Traveling Fool

The entire motivation for going to Borneo was to see the orang utan (Malay for person of the forest). People have asked why (why do I do anything really?) and I guess it's because I find them just amazing animals, they are endangered and I wanted to have an experience. Seeing wild animals is really different in reality compared to what one plans, which may seem obvious, but I like to hear myself talk. The odds were pretty low that I would be hiking in the rainforest and come across an orang utan, so seeing them in a rehab center and the sanctuary was still amazing and captivating. At the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre  you can see animals that may have bene orphaned or injured in the wild and if possible, they will be nursed back to health and released into the wild, others will remain at the Centre. On the other side of the centre is a sanctuary where orang utans can come and go as they wish, maybe coming in for feeding, but if they are getting food on their own, they ma...

 In mid-2024 I started planning my next adventure to Borneo , home of the orangutan . Admittedly, I had no idea where to start, so I worked with Audley Travel to plan out this expedition. The first step was to actually understand where and what Borneo is, because I totally misunderstood what it is. Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is divided/shared between three countries: Indonesia , Malaysia and Brunei . The part of Borneo I was visiting was the Malaysian part. Where is Borneo? Borneo is southeast of Malaysa and east of Indonesia, bordered by the Celebes Sea , the Java Sea and the South China Sea . It is divided by the equator , which is why it is so hot and the sun is so powerful. Ok, geography lesson over, let's get down to other practicalities. Flying to Malaysia from Minneapolis I was going to cross the international date line and be twelve hours ahead of my home base. My travel planner suggested that in order to adjust to the time difference and jet l...

 I had this trip to Nebraska planned for several months, and I was really looking forward to it after being cooped up all winter. I think cranes first entered my consciousness after I spent a couple hours at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin on a road trip to Cleveland . And then a friend mentioned the Sandhill crane migration that goes through the Platte River region in Nebraska in March/April. It sounded amazing. I just needed to start planning; the weather in this region in March can be horribly unpredictable, would I run into a snowstorm or would it be dry and blue skies? Turns out it was a little of both. Just a few days before I started out, there was a major snowstorm in Nebraska, which made me nervous, but I had great weather.  There are a few different ways to see the cranes and probably the best way is to connect with one of the conservancy groups that does educational work on the cranes and the diverse wildlife on the Platte River. They offer ...

  After the sunshine and light breezes of Easter Island, I was headed to the southernmost point of Chile, Punta Arenas, to see PENGUINS. It involved a lot of connecting flights and waiting, and even the possibility that the weather would be so inhospitable that I wouldn't get to see them. The weather in Punta Arenas was not that cold, not like the -11 F we have today, it was in the 40s and 50s. It was the wind that was ridiculous, so strong, swirling and blowing around the Strait of Magellan.  These particular penguins, the Magellanic Penguins live on Isla Magdelena, protected by rangers and a system that monitors visiting tour boats and how long people stay on the island. It's about an hour walking around on a path, do not wander off of the path and do not get too close to the penguins. Our little group actually had to stop and wait for a penguin to cross the little path to get to the other side. Even with these 'restrictions' I felt like we still got some good views a...

This was a day all about the Birdman ceremony and the places associated with it. The contest took place at Orongo and overlooks a precipitous cliff and the Motu Nui islet. We were up on the cliff and it was very windy. I'm not afraid of heights, but the thought of trying to climb down the cliff (or the concern of falling off) made me take a few steps back. We walked through the settlement and got to see the shelters that were created just for the time of the ceremony. They figured it was a better plan to build sturdy structures once, then have to build new structures every year. The contestants vying for the yearly title of Birdman climbed down the cliff, swam to the furthest islet, climbed up (there aren't any nice sandy beaches) and find an egg of the sooty tern, a bird that returned every year and was recognized as a way to mark the calendar. Our guide told us it was the only bird that had a regular migratory pattern at that time. Mirador Rano Kau Birdman point of view Motu ...