. Rainette kept a straight face when warned about the delicious frog soup.
One of Bario's churches and the old airfield - from the Australian missionaries' time. Christianism is very much alive in the Kelabit highlands. The whole of Sunday is devoted to church services where people also sing and sometimes eat.
Fern. Paku rusa in Malay, meaning 'Fern deer'. Dipteris conjugata (Polypodiaceae).
Freycinetia (probably valida) - Pandanaceae
Bamboo bridge.
'Torch Ginger' (Etlingera elatior) behind Silène.
The flower... We did not know then that we would eat so many of them later on... One of the forest food.
Orchid.
Begonia
Rumput gunung, a grass, the roots are said to cure gonorrhea.
Another Begonia.
Nymph of the shield bug Pycanum rubens. The mature insect looks much less striking.
Leeches
Ming dinasty jars in the forest...!? The trade between the Chinese and the inland tribes started in the1600. The Chinese were looking for jungle medecine.
A pre-Christian cimetery. The jars are cut in two. The dead person was placed standing in the lower half of the jar, with the top of the jar on his head and tree bark in-between. Over time, the bark collapsed and the two halves of the jar re-united.
Acorns of Lithocarpus, a S.E. Asian genus of Fagaceae.
Boesenbergia orbiculata (Ginger familiy). So far known only from Sarawak and Brunei. At its upper altitude limit.
We were supposed to camp in a pristine site but somebody has started building a shelter !
Day 2
Day 2
Early morning. Rainette tries her hammock bat-style.
We ate many of these. Garcinia (Clusiaceae), a relative of the Mangosteen.
A cockroach. There are about 4000 species of cockroaches and only 30 are associated with human habitations.
Boesenbergia orbiculata (Ginger familiy)
Impatiens (Balsaminaceae)
Tree fern (Cyathea)
'Uber', very common.
Ocimum
Chestnuts.
My highlight of the day. I did not think a grasshopper could be so colorful. There were about 50 of them in one small spot, this was the last one to jump away.
Hard work to collect the heart of palm (Derma) - our dinner today.
Heart of palm.
The softer parts can be eaten raw, the more fibrous & bitter parts need cooking.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next day. Greater Mouse-Deer (Tragalus napu), 65 cm, about 4 kg, the right size for 6 people. A barking deer, sambar deer or wild pig would have been too large. The alternatives were porcupine or leaf monkey (langur). Rainette and I were not keen to eat monkey.
Not so easy to prepare. We had most of it in soup except for the legs, roasted.
Second night: The salt lick shelter.
The salt lick. The shelter was built next to a salt water source. In the past, it was an important source of salt for the people living in the forest who travelled long distances in order to collect it: the salty water was boiled and the salt dried in the sun.
Rocking and smiling.
Day 3
Day 3
Breakfast
The shelter's kitchen.
For breakfast we have a soup with the kidneys, heart, instestine lining, liver. Extremely bitter but (seemingly) good for your health (?). The girls limited themselves to instant noodles.
Eryngium foetidum (Apiaceae). It does not deserve the 'foetidum', the strong smell is wonderful and we used it to flavor the soup. It is an American plant, introduced and distributed in the East by the Chinese who used it as a substitute for coriander. In spite of being in the middle of primary forest, the salt lik has been visited for centuries by people walking in from far away and staying there for a while, obviously bringing along their condiments...
Malayan Mountain Raspberries (Rubus sorbifolius), not as yummy as European ones but ok and we ate many...
Wasp nest.
Alocasia. Note the flowers like a bouquet of tulips.
No trail, up and down. We walk trying not to make a sound to see shy animals.
Pelawan (Tristania) sheds its bark in long scrolls. It comes in white, used for firewood and in red, used for building houses.
Tree fern.
Stick insect.
There are many types of Lithocarpus, each with a different acorn.
Third night: in the area of Pa Bangar. We reached the site very late and it poured that night but, after our long walk, we slept very well.
River by the campsite. Always a pleasure to have a good wash after a sweaty day's walk.
Bamboos are used for so many things...
Reading in bed, it's vacation after all.
Day 4
Day 4
Leeches. We became intimate with 4 species of leeches. There are ' leaf leeches' that jump on your upper body from leaves and 'ground leeches' that crowl from your feet up. Leaf leeches are thin, like this one. The fiercest and most painful is the Tiger Leech (Haemadipsa picta) which has green, yellow / orange and black stripes and was plentiful. This one is not the famous Tiger Leech.
The Brown Leech (Haemadipsa zeylanica) is a 'ground leech' and its bite is painless because it injects an anaesthetic with the anticoagulant.
Another species of 'ground leech'.
isip pikus or isip labo, smaller Marantaceae.
Bario cinnamon. Kayu manis (sweet wood). Cinnamomum verum / zeylanicum (Lauraceae) is native to Sri Lanka, This one is a local species. The cinnamon spice comes from the bark of young shoots which is removed in strips that curl when drying (quills).
Approaching the longouse of Pa Mada.
Water buffaloes.
Another archeological site: headhunters used to gather around this table before going on a raid. The table is a large sharpening stone where every man had its area - shallow if he died young, deep and large if he died old.
Fourth night: Longhouse of Pa Mada.
Main hallway. Note the hammock for baby with a spring.
Typical patterns painted on the walls.
Fireplace & kitchen. It can get cold in the Highlands. The nost expensive firewood is from 'aru' (Casuarina).
The living room of our hosts from the longhouse.
Day 5
Day 5
Breakfast: snails (in the middle), ferns (green), bamboo shoots (yellow), ginger flower (red), rattan shoots (brown).
Making krupuk.
The paste on the leaves is dried in the sun, cut into pieces and fried.
Etlingera coccinea. (Ginger family) The flower appears at ground level and sometimes at some distance from the leaves.
Fruits of a palm.
Flying Lizard (possibly Draco cristatellus).
With gliding membrane expanded.
Lunchtime.
Lunch, on a disposable plate, looks very much like breakfast. Nice palette of colors.
Just a mound butnevertheless a historical site ('perupun'): in the 1930ies, Australian priests arrived in the Kelabit Highlands and the Kelabits converted to Christianity. The human skulls exposed in the longhouses (head-hunter time) were gathered and burried together here during a ceremony led by the priests.
A colorful Rhinoceros beetle (Dynastinae). Only males have a horn. The larva feed on rotten wood, the adult on nectar, plant sap and fruit. Strongest animals on the planet: they can lift up to 850 x their own weight.
The plates and wrappers' shop - isip, Marantaceae.
Another type of palm for our 'heart of palm'. This one is called 'kenangan' in Kelabit, maybe bayas in Malay.
The fruit of 'kenengan' palm.
Yet another archeological site: these large stones were carried by single individuals from high up in the mountains to here, to show their strength... (batu snuped Pa Main).
Palm tree flower.
After hunting: fishing.
Dinner: one fish (about 900 g) for 6 people. A large adult of this species can weigh 5 kg. A very special and expensive fish (200 Ringgits per kg in Miri) - 'ikan kala'. Also 'Peluan' or 'empurau' (Tor tambroides).
It eats only fruits that fall into the river, like buah uber.
Fifth night: Shelter in the area of Pa Main. The fish and rice were cooked in large bamboos in the open fire. We have also 5 wild chicken eggs that David found in a bamboo grove. Chicken are native to the forests of S.E. Asia.
Nightime. Something must be very attractive on the shirt of Peter.
After walking 8 hrs by daylight with a backpack, we walked 3 hours at night, without backpack, following a sambar deer. The nicest sight was a moonrat, a 35 cm long (body only) totally white rat but the photo is only blurr. Cicadas are plentiful and loud ...
Day 6
Day 6
Batu Nanagan, Pa Main. A sort of chamber used to contain human remains.
Parkia. The pods contain edible beans, but very high up ! People sometimes camp under the tree to collect the beans. Monkeys like the parkia beans and come to feed early morning on the tree. When a group busy eating is disturbed by another group, they fight and throw beans at each other. The people under the tree collect what falls...
The beans are not bad, seemingly good for your kidneys. 'Patai' in Malay.
Our guide, without shoes or shirt...
Sonerila sp. ? Melastomataceae.
Agathis endertii. Borneo endemic. Known as 'Tumu' or 'Bindang' locally. An Araucariaceae, Agathis is an important timber species (furniture, plywood outer veneer).
Agathis endertii. An engraved 'T' with the resine (dammar) oozing out, The hardened resine is used by locals to light fire and, in the industry, in the fabrication or varnish.
Kerangas forest around Bario. Notice the pitcher plants (Nepenthes stenophylla) on the tallest tree.
Nepenthes stenophylla, common in kerangas forest above 1000 m where they often climb into the crowns of small trees.
Pitcher Plant (Nepenthes veitchii) on the ground in kerangas forest. In other places, this pitcher plant is normally epiphytic.
Nepenthes veitchii. In Bario, the large pitchers are used as containers to cook & wrap rice...
The rice paddies outside of Bario (out of season).
Flying out the next morning.
Walking back into Bario as the sun sets.
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