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Orangutan Photography Tours
Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo

jackie Peers Photographer Hong Kong
Tom - Camp Leakey

An 8 day tour to Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo.

Starting Jakarta 20th May 2012.

Proceeds will go to Orangutan Aid and the forest campaign.

The aim of the tour is to actively motivate and challenge you 
to develop your technical knowledge, 
while at the same time helping you to discover some new artistic skills.

This tour will be led by Jackie Peers - Professional Photographer
Explore the rainforests of Tanjung Puting National Park, the best place in the 

world to photograph Orangutans. Guided walks will include the feeding 

stations at Camp Leakey.

Mara McCaffery of Orangutan Aid, will give an introductory talk on Orangutans

and will be available to answer questions.

A one year membership of Orangutan Aid, and a donation to the BUY A 

FOREST Campaign are included in the tour price.

A unique opportunity to visit the Orangutan Care Centre & Quarantine facility,

run by the Orangutan Foundation International.

Daily photography workshops on a variety of topics.

Evenings spent relaxing and discussing the days photography and 

achievements.


Tour Costs

US $2575.00   per person twin share. Subject to currency fluctuation.

                A deposit will be taken pre tour.

US   $450.00   single supplement for 4 nights Rimba Lodge

Based on 6 persons. Price may be adjusted if the numbers are not reached.


Includes:

   • 8 Nights accommodation with private facilities

•  Meals as stated in itinerary. Picnic lunches and bottled water at Rimba Lodge

• Return domestic flights between Jakarta and Pangkalanbun

•  All transfers and transportation, including local river boat during stay at

   Rimba Lodge.

• Tuition and workshops by professional photographer - Jackie Peers.

• Introductory talk by Mara McCaffery of Orangutan Aid, Hong Kong

• Local guide in Tanjung Puting National Park.

• Entry fees and permits to the park.

• Donation to Orangutan Aid in support of their 'BUY A FOREST' project 

     plus a one year membership.


Excludes

•  International Airfares and Airport Departure taxes

•  Indonesian Visa

• Obligatory Travel Insurance and vaccinations

•  All items of a personal nature such as laundry, telephone calls and 

   personal expenses.

•  Drink and meals unless listed in itinerary

•  Gratuities


Cameras - The baggage allowance on domestic flights is 20kgs and excess baggage charges apply. Please bear this in mind when packing camera equipment. It is also important to remember that the heat and humidity can drain batteries very quickly and we therefore recommend you take spares. Further information re photography equipment, clothing suggestions, what to bring etc, will be provided upon booking.


ITINERARY


Day 1 - Sun 20 May Jakarta

On arrival in Jakarta you will contact the FM7 Resort Hotel, which is a short distance from the airport, and where we will be spending the night. They will send a bus transfer to collect you. The hotel is modern with AC, indoor swimming pool and restaurant. As tour members may be arriving at different times, we will plan to have dinner together, followed by an informal briefing.

FM7 - B


Day 2 - Mon 21 May Pangkalan Bun, Indonesian Borneo

After breakfast: Introduction - gaining greater control of our cameras to enhance the creative process. Early afternoon flight to Pangkalan Bun. We will be met by a local guide to assist with the formalities of checking in both to the area and the National Park. From here we will take a local boat - Klotok - on a two and a half hour journey along the Sekonyer River to the Rimba Lodge. 

We will also be joined by Mara McCaffery from Orangutan Aid, who will be working at the Orangutan Care Centre near Pangkalanbun. We will gain some insight into the behaviour of the orangutans, so that we can photograph more astutely. "Getting a shot of wildlife is one thing; revealing something of the animal's character and its environment is another". Rest of evening to acclimatise to the surroundings.

Rimba Eco Lodge - B/L/D


Days 3 - 5 Tues 22 - Thurs 24 May Tanjung Putting National Park

From our base at the lodge, we have a Klotok at our disposal to explore the waterways, giving us the chance to see wildlife along the forest edge and also an opportunity for a night safari. We visit various feeding stations - such as Camp Leakey, the site of the initial camp set up by famous primatologist and orangutan expert, Dr Birute Galdikas in the early 1970's. Our days will start early in order to make the most of the morning light, and will include short forest walks. Workshops on various topics will be run throughout our stay. Each member of the group will be given personal time, and at the end of each day we will critique what we have been doing.

Rimba Eco Lodge - B/L/D


Day 6 - 7 Fri 25 - Sat 26 May  Pangkalan Bun

We will have a morning transfer by boat, to our hotel in Pangkalan Bun. Afternoon visit to the local markets.We will fit in a visit to the OFI Care Centre - where Mara will explain the work that is done to rehabilitate and care for the 350 orphaned orangutans at the Centre. As the centre is not open to the public, this will be a memorable, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Orangutan Aid actively supports the nursery where there are currently over 40 infants requiring 24 hour care. 

Hotel Blue Kecebung - B


Day 8 Sun 27 May  Jakarta

This morning is at your leisure, with a back up trip to the market available for anyone wanting a last photo opportunity. A midday transfer to the airport for your flight back to Jakarta. Your guide will leave you at this point. On arrival in Jakarta, you will once again call the FM7 Resort hotel for your transfer from the airport.

FM7 - B


Day 8 Mon 28 May Jakarta

Own arrangements for continuing travel


Accommodation throughout the tour is in comfortable but simple hotels with private facilities, air-con and mosquito nets where necessary. It is important to bear in mind however, that you will be staying in an area of true wilderness and in keeping with Rimba Lodge's ethos of eco-tourism, solar power is used. However there are facilities to charge cameras.  A flexible attitude, patience and a sense of humour are essential as local circumstances may sometimes entail changes to the planned itinerary. Meals are plentiful but simple and typically Indonesian with lots of rice, noodles and vegetables, and an abundance of tropical fruits in season. No alcohol is available for purchase in this region. The Rimba Lodge does NOT stock beer, only local wine which can be very expensive. If you wish to drink anything else please bring it with you.




More of Jackie's work can be found here
www.jackiepeers.com
ABOUT THE TOUR LEADER
Jackie comes from Christchurch, New Zealand, where she ran a busy wedding and portrait studio for over 12 years. Now based in Sai Kung, New Territories, Hong Kong, her projects have broadened to include travel, local magazine articles, Orangutans in Southern Borneo to still life in her backyard.

More of Jackie's work can be found here
                                                                                                    www.jackiepeers.com
 
   

Baby orangutans have four dexterous limbs. I know this because within moments of entering the orphan "pondok" at the Orangutan Care centre, in Southern Borneo. I had young primates climbing up my legs, crawling over my back and grabbing my camera. Their favourite method of identifying me was to twist my hair around their fingers and remove it from my scalp. No wonder volunteers are not normally allowed any direct contact with the orangutans.

I was there at the invitation of Sai Kung resident Mara McCaffery, who founded the Orangutan Aid society in Hong Kong in 2009 to raise money for the centre. She fell under the orangutans' spell after visiting Borneo in 1996. "Man's greed and inhumanity are the fundamental reasons that orangutans are on the brink of extinction, bit it is also within our power to save them" she says.

She spends a month each year at the centre in Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, supplying hands on care to the orphaned orangutans, delivering funds and making sure the money raised is put to best use. I went with her to take pictures for the Orangutan Aid website, allowing me privileged access to the young orangutans

I befriended the two babies, Cri and Douglas, both around a year old still in nappies an in need of constant attention. They were my intoduction to the orangutan world an its surprisingly human-like behaviour: orangutan translates literally as "person of the forest". Wild orangutan infants don't leave their mother's grasp for about two year, or their presence for seven years, which makes it easy to understand the intensity of their needs.

There are 320 Orangutans orphans at the Care centre, which is part of the Camp Leakey Orangutan Research Centre. Some are former pets - either confiscated or voluntarily handed over - others were rescued from plantations or fires. Of these, 29 live in the nursery pondock.

As with any household filled with children, there have to be systems in place. In addition to daily trips to the baby forest, the seven permanent staff spend much of their day in food preparation and feeding, cleaning and health care for the orangutans, some of whom live at the centre for up to eight years before being reintroduced to the wild.  I was impressed at how ingenious the local women were at devising stimulation and entertainment for the youngsters, with a minimum of materials. They gave the youngsters branches and baskets to create their own "nests", hid food inside handmade rattan balls, and tied towels together to make a swing.

In order to get a feel for where orangutans should be living in the wild, Mara and I made a short visit along the river to the Tanjung Puting National Park, and Camp Leakey, where Canadian primatologist Birute Galdikas - set up the Orangutan Research Centre nearly 40 years ago. Following in the footsteps of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, Galdikas is sometimes referred to as the third of Dr Louis Leakey's angels. She has contributed much to the current understanding of orangutan behaviour.  It was her book "Reflections of Eden- My Life with the Orangutans of Borneo", that inspired Mara to visit Camp Leakey and to set up Orangutan Aid in 2009.

Camp Leakey is open to visitors, and it was an amazing sight to see the fully grown males and the females up in the trees with their young ones firmly clutched to their sides as they should be. Orangutans have a slow reproductive rate, often producing only three offspring in a lifetime. Which doesn't help there predicament.

There are an estimated 40,000 - 60,000 orangutans left in Borneo, putting them on the endangered list. Logging, uncontrolled wildfires and, primarily, palm oil plantations are destroying their rainforest habitat. Mining  and road construction is fragmenting the rainforest, making human contact had to avoid, and poaching for the wild animal trade or bushmeat is common. This wanton destruction is the ornagutans' tragedy: if we don't do something, their may be no wilderness left for Cri and Douglas to be returned to. By doing these tours I would like to introduce you to a very special world, and increase the awareness of the loss of habitat for these wonderful animals. I would like to see Cri and Douglas return to their natural home.

My abiding impression was just how human-like they are in their behaviour.
 
Orangutan Aid - helping orphaned orangutans and rainforest conservation projects.