Bucket list: Orangutans in Sumatra
A super quick weekend in Indonesia in Bukit Lawang to see the orangutans in the wild, something I dreamed of for many years.
The flight from Singapore is just over one hour but to reach Bukit Lawang you have 3-4 more hours by car, and this is already an adventure on its own. The road from Medan airport is not the best! It is either congested with traffic or full of potholes all the way. I laughed when the driver suggested I could sleep while we were driving . We arrived around 1 am and I had an early start at 730 am the day after .
I joined a group of 5 other travellers for a 2 day trek in the Indonesian jungle. Amongst them there was a German couple, Edith and Stephan, and they are travelling the world by sea and land, you can check their blog here (it is in German but the pics are amazing !).
After one hour on the jungle trek we already saw the first orangutans, such beautiful creatures! and it was incredible to see them in their habitat ! Mostly we saw mothers with their babies and some male ones too. Walking in the jungle, having feet covered in mud made me feel so connected with nature. Earth is such an amazing place to be and it is so scary that we are quickly destroying it with our hands.
We spent the night camping in the jungle, not the most comfortable place but definitely the most exciting one. Being so isolated from the comfort of your day life makes you truly appreciate the small things we have.. like having a cup of instant coffee in the morning in the jungle! A great reminder of the things we give for granted in our lives :) This brought back so many memories from the time I went camping in Africa for 3 months few years ago.
The next day, after having breakfast by the river next to our camping spot, we did a morning trek to see more wildlife and more orangutans. We saw other primates like Thomas's Leaf Monkeys and also couple of wild peacocks.
Walking in the jungle, after a night of heavy rain, wasn't the easiest thing; not only for the mud and slippery paths but also for the numerous leeches that got stuck on the shoes and legs 😫 ...luckily I learnt my lesson few years back and I had long sock on!
We made our way back to the village on water, they called it rafting ... but was literally a bunch of truck tyres tied together! After that I still had a 4 hours drive back to Medan to catch an evening flight to Singapore...short but super fun weekend!
