Utan Jungle Paradise, Day 2

On this our one and only full day in the Crocker Range, we trekked with Inus to learn a bit about survival in the rainforests of Borneo.  The area at base camp serves as a teaching lab thanks to the planting of trees and shrubs of medicinal and agricultural significance.  First stop: Inus trimmed some bark and said, "Chew on this."  We knew then our trek would be more of doing first and then learning what it is we were actually doing, quite the inverse of most labs from my college experience.  I immediately tasted cinnamon and smiled.  Some jungle fare turned out to be better than others, but this first bit was more than a little yummy.

Next, we made our way down one of the marked paths of Utan Paradise.  The early morning saw quite a bit of rain, so the ground was more than a bit muddy.  We found the largest earthworm of our lives not too far down the trail, simply lying there waiting for something else to find and eat it. 

Inus then showed us how to find fresh water in the jungle.  Our search image: lianas, or thick vines.  These were all over the forest, but I never considered them much more than something to swing on.  With one swipe of the machete, Inus cut the vine at an angle and water immediately began to pour out.  Fresh, no smell, and no strange taste, it was excellent water.

We trekked on for more than an hour looking for birds, but the dense foliage combined with a strangely quiet forest meant that this trek would not generate many new species of any kind, other than the earthworm.  Inus tried to call in some jungle deer using a blade from a palm, but nothing responded.  We made our way back to camp where Inus showed us how latex is harvested from trees:

Inus took a break and we had fun around base camp with photos.  Having learned our lesson from Mt. Kinabalu, we wore our leech socks on this day.  I thought gaiters were the most stylish field gear ever, leech socks absolutely give gaiters a run for their money.  And yes, they did work.  We donned them and then sprayed them with DEET for a leech-free morning. 

Inus came back to show us some examples of traps that he used growing up as a child.  He is now a village elder, as there are still some tribes in Borneo that occupy some middle realm between what we would consider "primitive lifestyles" and the internet age.  Out in the middle of the Crocker Range, Inus had internet access and an iPad with which he communicated with potential visitors and school groups.  Looking back on this, I can't help but think of a crash scene involving hunter-gatherers and iTunes.  One can only hope that the best of these worlds is preserved.  At any rate, the traps designed for deer or ground-dwelling game all had two components in common: a fence-line comprised of cane/bamboo and a noose.  The "fence-line" funneled animals towards the noose, which was released by a small hook-and-line fastener made of more cane and vine/rattan. 

Some traps for larger game replaced the noose with a "spear" or some other sharp-tipped shaft:

We were amazed at some of the more elaborate designs for small game like squirrels and monkeys:

Inus went on to explain that good hunters would construct more than one hundred such traps and could find them all again without relying on a map or GPS.  This precision and memory boggles my mind.  I'm not sure many of us from my lab could find nests without the benefit of flagging or GPS to get us in the vicinity.  Perhaps this is one of those cases where technological advances diminishes our abilities to function without them?  Inus then fed us a traditional lunch, which I'm sure was curry chicken but it is possible that the meat could have been...well...anything.

After lunch, Inus introduced us to a more active type of hunting: blow pipe.  He admitted that this blowpipe was not fashioned in a traditional way, using a small metal tube in the center of this bamboo shaft for ease of release.  He then explained that a REAL blow pipe crafted by tribesmen would be a long section of bamboo, halved, hollowed out and smoothed down the entire length, and then re-fitted with latex from the latex tree so as to be "whole" again with an even, smooth hollow middle through which darts could be launched.  We had a blast with this.

Inus had a makeshift target from styrofoam, another moment of present-day-meets-primitive-man, but an excellent example of "reuse."  Ryan surprised everyone with his marksmanship.

See?  If the proverbial shit does hit the fan, I know I will not starve.

We each had a go with the blow pipe, even beyond what Inus had the patience to watch.  It just didn't get old.  Ryan and I imagined bringing this back with us to the states.  Our weekends would be spent outside, BBQ fired up, horseshoes, cold homebrew, and blow pipe.

When we paused for a bit, we noticed leeches in the crevices of our shoes.  Sneaky bastards. They are not very big, only an inch or so long when they stretch out.  What is amazing is that when they inched their way near us, they would anchor and then conduct a 360-degree search of, presumably, our body heat or something that was NOT the ground.  They absolutely sensed when they were proximate to our feet, even if we did not move them.  This video shows their movement, and once we saw this, we looked around and realized just how many of them are on the jungle floor at any given time.

As the sun set, it was time for night-lighting again.  Several people arrived at Inus' house just after dusk.  We could not tell if they were family or other members of the tribe, but they talked what seemed to be "shop" for a long time as they watched us ooooh and ahhhhh over the insects that came to the sheet.  They even shared some warm Tiger beer, and our night was complete!

We did not have the same diversity as the night before, but we did see a greater variety of moths.  Still no large beetles or new stick insects, but we figured we were seeing more Borneo invertebrates than most casual visitors to Borneo.  It is always better to be appreciate of what you do see/experience than to lament those things/experiences that may simply be waiting for you on the next vacation.

Inus' "pet" cat joined in our fun, but we did not let her catch anything.  It was amusing to see her focus, her balance when she tried to paw at something, and her inevitable tumble off the fence, only to get back up and start all over again.  It proves that night-lighting for insects is fun for everyone and everything.