Every expedition has its compromises, but our Aurora Expeditions Indonesia and Borneo expeditions had two significant logistical ones

• Aurora Expeditions’ efforts to provide the most diverse experiences while traversing a country spanning thousands of miles and innumerable islands.
• Trying to accommodate the expectations…and unreasonable demands…of the Vantage coupon-waving cruisers (who never should have been on this sailing) while providing some of the Aurora expedition experience that was marketed and expected.

Until this experience, Aurora Expeditions has always exceeded my expectations. But keeping perceptions and emotions in check has been a serious challenge, especially due to the relentless (and mostly baseless) complaints, which have definitely placed our experience at a “Disa-Vantage“.

As this journey winds down…and it is not yet over…we have:

• Snorkeled in some of the most outstanding coral reefs with the most diverse and dense fish populations
• Visited two very different local villages
• Had wonderful Komodo Island dragon and Pink Beach experiences
• Witnessed fun water buffalo races
• Swam with whale sharks
• and more. .

It would be two full days at sea before we reached Indonesian Borneo. But after those two days at sea, it would be, for many, the highlight of highlights to conclude our expedition: Visiting with Orangutans.

Due to shallow waters, less-than-reliable navigation charts, and extreme low tides coupled with the need to travel fairly deep into the jungles of Borneo, it would be two long days traveling to and from the Tanjung Puting National Park to visit with orangutans. Our journey to them required 4:00 a.m. wake-ups, then onto the zodiacs at 5:00 a.m. for a 3.5-mile run to a remote pier (fortunately with dry landings), then onto buses (surprisingly with air conditioning!) for a 1.5-hour drive through small towns and disturbing palm oil plantations, then to a dock. (If the river was safely navigable, as was planned and originally represented by the local support, Greg Mortimer would have sailed to the dock and overnighted there. Oh well.)

We were then split into seven wooden “yachts”, each unique, called klotoks, boarding with a bit of gymnastics, where we were then greeted by a local guide, along with hot coffee and tea, as well as delicious fried bananas. 

It was then time to settle in for a slow 3.5-hour sailing up a river to our destination. Honestly, as grueling as it might sound, it was all pretty civilized and, for many, relaxing. 

I took a seat on the deck overlooking the bow, my feet dangling and my camera at the ready, while our expedition leader, Christophe, sat next to me and looked for birds and crocodiles. While there were a few sightings, the first couple of hours were pretty quiet…as the water changed from brackish to fresh, which in turn caused the vegetation to change to more “bird-friendly” species. (While waiting, I took advantage of the connectivity on my mobile phone. Yes, incredibly, the internet was better in the Jungles of Borneo than it was on the Greg Mortimer. That will be discussed later in this article.)

And then, looking up, I spotted a large bird circling above. It was an extremely rare Storm’s Stork (estimated at 350-1,750 remaining in the wild)! Later, someone looked down and saw a gharial, a freshwater crocodilian known as the “ghost crocodile”, even though it is not actually a crocodile.

As we were reaching our destination, just before we docked, across the river there was a large male proboscis monkey, and then a younger one and then a female jumping through the trees. I had seen them before, but only in a protected reserve; not in the wild. A great start!

After docking, our guide and a local warden led us (with a large bushel of mangos) up a 0.5-mile walk to a feeding station accompanied by calls for the orangutans to come. It was not known if they would, though successful viewings range around 80% or so.

We were very fortunate, as this would wind up being the best of the three orangutan experiences I have had, about to begin (the others being in Malaysian Borneo and Northern Sumatra).

First, an adolescent arrived, looking around as if it wasn’t his turn to be there, but it was going to give it a shot. Then a mother and baby arrived, so it headed into the trees, only to return to his proper place (after the mother had started feeding).

You can take all the photos you want, but there isn’t anything cuter than a baby orangutan and, having enough orangutan photos from my prior experiences, I focused (sorry) on the babies.

After having their fill, off they went into the trees, but staying close enough for some nice photo opportunities while another mother and baby came in. This was followed by some rustling in the bush as the first mother and baby returned.

As we left, long-tailed macaques swung through the trees, while others sat calmly on the ground.

It was a wonderful end of the visit before we headed back to the klotoks for the 3.5-hour journey back to the buses.  Along the way, we spotted a number of Stork-billed Kingfishers, a few Striated Heron, and a beautiful Purple Heron.

By the time we made it back to the pier, it was getting dark, and the tide was running out, so it was a wet walk with the warm water up to our knees before we could hop into the zodiacs for a fun, wild ride back to the Greg Mortimer. While some folks (not experienced expeditioners) were a bit scared, the expedition team handled everything well and, of course, all wound up back on the ship safe and sound.

The next day it was “rinse and repeat”, although almost half of the ship’s passengers decided to stay on the Greg Mortimer. For me, and many others, it was a “I could stay on the ship, or I could head back out, and you never know what you might see.” Some questioned why we were spending two days in the area and why we were venturing back to the same area. To me, the answer was simple: Seeing orangutans was the No. 1 objective of many, so if we weren’t successful on the first day, we had a second day in the best area to secure the prize.

With no pressure after our first day’s successes, it was an even more relaxed experience (other than the Vantage people on my klotok talking about their 50% vouchers…again). It was clear, however, that this would be less focused on orangutan sightings and more on a visit to a village and an ecolodge. (Visiting these places is a needed source of income for the village and encourages the preservation of orangutan habitat.)

 The plan was to then travel further upstream to see how close we could get to Camp Leaky, but due to all the complaints about a wet walk to zodiacs in the dark the day before, our journey was curtailed there. But to our fortune, just as we set off, there was a young male orangutan settling in for a nap high in the trees.

Why did we head out to the same area again? That’s why!

We returned to the pier hours early, so there was full daylight and calm waters after our wet walk to the zodiacs. While it was a bit of an anti-climactic and truncated end to the expedition portion of our journey, at least the complaints were kept to a minimum.   

It was then two full days at sea before arriving in Singapore. Oh, if the internet had worked over those days, it would have been great. (After disembarking, I came to learn that VShips – the company that manages ship operations for many lines – was incompetent, including its onboard tech person, as it was finally discovered that there was broken equipment on board.) Inexcusable!)

While I remain a bit perplexed as to how and why there were so many changes to our itinerary since booking this expedition, the reality is that spending the two days in search of orangutans required us to then spend another two days at sea before arriving in Singapore. It may not have been ideal for those focused on making as many stops as possible, but for those more focused on the quality of the stops (like me), it sure seemed like the right decision.

After many lectures and movies, it was time to pack and disembark. The process was flawless, and it took less than an hour for me to step off Greg Mortimer and step into the Artyzen Singapore Hotel for my two-night stay…and catching up on all that work I couldn’t complete due to internet issues.

To emphasize just how much effort and care the Aurora Expedition Team put in, one of my clients left a garment bag on the ship. Because of my relationship with them, they knew where I was staying and the next thing you knew, two of the Expedition Team arrived at the hotel with his garment bag. I mean, the trip was over and they were on their free time, yet they – once again – went above and beyond. Bravo!!

Next up: Singapore and Goldring Travel’s final Culinary & Cultural Event…and what an event it was!