We have just arrived back to Jakarta after 10 days on the Indonesian side of Borneo photographing Orangutans. We will publish a trip report, a YouTube slideshow and some more postings as soon as we can, but for now some immediate thoughts about the expedition.
First, getting there from Europe takes a bit of effort and time. We took Singapore Airlines to Singapore, on to Jakarta and from there another internal flight and boat, ending up at Tanjung Putting National Park. On the way, we took a slight diversion to see the amazing Buddhist temple/s at Bodupur and to get over at least some of our jet lag. 
Secondly, for the best viewings and time with the Orangutans you live on a river boat. This is no 5 star luxury liner, but purpose built wooden boats with a guide, captain, cook and helper. We absolutely loved it and indeed found the food the best we had while in Indonesia. Sleeping in the open air with only a mosquito net between you and the jungle is a great experience. Early 6am starts were the norm with lights out often by 8pm!
Thirdly, it can be wet, very wet, no very very very wet! On our trip it rained every day, either for say 30 minutes or a couple of hours. For the second time in our Shutterspeeedtravel careers, one of the Canon 5D Mark IIs failed. It's electrics went mad and drained a battery in 10 minutes and then decided not to work. Lenses fogged up at times in the 100% humidity. But of course this did mean we could get some great shots of the Orangutans in the rain. 
Or just after the Biblical rainfalls by which time the Orangutans' were absolutely soaked … as were we.
Fourthly, thanks to good advice from our friend Paul McKenzie of wildencounters.net we left behind our trusted 500mm and 600mm bazookas and most of our shooting was with either the 24-70mm or 70-200mm lenses, just because you get very close to these wonderful great apes. Downside of the forest is that it is pretty dark and if our Orangutans were up in the trees above us, we'd be shooting into a whiteout sky wherever there wasn't dark shadowy tree canopy. So most of the time we were shooting on 400 to 1,000 ISO. This sort of example of a young male was taken from three feet with the lens at 38mm. Fantastically close!
Finally, the experience with the Orangutans is very different to any of the other great Apes. Most of the time they are very calm, unlike Chimps or Bonobos. And their arboreal movement has to be seen to be believed. They are smooth, elegant and graceful, defying gravity and like none of the other great apes. This trip marks for us the seeing of the last of the great ones and we feel truly privileged. All very special, in their own way but regrettably within 50 years tops, some of them will only be subjects of history.
If you're really lucky, you can spend hours with the Orangutans, unlike say the Mountain or Lowland Gorillas where you are restricted to one hour.
Most of the time we were seeing females with young babies.
At other times it was great trying to capture the young as they were clambouring up in the trees.
On occasion the dominant males would appear and they were a few dress sizes bigger then anything else around … and they knew it! In this case "Big Tom" who at 225kg is no lightweight.
And Adam always likes getting in close to capture portraits of these amazing creatures.
And of course there were other primates around. Gibbons and Proboscis monkeys were our favorites. The Proboscis monkeys would gather every evening on top of the trees by the river jumping around. Blessed with noses and vocals not seen on any other creature thankfully:)
A really special experience. One other point; we found the Indonesian people really friendly and loved having their pictures taken. For the first time in many years we were asked time and time again to have our photographs taken with local people.
More to follow but in the meantime, Happy New Year to all our friends! Despite the numerous challenges facing our world, may 2012 be safe, happy and prosperous.
Julie and Adam ;-)
Borneo Orangutans – 30 December 2011
