Journey Along the Katibas River - Part 1

Boat express from Sibu town to Song which depart at 6.15am and reach Song at 8.15am.

It was a follow-up trip to the long houses along the Katibas River which is regarding the labours appointment to join us in our orangutan nest survey last June. Actually i only assist the officer from the Forest Department but as usual, i am excited because this is my first time going upper Katibas River.

My excited face on the boat just before we start our journey.

We already plan to overnight at the last longhouse which is Rh. Sapai and TR Sapai himself is our boatman for this trip. Our journey will took us more than six hours because we will be stopped at a few longhouses to deliver the letters and meet up with the locals. Somehow, the weather is not as good as we hope it will be. After our second stop, the rain was too heavy and we must reach Rh Sapai before its dark. So, we decide to skip the other four longhouses and continue it the next day on our way down to Song town.

The mouth of Katibas River

The water level is just nice so we don't have to pass the shallow water with rocky rocks in this super cool river. I imagine of the strong current but since the water level is quite high, so the current is just mild. 

Our boatman, TR Sapai. The fuel is cost about RM500 for one way trip. 

Our boatman is very experienced and skillful person and he knows all the safe route to escape the big rocks in this river. I salute him for i feel safe along the way but somehow, he was drunk on the next day after a few stops at the longhouses. Only then i start to feel scared. Ha ha ha..

The flowers of Ensurai tree (Dipterocarpus sp.) is food source of aquatic life in this river.

It was a great experienced, even though it took us six hours to reach TR Sapai's longhouse and bad weather on the first day but i amazed by the beautiful scene along the river banks especially after the second last longhouse. It was amazing to have a chance to see the flowering Ensurai trees (Dipterocarpus sp.) along the rivers and knowing that the food source of the aquatic life especially the fishes is abundant and available. 

Finally, in the end, this will be one of the experience that i will appreciate as much as other trips that i have made while exploring the Rainforest of Borneo. I am grateful to God for this great opportunity and i am still safe and sound. 

---

Grateful Heart, 

Rose Ragai

Never Stop Walking in The FOREST

I am back to my own hometown now. Gladly to say that I will share my experienced and knowledge at my new working place. Wondering why I keep moving from one job to one job?! Its like I will never stop searching for an opportunity that I can best serve the mother nature. I am not really serving my salary payer but I am just doing what I think is the right thing to do. My heart breaks every time I see things is done wrongly especially when it is related with our rich tropical forest. But somehow, I have to admit that I am not an experts in any specific field but I have a hearts that know really sure, I am the defender of the forests (fauna & flora).

Here I share two of my photos during my recent trip up until the border of West Kalimantan during our Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus) nests survey in June 2015.

View towards the Betung Kerihun National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesia.

On the international border with West Kalimantan, Indonesia.



     Till then!

---

Rose Ragai

The Lake & Ruddy Kingfisher

The lake..

The Ruddy Kingfisher..

The Ruddy Kingfisher & me..

---

Wordless Tuesday,

Rose Ragai

Amazing Findings

Black and Crimson Pitta
Pitta ussheri

White - Crowned Hornbill
Aceros comatus

White - Necked Babbler
Stachyris leucotis

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - Rufous-sided Sticky Frog

Kalophrynus pleurostigma (Rufous-sided Sticky Frog)

Taken at Kg. Munchu, Ulu Merapok, Lawas.

Be Alert

Taken at Muaya Waterfall, Sipitang

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - Rock Formation

Photo taken at Tomani, Tenom, Sabah

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - A Wooden Boat by the River?

Photo taken at Sg. Mio, Long Mio, Sipitang, Sabah

# 1 - Walking Through Nature

It has been a while i did not share my experienced walking through nature. This will be my story for today. On the 10th of Jan, i went to the waterfall area, one of our conservation area to do some site survey for my Vanilla trial plot. Along the walk i observed a few interesting small creature and plants. Actually we wanted to plot a 50m x 50m plot and do some clearing for our pathway. So, along the pathway that we cleared we cross two rocky streams that have a very clear clean water. Cold and refreshing. Here is photos of four interesting fellas that i met along the walk.



A shy little criket on the mossy rock near the stream.
Keeping itself silence and static on the rock.
When i wanted to capture more of it photos, it flew away.

Climbing lianas with it's beautiful flower. It is quite interesting
because before this i captured a photo of liana's fruits.
Now i got one that with flower. Quite interesting for me because liana
is one of the important climbers for small mammals movements in the forest. 

The tree roots attached to the rock inside the rocky stream.
Amazing right? How the tree survive just attached its root to the rock.

Is this fungi? Hmmm... i think this is a fungi. One of the species.
Not sure what is t exactly.

That is all the findings for the day! Will share more stories of my walk in my next posts. Till then guys!

My Fungi Photo Collection - 2010

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - From the eyes of the fern

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY -- Water Source



Photo taken at hilly paddy field (padi bukit)
at Alutok, Ulu Tomani, Tenom

Photo taken at village rubber plantation
at Alutok, Ulu Tomani, Tenom

My Flowery Friend - Liparis wrayi

Photo taken at Muaya Waterfall, Sipitang

It has been more than a week i didn't wrote here. Today i want to share a little bit about one of the Orchid that we found last year. This is the terrestrial orchid species. They grow on the ground. Actually before this i only known that orchid grows on trees and never on the ground. But when i joined one of scientific expedition with UMS last year, i learn a little bit about orchid from a botanist friend that working on orchids of Borneo.

She told me that orchid did grow on the ground and using soil as the substrate to growth. This is a new thing for me and i find it is interesting, though.

This one is a tiny orchid, only about 15cm height and the flower also tiny. But they are pretty as you can see in the photo above. The scientific name is Liparis wrayi. I tride to Google to get more info on this orchid but can't found any details info about it.

So, then i leave you guys till here. Have a good day and I Love Orchids.. (",)
 

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - Climbing Liana Fruits

Photo taken at Muaya Waterfall, Sipitang.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - Forests Beautiful Sunset

Photo taken at Tomani, Tenom, Sabah

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - Animal Dung, Treasure of the Forest

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - Cob Web & Morning Mist

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY -- Another Ferns

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - Logging Truck

Mount Kinabalu View

View taken from Bundu Tuhan Retreat Centre. Really love this scene of Mount Kinabalu.
Wake up in the morning and this is the first view that makes my day.
Thank God for such a beautiful creation.
Nature.