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Malaysia for National Geographic Traveler – Part I : Orangutans

Dec 082011

A male Orangutan relaxing after feeding.

Last September I had the privilege to go on my first assignment for National Geographic Traveler (NL). It turned out to be a super-short dash to the other side of the planet for a five-day mad dash to the Sabah Province in Malaysian Borneo. In three parts I will photoblog the trip, starting today with my visit to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre.

Upon entering the walkway to the feeding area these guys are hard to miss: Macaques.

Surprise find, a Viper!

Don’t get too close, these animals have huge teeth and know how to use them.

In over thirty years they have managed to bring back 600 animals into the wild, quite an accomplishment although it is hard to monitor the long-term results as these animals cannot be tagged. As impressive as this number is, not all animals are released. Even though human contact is minimized as much as possible, some of these amazing primates get so fond of their trainers that they will never leave the reserve and it’s forest. You have to realize that the animals are not caged, only at night, and they are free to go wherever they want. This is why at the feeding station, the popular tourist attraction, they only served the blandest of food available in order to stimulate the animals to go out and search for their own meals.

Hot, hot, hot, busy, busy, busy!

Young Urangutan at the feeding station.

Excellent place to snack…

In any way it is a fantastic place to go for a visit (the feeding takes place twice a day) because you get to see the animals quite up-close and will encounter many of the other monkey species that are prone to this region. From here on most people either go back home (Sandakan, the main port for the region is close-by) or head straight for the rainforest, as I did. So come back for part II and see if I encountered some wild elephants.

And how nice is it coming back to relax in the Sepilok Nature Resort.

Oman Turtles in Duikmagazine 5

Extreme, Publications, Scuba, Travel No Responses »

Oct 092009

I’m very happy with the new Duikamagzine (Dive Magazine) that just came out, a four page article on one of my favorite subjects of 2008: the Turtle beach at Ras al Jinz (check here for an earlier article on this website in English ).

NK Marathon Natuurijs

Events 1 Response »

Jan 092009

On a very foggy day, January 8th, Holland went mad for the first Ice-skating Marathon on natural ice in twelve years.

While the day before and after were blue-skied and nice and frosty this Thursday was grey, grey and grey… Hmmm, okay: and cold!

Unox, the main sponsor asked me to photograph the event for their ice-skating website, so I headed off at 7 in the morning to beat the traffic which I managed easily, arriving at a quarter past eight (had to be there at nine). Still slightly dark I saw the “Masters” skating their first rounds, not a very good thing to shoot in combination with fog but slowly during the day the light picked up a bit and I got warmed up. Hope you enjoy this series, shot in 16:9 format because somehow ice-skating seems to be made for it!

The “Masters” ice-skaters doing their rounds at dusk.

A very friendly collegue.

Carla Zielman (Women) finishes first in a media-frenzy.

The mens category, I just love that little cart. Must have seens aeons of ice-skating.

Sjoerd Huisman brings in fame and glory!

Click here for the full gallery.

Dominica in REIZEN Magazine

Publications, Travel No Responses »

Jan 062009

Four pages on Dominica (no, not the Dominican Republic!) in December issue of ANWB REIZEN Magazine:

The Ras al-Jinz Sea Turtle and Nature reserve

Travel 4 Responses »

Nov 292008

Imagine a beach where you can see turtles. Nothing special you say, just go to a warm place and you might get lucky. But what if there was a beach where you can see wild turtles every day? Laying eggs as well, every day! There is such a place and it’s called: Ras al Jinz and You’ll find it at the most eastern tip of Oman.

It’s 4:00 AM as we walk through the dark sands, trying not to fall as it is still pitchblack except for the incredible starlit nightsky above us. Our guide, this is a nature reserve, points us the way with a red light as one of his colleagues brings the word “we’ve found one just digging its nest!”. Our group, three journalists, three German biketourists and our Omani guide for the week halts with excitement. Bad news though: she’s just started digging so we’ll have to wait for the egglaying to start. This will take about an hour, would we show up earlier we’d scare the turtle away. As long as the egglaying itself hasn’t started the turtles don’t like to take chances.

An hours wait at this hour is a long one, still cold, wet and chilly we gaze upon the countless stars above until the time has come to advance.
But what a sight and what a worthwhile wait! A massive Green Turtle has dug herself a massive hole and is slowly but steadily laying her 60-100 eggs for the night. Every female does this every year for three years in a row and is then gone for four years before returning to the same beach for her whole productive life (age 35-80).
It’s an emotional moment to see the turtle working hard, we can even see the eggs: small golfballs without the dimples. Then it’s over, with her backfins she carefully covers up the eggs, moves forward and starts filling up the hole. Quite a task as it’s almost a meter deep. It takes ages and while the sun slowly advances to the horizon she finishes up her task in about 45 minutes.

And just when the sun is about to show it’s time for her to get back into the sea. It’s a short crawl as she dug her nest quite close to the shoreline. And while two small hatchlings advance as well to the safety of the water (for now, the seagulls have awoken for breakfast as well) the first wave hit’s the massive turtle shell. A wave later and she quickly disappears in the sea, she’s deserved her rest now! And then, the sun comes up. What a great way to start the day!