Welcome to the Jungle — Lisa's (& Steve's) Travels

Leech socks are a thing…

… but you don’t need them up on a canopy walk, just down on the forest floor trails -

I always assumed leeches were in water (from Hollywood, I guess), but in actuality, they hang onto leaves in the undergrowth…

That Tiger Leech has a sucker at one end that holds onto things, but it’s the other end that bites and sucks blood. Steve got a video of one moving along the undergrowth - (as always, to see the video, open this post in your browser by clicking on the link at the bottom of the post) -

We were both christened on our very first hike, despite wearing leech socks. I had one near my armpit, and Steve had a few around his waist. Apparently, they get on your clothes and climb up until they find bare skin. We didn’t feel them bite, but man, do the spots bleed after you pull them off. They have anticoagulant in their saliva, and despite firm pressure, the areas continued to bleed for over 30 minutes. Luckily, they don’t hurt or itch - it’s just the persistent bleeding that’s a pain.

We were now in primary forest, meaning the land had never been cleared by man (except for the lodge we stayed in and the gravel/dirt road we bounced in on, over 2 1/2 hrs to get there).

It is very dense jungle and very hot and humid. Even when we would go out walking with our guide early in the morning, we’d be literally sopping in sweat by the first 15 minutes (think 90+ degrees and 90% humidity). It was tough.

The day we walked up to this viewpoint over our lodge, it took us a little over an hour, but we saw nothing except lots of leaves and the muddy trail in front of us. I had been really looking forward to seeing more primates here, but we had a few really hot and fruitless days of walking in the jungle. Ah well, you can’t win ‘em all. We did see an ebony tree...

… and a massive pillbug (tennis ball size) -

This is one that was undisturbed -

Hands down, the best time we had in 3 days was on the night hike on our 2nd evening. We saw loads of things, from Forest Crabs (a couple of inches wide in total)…

… to a Huntsman Spider (size of your palm)…

… to this teeny Black-spotted Rock Frog (thumbnail size).

We walked by a pond that was loaded with treefrogs.

I had always been envious of pictures that I saw of treefrogs, and wondered how the photographers found them (usually they’re very small) as well as got their photos. Well, I learned that they sit motionless…

… despite bright lights shined right at them. All of these pictured here were no bigger than 3-4 inches.

The crowning glory of the evening was seeing a Western Tarsier. This is a primate that is only found on Borneo and Sumatra. It is completely nocturnal and its body is only 6 inches long.

if you enlarge the photo, you can see the long hairless tail and maybe make out one of the fingers near the head

Despite the bright lights shone on him from several angles, and lots of photographers madly clicking away, he remained motionless.

So, here’s lookin’ at you kid. G’night.