Myself and Dave had decided after spending the whole of 2005 traveling around South America, we would just do something cheap and cheerful for our honeymoon. So we bought the Lonely Planet Guide to Italy and started to plan a 2 week back-packing trip!

During this time I began to become more aware of the dangers that Orangutans are facing and of all the work being done to try and prevent these. One evening around the start of 2007, we were sitting watching Globe Trekker, Ian Wright was in Malaysia and went to visit Sepilok. We were both overwhelmed with the work that is done there and over the days that followed I could not stop thinking about it. I began to look into the possibility of going across; flights, accommodation, prices etc. I then approached the subject with Dave, one last “Big Travel Experience” for a few years. It didn´t take a lot to persuade him and it wasn´t long before we were booked to fly to Borneo and visit Sepilok for our honeymoon!

Our wedding was everything we had wished it would be - perfect. The day went like clock work, the sun shone and all of our friends and family were there to share it with us. We set off on our honeymoon two days later and after a traumatic time with delayed flights we finally arrived at our hotel in Kota Kinabalu on the 3rd of April 2007. Borneo is an amazing place with beautiful friendly people. We were treated like Royalty - which we found hard at first having spent a year back-packing!

On the morning of Tuesday the 10th of April, we were woken by the alarm going off at 4am. I didn´t care that the sun had not yet started to rise or that I hadn´t slept much...today we were going to visit our little Orange Cousins at Sepilok!! We picked our “Breakfast Bags” up from reception which we had ordered the night before, then we only had a few minutes to wait before our mini bus arrived to take us to the airport. We, along with another couple got into the bus and set off on the short journey to the airport.

Our flight was at 7:30am and took 40mins to get to Sandakan. We were met off the flight by Ramon who was to be our guide for the day - a very pleasant chap, who was very knowledgeable about the area. On the way to Sepilok we were given some back ground history on the Centre and on some of the Orangutans that were currently there. I was secretly pleased that I had heard of the Orangutans that he talked about and I kept elaborating on what was being said to Dave (much to Dave´s annoyance - I was excited what can I say!). Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre is 43sq km of protected land at the edge of Kabili Sepilok Forest. When we arrived we were taken into a room where we were shown a short film - “Man of the Forest” depicting the work done at the Centre. The room was covered in brilliant photographs of Orangutans and many trophies for the great work carried out.

After the film Ramon met us outside with our tickets. Visitors are permitted twice daily to view one of the feeding platforms within the centre. It was a scorching hot day and we were advised to put any sunscreen and mosquito spray on before going into the forest - there may be ingredients in these lotions etc that can be harmful to the animals. We set off into the forest walking along a wooden path way, Ramon pointed out different trees & foliage to us and gave us interesting, educational talks on each of them. When we arrived at the platform it was fairly quite and straight away we got our first glimpse of an Orangutan! We were both in awe and for a few minutes stood rooted to the spot ... the Orangutan was sitting halfway up a tree staring down at us, probably thinking to itself “Here they come again, it must be near feeding time! ”. It wasn´t long before we could hear the squabble of “tourists” coming behind us, all yelling and snapping away with heir cameras when they spotted the solitary Orangutan. Ramon came up behind us and told us to quickly move across to the right - easy seeing he did this job everyday, we got a perfect view at the front and were no more than 10 metres away from the feeding platform itself.

It wasn´t long before we could hear rustling in the trees and see the long ropes that hung from the platform into the forest start to move. Slowly, the “Men (and ladies) of the Forest” started to appear from all directions. It was truly an amazing sight, one that filled me with so much joy and brought a tear to my eye.

Swinging gracefully from long strong arm to long strong arm, they descended onto the feeding platform. Greeting each other with a hug and sitting down in wait for their breakfast. At 10am precisely, two of the Sepilok Rangers appeared with big bundles of bananas and sugar cane. Just as the Rangers arrived, 8 or so Macaques came out of the forest and started to make their way towards the platform. The woman standing next to me had been to the centre the day before and had been telling me about how the Macaques appear and pinch the food at meal times.

There were 4 young Orangutans sitting patiently as the Keepers climbed the steps to the platform and put the food down. The Orangutans were slow and gentle as they helped themselves to the food, even when the Macaques started to snatch the food from them they just reached over and got some more!

The Keepers quickly stood in though, and began shooing the Macaques away and throwing food down onto the ground to get them away from the Orangutans.

I watched as the Orangutans all turned to eat their breakfast and sat with their backs to us “spectators” - quite rightly too, we wouldn´t like to be ogled by an audience while we eat!

Every now and again we would see the ropes bouncing and knew that we were about to be blessed with some more guests for breakfast. This time two mature and fairly large Orangutans came into view. The strength in their arms is phenomenal & watching them swing from the ropes is a sight to see. One of the new Orangutan was having a bit of trouble getting round a large tree that the rope was connected to - A large Macaques was sitting like “The king of the forest” on top of the rope with both legs swinging on either side not letting the Orangutan past. Each time the Orangutan tried to get past, the Macaque charged at him. After a few minutes the Orangutan looked like he was about to give up as he moved back round to the side that he had come from. I was watching praying that the Orangutan sticks up for himself and tries again ... What happened next was comical and not what I had expected, the Orangutan reached round and grabbed the rope that the Macaque was sitting on and started bouncing it! The Macaque became pretty annoyed and whilst still trying to hold on started making loud noises, then, as quick as you like the Orangutan moved around the tree and with a swift movement of his strong arm knocked the Macaque off the rope and made his way to his breakfast!!

I then turned my attention to the platform, by this time I was wishing I had more than two eyes, there was so much to see. We were very lucky, you are warned that you are not guaranteed to see any Orangutans but we had 7 of these amazing primates in front of us. One little one picked up a stick of sugar cane and decided to show of her hanging skills, she began by hanging upside down, facing us, having a good look to see if we were watching, then she was swinging by both feet and one hand - the other free to hold the sugar cane! After amusing us for a while, she left the rope to sit in a tree & eat her sugar cane. Watching us with huge, dark, mesmerising eyes that when you look into, pull at your heart.

Meanwhile, on the platform a couple of young Orangutans were playing, jumping on each other and running about, just like little human children. They express their excitement and happiness with high pitched noises - their laughter! A large Orangutan was sitting eating a banana when he was joined by a youngster, the youngster sat opposite and watched as the larger Orangutan took a bite of the banana. The next minute the little one pointed to the other Orangutans´ mouth, I watched in amazement as the large Orangutan hung the piece of banana out of his mouth and bent towards the youngster. The youngster took the banana onto his finger and had a quick inspection before putting it in his mouth, touching the elder Orangutans´ leg as if to say “Thank You”.

We stayed transfixed long after breakfast was finished, watching every move until our little Orange Cousins began to make their way back into the Rainforest. Words can´t describe what this experience means to me, it was an emotional but uplifting morning and made me more determined than ever to do what ever I could to help, no matter how small. I do not want to be one of the last to see these beautiful animals in their own habitat; I want my children and their children to grow up knowing and seeing what Orangutans are.

What I saw at Sepilok will stay with me forever and I hope one day to make the trip back there to still see The Man of the Forest........