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One night in the jungle of Sumatra

Writer's picture: JWJW

The thirst for adventure was awakened when I read that in Sumatra there is the possibility to book a jungle hike with overnight stay. Sumatra is (next to Borneo) one of 2 places in the world where you can still see free-living orangutans. No sooner said than done - we booked a 2-day jungle hike.


A short anecdote about our trekking guide Lely, before I report about the trek itself. When we traveled to Sumatra, we arrived late in the evening at the airport. Outside it was already dark and it was pouring. From the airport we still had a cab ride of about 3 hours to the hotel ahead of us. We were already very tired after the flight and the car ride so late in the evening (the driver was extremely fast considering the darkness and the weather) gave us the rest. About 2 in the morning we finally arrived at the hotel.


Totally tired, we dragged ourselves out of the car and just wanted to get to our room. When we got out and went to the reception area, we were greeted by 3 men. We were a little irritated that so many people were still awake at 2am to say hello to us, but didn't really question it. Then one of the three men, Lely, started telling us that he didn't belong to the hotel but was our guide from the jungle trekking and came here especially to give us the info for the trekking. He was super upbeat, smiled at us and told us to please sit down and he tells us everything calmly, what to expect, what to take with us and other useful tips. When we didn't move an inch from the spot and just looked at him in amazement, he realized that it probably wasn't quite the best time to still be absorbing information. He smiled at us, wished us a good night, and then was back in time for breakfast the next day to finally share his information.


The hike then started again the following day leisurely at 9 am in the morning, so we could still sleep in and have breakfast in peace. We were then picked up by our guide Lely with a tuk-tuk, which brought us to a meeting point, where we met the other participants of the trekking tour. In total, our group consisted of 5 tourists and 2 tour guides.


At about 10, our trek started. It started quite comfortably flat, we went over a bridge and along a river, until we finally came into an already densely overgrown area where then "the real hike" with many uphill passages started. Right at the beginning of the hike we saw a monitor lizard at a pond, so it was already going great.


Our 2 guides split up in such a way that one guide always went a little ahead to see if he saw orangutans and then guided us to the right place. We were very lucky and after a short time we saw an orangutan far up in the treetops. He stayed there for a very long time or only climbed further to the nearest trees. It almost seemed as if he was watching us. After about 10 minutes he elegantly climbed from one tree to the next and disappeared in the distance.



Shortly after we saw another orangutan together with a cub. The mother has taken the young animal partly by the arm and swang with him from one tree to the next. It was great to watch the two.


Our two guides both had big full backpacks with them and at the first break I understood why. They had taken a very rich food for us. There were quite a lot of different fruits as a snack in between and a full lunch.


On this day we hiked for about 6 hours. In between we saw orangutans and other monkeys like the Thomas Monkey (or also called funky monkey because of his hairstyle). These were very trusting and therefore we could watch them for quite a while rummaging through the leftover fruits of another tourist group.


Our destination for the first day was the camp on the river, which we then reached at about 16:30. The accommodation consisted of tarpaulins, rubber mats as mattresses and pads/blankets. We washed in the river and the toilet was the "bush toilet".



Since the day was very exhausting and we were completely sweaty, we looked for a slightly deeper place in the river and cooled down once. Outside the sleeping area in the camp there were still 2 large mats, which was virtually the common area. Here we strengthened ourselves with tea and cookies. The guides also had a sparsely equipped kitchen there, in which they boiled us spring water for drinking, as well as prepared food. The dinner was varied and very good - I have no idea how it was possible in the middle of nowhere to conjure up such a good rich meal.


Shortly after dinner, just as we stood by the river to brush our teeth, it started to pour incredibly hard. The heavy rain lasted for many hours and I just hoped that the tarp we were lying under would stay tight and that I wouldn't have to go to the bathroom during the night (jungle and darkness and heavy rain - not a good combination!). But the weather also somehow made this adventure a bit more exciting - it was a very unique atmosphere in the middle of nowhere with these huge masses of water crashing down from the sky.


I don't know when the rain stopped exactly, because at some point I was able to fall asleep, but the next day in the morning it was fortunately dry again and we could enjoy our breakfast outside. Shortly after that we packed up our stuff and started marching again.


It went immediately again for quite a while steeply uphill and thus we have also immediately the fresh T-shirts again completely sweaty. A reward came then just at the right time, namely when we already left the forces, because the uphill piece wanted to take no end. On a tree directly beside our way sat a chameleon. Fortunately, it sat patiently and let everyone take pictures of it. 😊


The hike on the second day lasted about 4 hours and on this day we saw Black Gibbons. We had heard the sounds of them many times the day before, but now we actually got to see them. We could watch one of them hanging comfortably on the branch with one arm and eating with the other arm in a peace of mind.


We finished the hike on the 2nd day at a river. From there we rafted downstream back to the location of our hotels. It was a very fun end to the hike and since we were already drenched in sweat, it was super refreshing. A tuk-tuk took us back to the hotel and that was the end of 2 very eventful days in the jungle.



What exciting overnight experiences have you had? 😊

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