Once again we hit the road, via the doorstep pick up by the ferry. We were met at the other dock by a charming young man with a nice shiny car with lots of dangly bits. Very tasteful. So a seven hour taxi ride through the still very confusing highways and byways of Sumatra and an interesting lunch at a roadside eatery where you could have anything you liked as long as it was chicken. Hol had rice. So after meandering our way towards the final destination of this trip we arrived at Bukit Lewang or at least the tourist village vaguely attached to the town of the same name. Once again the cases were grabbed and whisked off by some rough looking types on scooters, but by this time we were immune to this and assumed that they were on their way to the hotel. So the cases had a ride and we had to walk well fairs fair I guess. It wasn't that far and it was interesting wandering through the souvenir stalls. So we arrived at the Hotel Orangutan, yes that is it's real name booked in and it looked an excellent place with a bar and a small but perfectly formed restaurant. Now Holly had told me that some of the rooms were up a hill but the odds of getting one of the top ones was remote so imagine my surprise when remoteness came home to roost right at the top of a bloody mountain. I shall endeavor to show a video of the way down from nose bleed country. In the mean time pictures will stop the waffle.
I should point out that in the cultural stuff it should have been avec not sans driver, that was just me trying me franglais. Once again we hit the road, via the doorstep pick up by the ferry. We were met at the other dock by a charming young man with a nice shiny car with lots of dangly bits. Very tasteful. So a seven hour taxi ride through the still very confusing highways and byways of Sumatra and an interesting lunch at a roadside eatery where you could have anything you liked as long as it was chicken. Hol had rice. So after meandering our way towards the final destination of this trip we arrived at Bukit Lewang or at least the tourist village vaguely attached to the town of the same name. Once again the cases were grabbed and whisked off by some rough looking types on scooters, but by this time we were immune to this and assumed that they were on their way to the hotel. So the cases had a ride and we had to walk well fairs fair I guess. It wasn't that far and it was interesting wandering through the souvenir stalls. So we arrived at the Hotel Orangutan, yes that is it's real name booked in and it looked an excellent place with a bar and a small but perfectly formed restaurant. Now Holly had told me that some of the rooms were up a hill but the odds of getting one of the top ones was remote so imagine my surprise when remoteness came home to roost right at the top of a bloody mountain. I shall endeavor to show a video of the way down from nose bleed country. In the mean time pictures will stop the waffle. Meet the new bridge same as the old bridge. Except this one is metal and a bit more stable and apparently won't get washed away if they have a wet season. The hut thingys are for the locals to desport themselves in the absence of a beach this will do for pic nicking and outdoor sporting actitivities if you don't break your neck on the rocks. This is the rain forest and this should have been before the last one. If we talk about birding then this is probably the hardest environment on the planet to do it. I did manage to get a few species but the guides were to into mammals to worry about mere avifauna. Still it was a nice walk through the rubber plantation and a bit of the jungle. We went on a day walk but some of the more intrepid went for days, as it poured with rain most days I hope they had decent shelter from the humidity, bugs and other inconveniences that you could encounter.
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I'm running out of quips on Sumatra so this is my last puerile attempt. As this is the fourth installment I'm going to keep it shortish. This is the result of a day around the island mostly visiting Batak stuff and what's left of the volcanic activity. I have lost the plot on this so I will do some photos and hope you haven't seen this stuff before. In the mean time have a great New Year and I hope you had a fantastic Christmas. So we hired a car sans driver and weaved our way around the cultural high spots of the island. Introducing the Batak Ex factor contestants the shuffling Samosir dancers. These guys in a very hot arena shuffled around clapping their little hands together in a not all together enthusiastic manner. And who can blame them dressed like that in 30 plus degrees on white sand. Apparently there were several related stories but the steps were still shuffled and the tiny hands were still clapped. The building is apparently authentic and a work of art in itself. The final act introduces a rather reticent puppet and the obligatory tourist participation. The young fella on the left had a bit of trouble as the legs of the prop got stuck, the prop represents the last king apparently but more of this later. So after a few judicial wallops with feet and hands the limbs became free and the show continued. The final act was to come round with the hat to collect a bit of shuffle money and to be honest they deserved every sweaty bit. I may be wrong here but if I heard the driver right this is the last resting place of the last king of the Batak and some of his wives. The way people treat their dead is quite fascinating on Samosir they have family tombs and they seem to be scattered at random around the place. Presumably the more ornate and large ones are of the karked weathy and the more modest are the not so. Interesting is the christian symbols mixed up with animistic and other symbols. So we dropped in on the drivers Granny where she was working her fingers to the bone making stuff for tourists and the shuffle dancers. The foot belongs to a leg that is attached to one of the many cousins of the driver, he was either dead or totally fast asleep while granny made the money. It was quite interesting watching an artisan at work. We tried to walk to this place but going by car was much easier. This is another kings palace without the shufflemeisters. It has a bit of an air of decrepitude about it but that's probably because it needs a bit of maintenance and TLC. You certainly wouldn't want to come home from the pub nine sheets to the wind and then climb the rickety stair to nod land. You might even slip through the cracks in the floor, or bash the old melon on the low beams. Mind you it could produce an interesting bruise if you catch one of the carvings just right. This is for you Ian, mind you I think you may be the only one to read this drivel. So the really good thing about the Village Inn is that it is close to the village, it sits on the waters edge and it is quite open making birding relatively easy. There's not many places you can enjoy a cold beer while watching Little Egret, Asian Glossy Starling and three species of Munia/Mannikin going to roost after a hard day fishing and working the fields. Mind you the first bird I saw was a Brahminy Kite the second was White-breasted Waterhen. We also went on a cultural tour and saw Black Eagle and a few other nice things, there will be a brief list at the end. Now for the fuzzy photos. By the way Hol has pointed out that it is Batak for the people, batik is printing on cloth. Apart from those mentioned we also saw Scaly-breasted,Black-headed and White-headed Munias, Purple Heron, Dark-throated and Black-naped Oriole,Sunda Brush Cuckoo, Thick-billed Green Pig, Blue-banded and Sork-billed Kingfisher, Maroon Woodpecker and possibly maybe Plume-toed Swiftlet but that maybe wishful thinking. There were also some old friends like the Golden-headed Cisticola, White-bellied Sea Eagle and Spotted Turtle Dove.
,Where on earth can you hire a car with a driver for $70 for a five hour jolly through the Sumatran countryside. Well the answer is Medan, me dear. So we hauled our suitcases down the yellow brick road, had our last fruity breakfast and poured ourselves into the rather disheveled vehicle. It was to take us to a town on the shores of Lake Toba called something like pretty pretty as the town we were headed for, the surprisingly static Tuk Tuk, is actually on an island in the lake. Now the journey itself was an entertainment in itself. Again only having a rudimentary knowledge of the geography of Sumatra we were at a loss to know where we were going so the route was even more baffling when we took side roads, abandoning an apparently good main road, and even traversing a field of sweetcorn. And all this without a sat nav, road map or even a road sign. I guessed it was all done on sense of smell and the fact he had probably done it many times before. One thing the roads did have in common with the rest of the world is that where there are roadworks there are lots of people standing around doing sweet fanny adams, unless you count the never ending smoko as doing something. So we arrive eventually at Parapat, not pretty pretty as previously stated, the driver drops us at the port and says catch the green and white one. OK they all look green and white under the layers of grime and rust but as helpful as ever two complete strangers grab the cases chuck them on a boat and if we didn't move quick enough we would have followed. But it was a dignified boarding for Hol and a holding a hand, rather undignified boarding for me. The thing wasn't built for wheelchair access trust me. Now I have arrived at hotels before mostly by car, but also by bike, back in the day, motorcycle even on foot. Those were the days of Youth Hostelling but never by boat, but this one dropped us off at the hotel and once again the cases were whisked away and deposited .Thats enough waffle but we did see @#$%ing mornkeys just outside Parapat. Long-tailed Macaques I think, interestingly none seem to live on the island. One last thing Lake Toba is/was a super volcano apparently 10 times bigger than Krakatoa. Big bang theory or what and it is a very big hole filled with a lot of water. The old, the new and the sort of blue period middle aged housing on Lake Toba. Pretty specky front/back garden though the dust bowl needs attention. All or at least most houses round here seem to have a satelite dish, which may mean the free to air programes are similar to Australian ones or there isn't any free to air. Almost all of the people around here are Batik and this is where Batik people live. Not your average council house the carving alone would bankrupt your average county council. The dusting must be hell on a stick, just think of the height of the ladder needed to reach the spiders at the top, which I chopped off in the photo. Until a few weeks ago I had never heard of Medan but we were on our way to it, vanishing into FinnAir from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpar, via Helsinki naturally, then a little jump of an hour from KL to Medan with a budget budget airline of Air Asia. So we landed in a teeming city it was hot sweaty and very exciting. The hotel that Hol had booked was the Hotel Deli River just on the outskirts of the heaving mass, it seemed a simple job of catch a cab for the short ride. Getting a cab was easy the short ride turned into quite a long one. This was due to the huge amount of traffic, not surprising really, the state of the roads and the continual lack of signs to anywhere. This wasn't really a problem as we had no idea where we were going anyway. Eventually we, well the driver did, found the hotel and had the unsettling experience of our bags being whisked away by two total strangers. This we found was standard operating practice and we sank gratefully into an air-conditioned slumber. The following morning we were woken by the pleasant twittering of small dickie birds, that turned out to be Tree Sparrows in the main. However there were pleasant surprises in the shape of sunbirds, Leafbirds and Ioras. Also whizzing around were a couple of species of Kingfisher, including Collared an almost universal species. The highlight however was a Buffy Fish Owl optimistically trying for dinner in the hotel swimming pool. I have also come to be pretty suspicious of anybody that shouts out Asian Palm Swift or Black nest Swiftlet cos they all look the same except in these two cases one is bigger than the other. It is a funny thing that when you see something flying through the ait you assume that it is a bird, well one of the first things that I saw "flying" turned out to be a lizard and another one was a Plantation Squirell both very cute but at the time baffling. Sorry Ian no bird photos but I'm sure you will enjoy some of the ones I took. I had had thought that I could access the river but Medan turned out to be rather sprawling and if not intimidating then rather overwhelming. i followed the flight path really closely thinking it was a bird but all I found was a flying lizard, well technically it was a glider but it was rather perplexing. It also had the most vivid yellow throat flap which it would inflate when it landed, presumably a @#$# off this is my tree warning. In fact if you look myopically at the picture you can just see it, I did think it was a leaf at first but it ain't. I won't give a comprehensive list of birds but the highlights were obviously the owl firstly, then White-breasted Kingfisher,Sunda,Yellow-vented and Sooty-headed Bulbuls, Scarlet-backed and Orange-bellied Flowerpeckers, Ornate, Brown-throated and Van Hasselts Sunbirds, Asian Shikra and finally a Lesser Adjutant Stork flapped lazily over while we were on the way to breakfast. Only 18 species but it wasn't that sort of place and there were several that refused to appear, just sat and made exotic noises, or just whizzed through.
I should also mention the Before we get into the really exciting bits I should mention the reason for going to the UK before the main event was my mums 92nd birthday and Hollys' sisters birthday as well. we also took the opportunity for Hol to catch up with a bit of culture when we went to London and she went to see her family in the deep south. That's about it really I saw an old boat and 42nd Street but I was a bit crook so didn't fully appreciate the experience to the max. By the way the old boat was the Cutty Sark and they really need to update some of the information and interps as a tourist could whizz through the whole thing in ten minutes. I did it in eight. I should also give an honourable mention to a really nice lady who coming upon a distressed and pissed off colonial, guided him to Cambridges' disappearing railway station. It always used to be easy to find a station even in Cambridge but like that disappearing village whose name I cannot think of that bloody railway station remained only five minutes away. Until our eyes met over the chips and dips in a Cambridge servo and she uttered those immortal words "just follow me". And not to detract from this magnificent lady she was American the Brits really couldn't care and the rest of the multitude of people I asked were of course bloody tourists. A simple request to Cambridge Council put more readable f@@@@@ing signs up. Just googled it and it's called Brigadoon and to my knowledge it does NOT have a F@@@@ing railway station.
I'm afraid the video will have to wait for private viewing as it seems the video download is a bit beyond me. Take my word for it the way to the room was bloody steep. One of the first things that mine host tells you is keep the windows and doors closed or the bloody monkeys will be in your room and they aren't there to turn the beds down more turn it over to their liking.It was quite strange really the lack of birds and possibly linked was the lack of bugs. It could be the very dry dry season coupled with the late start to the wet, bit deliberately leaving the outside light on would normally attract a few moths that the geckos didn't catch. Don't be fooled by those big puppy eyes he deserves to be behind bars. The only thing that's missing is either a harmonica or a tin cup to rattle on the bars while singing nobody knows the trouble I've seen. This photo was taken while I was sitting on our verandah watching Blue-throated Beeeaters hunting nearby. I think this is Thompsons Leaf Monkey or Langur. I think this is the prettiest of the local primates but we didn't get a good view of the White-handed Gibbon. Just love the hair do and moustachios. On the last day a mob of them turned up at the hotel and they turned out to be just as destructive as the rest of them, mind you they were very much ion the cirque de soleil mode of branch snapping. Just as you are about to settle down to a mid jungle lunch along came the uninvited guests, a troop or is that troupe of Pig-tailed Macaques rock up. Unfortunately according to the locals a lot of tourists feed them and like wildlife all over the planet they get really pissed off when they don't get fed. They are quite a bunch of characters though especially the alpha male who did get a piece of watermelon by sneaking around our backs while a female distracted us. And I bet the bastard didn't share it. This is what going on a jungle trek is all about seeing a real life Pongo. They are remarkably tolerant as there was a dozen people taking photos of this family group, Almost as if they were expecting a reward for being so patient, the Orangs not the people. Illegal Palm Oil plantations are slowly eroding the jungle around here so if you want to see a wild one go soon. Incidentally a new species of Pongo was discovered near Lake Toba. Goes to show that in the words of Joni Mitchell you don't know what you've got til its gone, hey paradise put up a palm oil factory There will be at least two more blogs one dedicated to other wildlife the other to photos I want to share with the outside world but could squeeze them in.logically.
Sometimes you sits and thinks and sometimes you just sits should be on every net sold to bird banders. Sometimes you have time to ponder on the universe as you stare at empty nets and a landscape totally devoid of avian lie forms. It's a kind of post apocalyptic zombie robin kind of feeling that you know they are there but damned if they are coming out to play while you are sitting there munching on an old muesli bar and drinking flat diet fizzless cola. Then again you get days when the sun shines children are laughing, birds sing their little hearts out and they are positively fighting to get their tickets for a bit of bling on their cute little legs. And we have had a few of them in the past few weeks. Anyway here's a select few photo's There's always one that finds facing the wrong way for morning dedications. Nearing the end of extracting about 24 birds mostly silvereyes but a nice variety was caught. It must be the time of year as there was several panic calls of "hundreds of Birds in the net" only for me to find out there was just a few tens. Lots of migratory honeyeaters like yellow-faced and white-naped plus the silvereyes make up the majority of the birds. Much fun was had by all. yyI was totally amazed and extremely pleased when somebody finally took up my offer of board and lodging in sunny Oz and escape from the postBrexit misery in Pomland. So it came to pass that my hunting, shooting and quite possibly fishing nephew dropped in for two weeks R and R. I couldn't arrange any of the aforementioned activities but we did find the Ballarat gunshop and we spent a happy afternoon talking arms and weapons and licences and related topics, so next time Barry comes over he can do in a bit of the feral wildlife. One of the highlights of the visit was to see the mighty West Coast Eagles hand Hawthorn their asses in a sling at the iconic MCG. Well one team got torn a new one and it didn't turn out the way I wanted it too. These things happen and I think Barry got the idea of AFL as a so typical Australian sport, in that rules are there to be either ignored or made up on the spot to be quickly forgotten in the next incident. It can be no coincidence that the umpires are sponsored by specsavers. It was all in all a good weekend in the big smoke Holly saw her first AFL game and took in an act at the comedy festival while we amused ourselves in a local hostelry before having an excellent repast. Later that week Holly was engaged in the field setting camera traps in Western Victoria so being upstanding types we volunteered to help. It also gave Barry the opportunity to see parts of the bush as well as getting up close to the local wildlife in the form of three types of wallaby/roo as Emus. The second week involved Barry mostly amusing himself with ventures into the history of the Rat as well as sampling the beer. I should mention that we went to catch Yellow Robins as well but I got the wrong date so that didn't work out so well. I think that he enjoyed the experience including a rather chilly Oz style BBQ but climate wise he timed it perfectly as the day after the winter kicked in and is still kicking. He really doesn't look confused all the time but I'm not sure either what this particular dish is. I can tell you that it's Egyptian and it must have been really good cos we ate there twice. It was very atmospheric as you could order a hookah to be smoked at your leisure outside of course. And play back gammon naturally. A few weeks ago there was a knock on the door and my mate Andrew was stood there in all his glory, mind you bringing his dog as well caused all sorts of mayhem with our dogs. So what brought on this unexpected pleasure. Well it turns out that an errant wombat had turned up in Armstrong Street North and was doing his best to pretend that he was a car part. Actually doing a good job as well as I couldn't see it until I looked under the right car. Now our street is quite quiet but to get back to the nearest wombat friendly ecosystem would be pretty fraught with a lot of mobile hazards. So the cavalry was called and arrived in the shape of a spindly little old man whose previous experience was wrestling canaries. When he looked under the car he immediately came to the conclusion that this was out of his league and he called in the wombat patrol from the wildlife park. While we were waiting for reinforcements the marsupial was getting quite agitated and was strong enough to lift the car up and all the while making rather throaty growling noises. So the park people turned up and they did not instill a lot of confidence as they were skinny teens with a lot of bravado and little clue about removing recalcitrant grumpy mammals from beneath a vehicle. They tried to grab it but soon felt that losing a limb would not benefit anybody. I did suggest prodding it with a broom but this was met with disdain, bloody interfering members of the public. So after another fruitless grab a hind leg they resorted to the broom and the damn thing shot out the from of the car where to their great credit the petit ranger jumped on it closely followed by the more robust male counterpart. It was promptly bagged and was transported to wombat state forest. No kidding. So the only other thing of note was another robin effort and the photos will explain all. |
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January 2018
Authorlives in the northern burbs of Ballarat, Victoria. Love birding, BBQing and sport and of course the Aussie way of life. I have a fantastic partner two dogs and two fish. Categories |