Seeing the Orangutan in the rainforest. Bukit Lawang – Indonesia

I went to Bukit Lawang to visit the Orangutan in Leuser National Park. I booked a trip for 2 days and 1 night in the jungle. Chance of seeing the Orangutan in the rainforest was 90% 🙂 So on a two day trek that would work out right?

If you go to Sumatra you can not miss out on a trip into the jungle near Bukit Lawang! You want to see the Orang Utan also, right? Well, ‘get out of your comfortzone’  and book a trip into the jungle for two days and sleep in a simple tent!

What way of Ecotravel is better when you sleep in the jungle and hiked your way there? I loved every minute of it!!

The day my trip started it rained, well we went into the rainforest 🙂  We were sitting in Ida guesthouse where I stayed with a young German couple, Benjamin and Julia and a older Dutch couple, Joost and Sofie. When the rain almost stopped we started to walk but when we were about to enter the rainforest it started again.

There was a coffeeplace so we got in there and sat there for a while. We were allready pretty comfortable in the group with eachother, I could allready tell that it would be a nice two days!! After a while we saw other groups entering the forest so we started also, I had bought a poncho at Ida Guesthouse and the rest also had raincoats.

Seeing the Orangutan in the rainforest

Ecotravel – Bukit Lawang – Indonesia

Benjamin, Julia and me

We had 3 guides, Mudhi was there, I booked the trip with him. Also Putra was there, I did the trip to the batcave with him the day before and the brother of Mudhi came with. So we were in a group of 8, very nice!

After we started to walk we passed the other groups within a half an hour and were on top 🙂 It didn’t took long and we saw the first Orang Utan.

How impressive!!

These kind of things make me so happy!!

Because these Orangutans are rehabilitaded they are used to humans they come very close. Also because they hope to get something to eat. That is exactly not what we should do…make sure to only look and don’t feed!

We all got some nice pictures even though it was wet and still a bit raining.

Just to see another one, it was just sitting a couple of metres down the road. A again we did a photosession 🙂 You never know how much you got to see.

So we went walking again. The path was good but at some points a bit steep and slipperey because of the rain. I loved the challenge! We heard the screams of monkeys and birds but didn’t saw anything yet. At some point a guide had spotted a gibbon. We saw them too but they are very high in the trees, they don’t like humans that much. They don’t show themself. I couldn’t get a picture with one on it unfortunately.

Seeing the Orangutan in the rainforest

We walked on and did some real climbing and descending to get at the river. There we found this great spot to have lunch. The had nasi goreng with them and a fried egg and tomato and cucumber. They served it on a bananaleaf, how great!! After we got some pineapple and watermelon. It was just a feast to eat like that sitting on a rock besides a river. I loved it!!

Isn’t this just the best?

Seeing the Orangutan in the rainforest

Bukit Lawang – Indonesia

We started walking again. It was a real climb and a steep descend. The older couple, I heard were both 70 years old, were walking just as good as us. I said to them to walk upfront so that they decide how fast we went because when you walk in the back of the group you always have to walk a bit harder then the first. Afterwards I heard they enjoyed that very much. You always feel a bit in a hurrie being the last…. I hope when I reached 70 I am as healthy as they are!!

And again we saw an Orangutan, this time she had a baby with her. At some point she was really close and we got to see the little one, such a great sighting. The mother started to tear of some branches and leafs. You could hear the little one enjoying it.

The mother was entertaining her baby, so great!

• Facts about the Orangutan

The Orangutan lives alone, it has no lifepartner but when its ready looks for a male and mates. After she mates she is alone again and will care for her baby. Every night they make a bed, they make it from leafs and high in the trees. At several places I saw old nests from the Orangutan in the forest like a little plateau high in the tree.

At some point Sofie had a leach in her armpit, Joost pulled it out immediatly and threw it away. I hadn’t even thought of the possibility. After a while also Joost had one in his groin.  Because of the rain there are more leaches, when it is dry they aren’t there that much. These were the only leaches of the trip by the way 🙂
After the steepest descend we got at a river and we would got at our nightcamp after walking along the river. It was a real climb again. We had to walk near the egde of the river on the rocks and the roots of the trees. We were all a bit tired of walking the whole day which makes it even harder. But we made it!!

Seeing the Orangutan in the rainforest

Bukit Lawang – Indonesia

At the campside there were allready two men, they had made a really nice basket with cups of tea and biscuits for us. They pimped the basket with green and flowers from the rainforest, it looked great!!

Ecotravel in Bukit Lawang

After drinking the tea we could go swimming in the river. I didn’t, it started to rain again and I just wanted to sit or lay down and rest for a while. I did refresh myself in the river, felt my armpits for leaches 🙂

After we saw a varana swimming that river, it was at least a metre long. So great!! I snapped pretty good picture of it! Loving this day to the max!

When it got dark we all sat in the tent where we would sleep also, we got dinner. It was rice with chicken curry, vegetables with curry and some soya in sambal. It was really good!! After dinner we sat there for the evening while the brother of Mudhi showed us tricks and gave us puzzles to solve, it was a really nice evening. We really had a fun evening together!!

We slept on thin matrasses and underneath a mosquitonet, the Dutch couple and me had one net and the German couple also one. Great! I did sleep well but everytime I changed how I lay down I woke up because it was really hard 🙂

I woke up at 6 oclock and used the rainforest toilet 🙂

I was glad that I was the only one to be awake 🙂

Around 8 oclock we all were awake and got a great breakfast. They had cut all kinds of fruit and maked the basket again with flowers and green leafs. We all got sandwiches with scrambled eggs, tomato and cucumber. It was a four story high sandwich, how great!!

After we got our stuff together and started walking again. Back into the rainforest in search for the orangutan. The older Dutch couple choosed to do the short cut today. After a night on the floor and a day of hard working it was time for a nice and slower walk, very understandable.
So the German couple and I went up with the brother of Mudhi and Putra. It was the same hill we yesterday came down. So really steep but after a night sleep it went really well!!

Putra and I even had some time making some funny pictures 🙂

When we were up there again it didn’t took long before we saw the first Orangutan again. This time it was mother with her one year old kid. How great!! I couldn’t get enough of this sight! What a huge animals and what a wise way of looking at us. So impressive!

We hiked further for a while and got to the river. This day it didn’t rain so it was really hot. Putra already told me that we were going to swim and jump off a rock so we immediatly went into the water. It was really refreshing. Putra took me to the other side and we climbed up the rock. It was really high but Putra reassured me that it was deep enough to jump off. He went first and ofcourse I followed!!

I do love a good challenge!!

We sat down to eat noodles and after we went rafting down the river to the starting point. It was great!! While rafting sometimes all of a sudden front was back and the other way around. We got wet all the way by the rapids we went through.

Isn’t that a great way to end a wonderful trip?

As a group we had the best two days we could spend in the forest together!!

Would you like to share this great trip?

Do you want to read some more trips in Indonesia?

Touring the Harau Valley on the back of a motor – Bukittinggi, Sumatra

Cookingclass at Juwita’s Cafe – Samosir Island, Sumatra

A visit to the Batcave – Bukit Lawang, Indonesia

Rafflesia: Biggest flower of the World

Or would you love to go to the jungle of Malaysia?

3 days in the Kota Kinabatangan Jungle, Borneo

I hope you love this world as much as I do!!