A very early start this morning, with the alarm going off at 5.30am, in readiness for our sunrise river cruise. The hope is we catch the local wildlife as they start their day.

After a couple of hours of exploring the river banks we had spotted several local birds, two or three species of monkeys as well as crocs & lizards and it was only 8am.

After brekkie, Andy went for a morning run and then met the group for a walk around the local village. The fauna close to the river was impressive with banana and pineapple trees sitting alongside palm trees and native plants.

We also spotted more wildlife including water monitor lizards, small clawed otters, storm storks, purple heron, blue eared kingfishers, little egrets, white breasted heron to name but a few.

David Attenborough would have been proud of our viewing hoard!

After a relaxing lunch, we headed out again for another river cruise, this time with the intention of going further up river to one of the tributaries to see more of the monkey communities.

We headed off on a tributary and came across a large group of silver leaf Langgur monkeys. A pair were perched on a branch with one helping to de-lice the other, which made for an interesting experience as an observer!

We also spotted a group of long tailed macaques who were in a harem. This is where a single dominant male leads a large number of females and their offspring. There was quite a lot of commotion as the male dictated to the others and then took himself off to eat in isolation.

After another enjoyable couple of hours we made our way back to the lodge, but not before we experienced a wonderful sunset and a deep red & yellow sky.

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The last monkey was one we spotted the night before, which had proved a great find as it’s one of the first time a Western Tarsier has been spotted with a young offspring.

We’ve had a fab couple of days at the river, and tomorrow we head off to Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary to see the big nosed primates before visiting Sandakan War Memorial and the former Japanese prisoner of war camp.