Borneo roadtrip

My Dad, bro and I weren't quite ready to go home after our family trip to Sri Lanka, so we decided to pop in to Borneo on the way home. I booked some cheap accommodation in Kota Kinabalu (the capital of Malaysian Borneo) and after a short flight, we were wandering around the local markets:





I was keen to get out of the city asap, so first thing the next morning we hired a car and started driving. The plan was to head north along the eastern coast, cut through the central highlands to the west coast and explore a couple of national parks, then make our way back to Kota Kinabalu along the northern coast. But first I wanted to check out a couple of beaches/river mouths near Kota Kinabalu that looked pretty fishy:



This beach was pretty gnarly - half the surrounding forest had been washed away:



We made our way to a river mouth a few kilometres along the beach, but when we got there we were greeted with this:



A huge mining operation, which had no doubt trashed the ecosystem and would make fishing a waste of time – goddamit. So we made the long trek back to the car and after a short drive and another long walk, made our way to this spot - looks pretty fishy right?



Wrong. After 2 hours all we had to show for our efforts was this tiny cod:



And a mudskipper that I caught with my hat:



At the end of the sesh my old man tied on a big stickbait and had three massive explosions behind his lure for no hookup - it just wasn’t our day. So when the sun started to set and these creepy cows started giving us some dirty looks:



We decided to call it quits. I would have liked another crack at this spot, but we had lots of Borneo to explore and only a week to do it, so the next morning we started making our way inland towards south-east Asia’s largest peak – Mount Kinabalu. The drive through the mountains was insane:




I was super keen to explore some of the freshwater streams and rivers in this area as Borneo is home to some pretty sweet freshwater fish (golden mahseer, giant snakehead, etc), but unfortunately heavy recent rain had turned all the larger rivers into brown deluges:



And all the smaller rainforest streams into raging torrents:



With freshwater fishing off the cards, we decided to make our way to a little hostel at the base of Mount Kinabalu:



It was pretty grim:



But the views from our balcony were unreal (especially when the mist cleared):



And the fresh local produce was a tasty treat:



The cool temperate rainforest at these higher elevations was a nice change from the heat and humidity of the lowlands, and it was home to some wicked invertebrates (that snail was the size of my palm):




And these cheeky little buggers - silvery langurs:




After exploring Mount Kinabalu we continued on our way west to a coastal city called Sandakan, which is most well known for its floating shanty towns in the local bay:




We based ourselves in Sandakan for a few days while we explored some of the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries nearby. The main reason I wanted to visit Borneo was to see orangutans, which might not be here much longer if the palm oil industry is left to run amok. You can see it's devastating effects everywhere (this is a recently cleared patch of rainforest - pretty grim):



Luckily there are still a few patches of pristine rainforest:



And we were lucky enough to see both orangutans and the endemic proboscis monkey:




We managed to get really close to a group of proboscis monkeys – they’re so weird:




From Sandakan we went north to Borneo’s most northern tip. We checked into a little bungalow on this beaut little beach:



And it didn’t take long before we found this very fishy rock ledge:



We started flicking around little hards on the bream gear and it didn’t take long before I came up solid:



A nice little grassy sweetlip – not a bad start. Over the next hour we pulled in a few nice little reefies:





But when the heavens opened and I got drenched by a couple of massive waves, we decided to call it quits. The next morning was our penultimate day and I was keen to head to another river mouth that I’d found on google earth. So after a typical Malaysian breakfast:



We made our way to this little ripper:



Pretty nice. And some heavy rain over night meant there was a tasty dirty water line forming:



I knew there would be predators lurking around this dirty water line, but it was just out of casting range (dang!). We waited for the incoming tide to push it closer and as soon as we were able to work our lures between the dirty and fresh water, my dad had a hit:



Only tiny, but it was a start. And it didn’t take long before I came up solid too:



What the hell is this?! I’ve never seen anything like it before - it looked like a furry stone fish that could walk. Bizarre. Anyway, while I was trying to get him back into the water without spiking myself, dad yelled out that he was finally on to a decent fish:



Well decent might be a stretch, but a jack is a jack - and a Bornean jack to boot. Things were finally starting to happen so I tied on a slightly larger lure in case there was something bigger lurking, and after a few casts it was hammered. This was a good fish and it was making my little 2500 stradic sing, and when I saw a big silver flank in the shallows I though I might have hooked something pretty special. But I was a little disappointed to see this dirty bastard pop up:




A big barracuda – still a kewl fish, but not the barra or black bass I was hoping for. Unfortunately by the time we had released this guy, the dirty water line was out of casting range again, so we decided to head home on a relative high. We didn’t land any trophies, but it had been a ripper day, and the sunset back at our beach bungalow was spectactular:



The next morning we started the long trip back to Kota Kinabalu, where we were catching a flight home. We explored a couple of lovely beaches on the way:




Drove through some pretty wild weather:



And dropped off our faithful steed (this car was actually the biggest piece of shit, I can't believe it survived the trip):



And all too soon we were in a cab on the way to the airport. It was a killer trip, and I’d love to head back there with a bit more time to explore properly...just not in the wet season next time ha.

Cheers!

Sri Lanka with my family

I've just spent a killer three weeks with my extended family in Sri Lanka  - here's what we got up to:

We flew into Colombo, which was chaos:



There is so little space in Colombo that they are literally filling in the ocean to create more land:



I shit you not - they're filling in the ocean. Like seriously?!? Anyway, we got on a bus and made our way north towards a coastal area called Kalpatiya, when this happened:



We hit a motorcyclist head on, and in the space of about 3 minutes the motorcyclist had been loaded into the back of a passing ute, our driver had disappeared, and an angry mob had formed. Holy shit - welcome to Sri Lanka! We jumped onto another bus before things got too ugly, and on arrival at our accommodation in Kalpatiya, were greeted with the perfect trauma cure:




Puppies (and frogs)!




The next morning we got up before the sun and headed to a local beach to see spinner dolphins, which form gigantic pods in the area at this time of year. We booked a local boat that barely looked seaworthy (it didn't even have a bloody motor on it when we got there):



But the locals knew how to handle a boat, and we were soon in open water. We started heading towards a flock of working birds and it didn't take long before we were in the midst of a massive school of spinners:




They’re called spinner dolphin because they leap out of the water and spin:



Scientists aren't sure why - maybe they're just havin a laugh? I also saw a couple of tuna jump out of the water while we were following the pod of dolphins – I'm guessing that's what the local fisherman were chasing:



From Kalpatiya we travelled inland to Wilpattu national park, where we were really hoping to see a leopard. I spent weeks in India looking for the bastards and didn't see a whisker, so I was desperate to see them on this trip. This park was dominated by dense woodland:



So spotting wildlife was a bit tricky. However we still saw a heap of cool critters like spotted deer:



Sambar deer:



Land monitors:



Coyotes (in the distance):



Lots of impressive birds like this serpent eagle:



 Brown fish owl:



Blue-tailed bea-eater:



And malabar hornbill:



And some not so impressive birds:



This is Sri Lanka's national bird. They call it a jungle fowl - we called it a chicken. But despite finding Sri Lanka's king of fowl, the king of the jungle eluded me again (dang). From here we made our way to a local village:



This involved a short trip across a river:



Which was chockas full of frogs and turtles:




The villagers rely on bulls for labour (and to give rides to tourists):



Rice is the staple food:



But the villagers grew all sorts of weird and whacky fruit and vege (who knew pineapples grew on bromeliads?!):



But the best part of our visit was meeting some local legends:




Our next stop was Kaudalla national park, which is famous for it’s elephants:




This grumpy old matriarch let us know we were getting too close to her herd by charging at a nearby jeep:



Then marching the herd away:



From here we made our way to the ancient city of Anuradhapura, which dates back to the 3rd century BC:



It was a solid hike to the top, but the views were killer:



And on the way we found this cave, which was full of bats and skinks:





Next stop was Sri Lanka’s second biggest city, Kandy. The view from our balcony was A+:



We did a bit of shopping at the local markets:



Which, like in every city in Sri Lanka, were full of pesky Colombo crows:



We visited a few cultural landmarks, including Sri Lanka’s most holy Buddhist temple – the temple of the tooth relic, which apparently holds one of Buddha’s teeth:



And this gigantic stupa, which holds some of his ashes:



Unfortunately my life of debauchery prevented any epiphany of enlightenment, but there were heaps of monkeys to keep me entertained. Grey langurs:



And common macaques:



We also saw a couple of snake charmers:



This is a pretty hideous practice – they cut out the cobra’s fangs, and many die either from the surgery or from starvation. Pretty grim:



From Kandy we travelled to Centauria Lake – an impoundment in the central province of Sabaragamuwa. We had a spare afternoon so Dad and I pulled out our travel rods and made our way to this fishy looking side channel:



We started flicking around little hards and it didn’t take long before the first fish hit the bank:



My first fish in Sri Lanka - a little under whelming. And my next fish wasn’t much bigger:



This was some species of barb – pretty, but no trophy. We caught a few of these aggressive little guys:



Until finally, I hooked into something with a little bit more weight:



Not much more weight, but at least it was bigger than the lure ha. I caught another one of these cool little gudgeons but we didn’t encounter anything more substantial, and when the light started to fade:



And the freshwater crabs started to emerge from their burrows:



We decided to call it quits. The next day we headed south to Kithulgala, where we went white water rafting on the Kelani River:




I found heaps of cool wildlife in the surrounding countryside like this streaked kukri snake:



Miscellaneous frog (featuring guppy):



Indian tree squirrels (which are everywhere):



Termite gecko:



This funky little dragon:



And this wicked little saw scaled viper:



We also visited a snake venom research centre, where they are developing various anti-venoms for several of Sri Lanka’s deadly endemic snakes:



The highlight was this unreal albino cobra:



Our next stop was Tissamaharama, where we based ourselves while exploring Sri Lanka’s most famoust national park – Yala. This park holds the highest density of leopards in the world, meaning it was probably the best chance we would ever get to see one. This park is much drier than the previous parks we’d been too, and was dominated by sparse shrubland:



We had two days in the park and on the first, we saw heaps of wildlife. Buffalo:



Wild boar:



Painted storks:



Super cute mongoose:



Trees FULL of bats:



Heaps of land monitors:



Lots of little green bea-eaters having dust baths:



More hornbills:



This funky Eurasian spoonbill (featuring crocodile):



Lots of jungle chickens:



But again, no bloody leopards. The next morning was our last chance and to be honest, I wasn’t too confident. Goddamn leopards. But I still got up before the sun and, surprisingly, it didn’t take long before we saw our first sign of one:



A fresh footprint – we were in the right area. We decided to camp out at a rock face where a leopard had been sighted earlier, but an hour later we hadn’t seen so much as a whisker. I was ready to make a move when my cousin spotted something on the rock face:



A leopard! Thank god. It looked like it was stalking something, and a few minutes later:



A bloody big deer appeared on the top of the rock. We watched as the leopard approached the deer, with the deer in full defence mode, before the leopard thought better of it and slipped into the bush:



Probably a good choice - the deer was bloody massive. Feeling pretty smug we decided to head home, and on our way out of the park we saw this guy chilling on the side of the road:



Nice! I wish this photo was in focus - goddammit:



From Tissamaharama we continued our way south to the beautiful Bundala beach. On the way we passed several local fisherman:



Including the famous Sri Lankan stilt fisherman (man it looks uncomfortable):



I was super keen to wet a line, so when we got a spare afternoon Dad and I jumped in a Tuk Tuk:



And headed straight to this beaut beach:



Unfortunately, the only outfits we had were a pair of 2-5kg spin sticks with 2500 reels – not exactly ideal for spinning the surf. I decided to chuck on the heaviest lure I’d brought (a TN60) to try and get some casting distance. The beach looked super fishy and it didn’t take long before my lure was crunched. This was a good fish, and after a 15 minute fight that had me running up and down the beach, I landed this little beauty (apologies for the closed eyes, it was glarey):



A nice little GT – no monster, but it sure gave me a workout in the 1-2m shore break:



And it was just hooked:



We kept flicking until the sun started to drop but had no more hits (what I would have given for a proper beach spinning outfit!). On the way back home we decided to have a quick flick off a little rock wall, and first cast I was on:



A little long tom, which was lucky to make it to the rocks after something bigger grabbed the poor bastard:



There were obviously some nice fish here, but it was dark, we were in the middle of nowhere, and we weren’t sure how we were going to get home, so we decided to call it a night. The next morning we made our way to Bundala national park, which is famous for it’s ramsar listed wetlands:



We spotted heaps of funky birds like this common kingfisher:



Rose-ringed parrakeet:



Purple heron:



Little green bee-eater:



Heaps of Indian darters warming their wings in the morning sun:



I was super excited to see this Asian openbill (if you look closely you can see the gap in its beak after which it's named):



Glossy ibis:



This gorgeous pair of lesser pied kingfishers:



And countless others that I didn’t photograph. There were also plenty of marsh crocodiles:



A pair of giant squirrels (India’s national animal):



And this black-naped hare:



The main reason we came to this park was to see the flamingos which migrate there at this time every year, but unfortunately, the salt pans were empty:



From Bundala we headed further south to Unawatuna, which is nice but super touristy:



This area is famous for the resident blue whales that inhabit its waters, and we were super keen to see some (blue whales!!!). We took a boat from a coastal town called Mirissa:



And after a beautiful sunrise:



The wildlife started to appear, including this pair of randy turtles:



And more spinner dolphins:



The call was soon made to head out to deeper waters to find some whales, and it didn’t take long before we spotted a spout in the distance:



We zoomed off towards it at top speed and made it just in time to see a gigantic tail disappearing beneath the water:



Blue whales!!  We ended up following what turned out to be a pair of blue whales for the rest of the morning, getting quite close at times (check out the little remora):



But after a few breaths, they would always descend back down to the depths:




It was an amazing morning, and something I’ll never forget. We had nothing planned for the rest of the day so Dad and I decided to head to a river mouth I’d found on google earth the night before and have an arvo flick. The biggest problem with fishing in Sri Lanka is finding somewhere quiet. There are people everywhere, no matter where you are in the country, and they are fascinated by tourists with fishing rods (aka they're annoying as all shit). So after a very close encounter with a train:



And several close encounters with the belligerent local cows:



We decided to wade across the river:



To a little sand bank away from the crowds:



This spot felt very fishy, and it didn’t take long before my double clutch was hammered and my reel was singing. After a brief fight my line went slack, and I retrieved my lure to reveal two very bent trebles – dang. A couple of cats later Dad had a hit too, and up popped this cute little trevally:



I thought we might be in for a ripper session, but all we could manage over the next 2 hours was more tiny trevs:



The most excitement we had was when I spotted something swimming in the water while I was chest deep retrieving a snagged lure (you can see his head if you look closely):



I thought it was a croc and flew out of the water, only to watch a giant water monitor make its way to shore:



As the sun started to set even the little trevs went quiet, so we wandered over to a little rock wall for a quick flick, but all we managed was this beautiful little trout:



But the sunset more than made up for the lack of fish:



The next day was our penultimate day, which we spent taking the scenic, coastal route back to Colombo. On the way we visited a turtle hatchery and research station, where they have successfully released over 3.5 million baby turtles:



Super cute. They housed green turtles, hawksbill turtles, olive-ridleys, leatherbacks, and loggerheads (larger baby in the photo is a green, smaller guys are olive-ridleys):



Sri Lanka’s turtle population is being ravaged by jerkoff poachers, and the only way local conservationists can save them is by buying poached eggs. They offer the poachers a higher price for them than they can get on the black market, and then incubate them at the hatchery:



They also rehabilitate injured turtles before releasing them back into the wild (first photo is a hawksbill, second a green turtle):




After the hatchery we made our way to Madhu River for a river cruise. I skipped the cruise and fished a little rock wall I’d spotted on the drive up:



On my way I had a quick chat to this local fisherman:



Who was collecting little baitfish in the shallows under the hopeful gaze of a couple of cheeky cats:



All this bait in the water could only be a good sign, and second cast my lure was crunched:



A beaut little trev, not a bad start. For the next hour and a half the bites came thick and fast, and although I lost more fish than I landed (including one monumental dusting), I managed to get a few up onto the rocks including this beautiful little fella:



And a couple of gorgeous cod:




I (very) reluctantly left them biting and made my way back to my family – not a bad little session to finish the trip. And that brings me to the end of our Sri Lankan odyssey. It truly is a wonderful country – the beaches are mint, the food is killer, the wildlife is unreal, and the people are lovely:



I think this sign sums it up nicely:



Is that the sweetest sign in the world or what?!

Cheers!