Sabah/Sarawak – The 7k by 80 Project

Yeo Siew Teck (leader, Sarawak)

Wilbur Goh (leader, Sabah)

Ian Adam

Stefan Johansson (Sarawak only)

Roxane Larouche

Fraser McConnell

Peter Marsh

Simon van der Meulen (Sabah only)

Brendan Ryan

Sarawak crew. L to R Peter, Stefan, Brendan, Ian, Roxane and Fraser
Yeo was taking the photo

Sabah crew. L to R Fraser, Brendan, Roxane, Simon, Peter, Ian and Wilbur

Birdtour Asia ran their 2022 Sabah trip, and Sarawak pre-tour extension, from 5th to 25th June. Yeo Siew Teck lead the extension and Wilbur Goh the main tour, both of whom were very competent leaders. The trips were however very different in character. The infrastructure in Sarawak is fairly basic, the weather was inclement and the walking ,in some sections, quite strenuous. By contrast in Sabah much better accommodation is available, the weather was inclement but the rain could be much more easily avoided and the walking rather less strenuous. Both parts of the trip offered wonderful birds but it was quite noticeable that birds were much more frequently encountered in Sabah than in Sarawak.

The “highlight” of the Sarawak extension was the visit to the hut at Paya Maga where we spent 2 nights. Local villagers carried up food and bedding. They also did the cooking.

The visit here was important as it is the only place on the tour that one can see the Black Oriole. We also saw Bornean Frogmouth, Bornean Banded Pitta and Blue-banded Pitta here.

The walk in is 6 or so Km of very muddy uphill track. The mud was often calf deep which made wellington boots a necessity. The incessant rain didn’t help.

The track was an old logging road which was OK but periodically there were washaways such as the creek crossing shown on the left. The logs were very slippery despite the efforts of the porters to roughen up the walking surface of the logs with their machetes.

The rain and the cool damp conditions at the Paya Maga hut meant one put on each morning the wet clothes one had taken off the night before. Brrrr!

It was quite a shock to transition from the relatively rough living in Sarawak to the luxury of the Borneo Rainforest lodge in the Danum Valley. This was our first stop on the Sabah section of the trip. Comfortable rooms with functional plumbing, delicious food and magnificent unspoiled forest combined with an abundance of birds. The only thing that detracted was the ever present, blood sucking, leaches .

The Kinabatangan River provided luxury of a different kind, transport was largely by boat which made birding here very relaxing. That is apart from the tensions of trying to get a sight of the Bornean Ground Cuckoo in the hour or so after we were supposed to have left for Mt Kinabalu.

When we did arrive at Mt Kinabalu the birding was incredible. We had fine mornings every day with rain developing over lunch on a couple of days. While we were allowed to drive to the top of Power Station Road (which is as far as one can drive up the mountain) there still seemed to be a surprising amount of uphill walking to get to the lower reaches of the mountain.

The Birdtour Asia 2022 trip report for Sabah and Sarawak may be accessed here.

New birds seen on this trip were:-