In April 2006 we went again to the Danum Valley to work there for two weeks to make photographs. The idea was to take the helicopter flight that they were using to drop 78 pax into the forest to do a survey. The plan was that they dropped us at Mt Danum and than we had to walk back in 2 days to the field centre. A group of guys had to walk towards us in one day with the food and camping supplies.
When Glenn from the RS mentioned this to the guys they said straight away that this was impossible to do it in one day since the climb after Purut is very steep and no way that a person can do that with a heavy load.
He suggested the Purut waterfall to us as an alternative and that was possible in one day and also very nice. To us it sounded as a very nice place and we set a date so that the guys had enough time to buy food in Lahad Datu for 3 to 4 days.
At 9.30 we left with Nasir, Unding, Apech, Dedy and Shidih and used a short cut that lead us through a part of the forest that was partly destroyed by a group of elephants, no wonder that you have to be careful not to camp on their walkway because they just walk over your campsite and that’s no fun.
The path became a bit steep after 2 hours and the four guys except Nasir, who stayed with us, were going ahead so that they could set up camp.
We walked in beautiful dipterocarp forest and took a lot of photographs; the only unpleasant creatures were leeches because it had been raining the last couple of days. It was impossible to avoid them but that’s also part of the Bornean rainforest.
Some parts were very slippery and we had to go slow, also because of the steepness, and had to hold on to branches to keep our balance but finally we arrived in our camp after a whole day walk. The usual walking time is around 4 to 5 hours but we stopped many times to take pictures: that’s why it took bit longer.
The area was indeed beautiful, a nice river with overhanging branches and lianas and we took our bath near the waterfall in a nice pool. The guys put up our sleeping place a bit higher and we had asked them to bring hammocks for us, together with our mosquito net that was cooler than a tent. They themselves had 2 tents and their campsite was a bit lower, not far from the riverbank.
The next morning we took a lot of pictures and after that 2 guys went back to the Field Centre. Hans went with Nasir, Unding and Shidih across the river to go a bit higher into a narrow gorge to another waterfall. Than it started drizzling and Shidih told Nasir that it was dangerous to stay there, because if the water rises suddenly, there is no way you can escape and they came back and lucky the river was still low.
We decided to take our bath (it was 4 pm) and suddenly we heard the waterfall making a strangely louder sound and when I looked I saw that the water volume had increased and the water level around our feet started rising and I was standing with my shoes in the water. I shouted to Hans to get out, realizing that it could become to dangerous and also the guys were waving to us to get out of the water and within minutes it rose half a meter.
That was around 6pm, and soon the rain stopped and we had our dinner. The guys mentioned that their tent was wet inside and we gave them plastic bags to put on the ground to keep the cold away. We all were tired and went to our campsite around 8. The rain started again and became very heavy and didn’t stop at all and it rained the whole night. I was really worried because I knew that the guys’ camping site was not so far from the river. They kept on checking the river and when it started coming over the edge of the level where they camped, they moved their tents higher up to a place near us, while it rained very heavenly. Our place was ok and there was no problem; only a bit of rain came in, partly soaking our sleeping bags at our feet. The waterfall made a thundering noise and it was very scary because it was so dark and we had no clue what really was happening. I was also scared that trees might fall down and none of us slept really well that night.
Our friends were so cold and their clothes were soaked that they decided to make a fire and kept them self warm while drinking hot coffee. Around 2 am they went to their tent and went to sleep inside the plastic bags. We all woke up very early and than we saw how the river had risen 2 meters, and it was very wild and the waterfall really much bigger than the night before and very noisy.
We all decided to go back since almost everything was wet and they had no dry clothes left and it was impossible to dry anything anyway.
The walk back was no problem but all the small streams that we had crossed were higher, this time Unding stayed with us and the other 2 went ahead again and that was lucky for us because the Segama river had risen 5 meters and near the field center the streams were so high and they had cut another path for us. Otherwise we had to swim across and with all the photo equipment was not a good idea.
When we were all back we had a lot of fun again and realized that next time we will never camp so close near a river since we had seen how fast it can rise and a pleasant camp can end up to be a dangerous spot.
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