I actually don’t have a bucket list. Nothing written down, but I have things in the back of my mind that I’d really like to do, and one thing that I really, really wanted to do, but wasn’t sure if I’d ever get the chance.

That ‘thing’ was to see orangutans in the wild. That box eas ticked yesterday morning and boy, it was a big tick!

I’d booked this tour back in April and everything else had been planned around it. The company I booked through is Borneo Eco Tours and I couldn’t fault a thing from start to finish. The guide we had was Yahya and goodness me what an amazing guide. Nothing, and I mean nothing was too much trouble. He knew everyone by name, learning our group quickly, made sure everyone got a turn in the front seat of the boat and, he found me the orangutans, and not just those!

In Borneo they talk about their ‘big five’ animals that you can spot here. They are the orangutan, the pygmy elephant, the Proboscis monkey, the Rhinoceros hornbill and the Estuarine Crocodile! Our group were really lucky to spot all of thrm, but that sbeaky hornbill didn’t appear until we were on the speedboat back to Sandakan this morning, now I can claim my certificate!

The Sukau Rainforest Lodge is also run by Borneo Eco Tour compsny and it’s a fabulous place. It was started in 1995 when alocal man sold some of his land to a couple of people looking to build a rainforest lodge. He agreed, as long as 75% (I think it was) off the staff were from the local villiage. He wanted to make sure there were always local jobs available to the community. ALL the staff witking at the lodge are local, i6love that. Everyone was warm, friendky and helpful. The lodge has hosted Sir David Attenborough multipke timrs and Dame Judi Dench has also been a guest! If it’s good enough for those ledgends… 😉

You all know that I’m not really a girl for jungle life but you’ll be quite proud of me that I didn’t get too scared walking/sort of ducking and running rhrough the bats (and back again) to get to dinner and no frogs or snakes came to say hello to me!

I could go on and on about what an amazing time it was, but I’ll stop. For now!