And Breathe.

I normally don’t start these blogs with pictures because I want to introduce you to the narrative before I show the stills. Danau Centarum National Park in West Kalimantan, also known as “the lakes”, requires no such introduction, so I’m going to throw you straight into it.

A couple of weeks ago, the film crew, some investors and the Eco Warriors travelled Danau Sentarum  to survey it as a potential eco-tourism project in the future, as well as get some breathing time together before we all disperse out across the world. This was our view at the end of a boardwalk out the back of the tourist centre we were staying at. This national park is made up of around 132 thousand hectares of peat swamp forest, with wild orang-utans, proboscis monkeys, macaques, estuarine crocodiles, monitor lizards and huge insect, reptile, bird and fish biodiversity.

This time of year is the end of the wet season, so the water level of the lakes is relatively high, and in some places can be up to 30 feet deep.  These trees grow out of the water when the level is this high. It looks like a mix between a scene from The Lord of the Rings and The Woman in Black - eerie yet insanely stunning. This incredible photo was taken by Eco Warrior Paul Daley.

We got our first sighting of wild orang-utans! Well, their nests anyway. They build their nests high up in the canopy, normally in fruit trees, so that they can literally reach for their lunch. At this time of year, fruit is harder to come by, meaning the orang-utans must move locations more often, making it harder to keep track of where they are. We were walking in a group of maybe 15 people, so the chances of seeing them were pretty slim anyway.

Making our way into the wilderness. This was on our journey to the village with wild orang-utans. The river is so shallow and windy an inaccessible that you must take these little boats, a couple of people in each one, to get there.

Trying my hand at vertical canopy climbing. We were staying with some of the local firemen, who were kind enough to bring along their climbing gear which they use for rigging up equipment to put out forest fires. A huge amount of the forest is lost every year to these fires, and so the fire department play a crucial role in protecting this place and its flora and fauna.

Fellow Eco Warriors Kodi Twiner, Paul Daley and Fa Empel stand at the dockside soaking in the sunset on the water. Here’s a great fact– “Mada Hari” means sun, or directly translates to “eye of the day”. “Mata air” translates to water spring in English, or directly translates to “eye of the water".

All the Eco Warriors chugging along in a local longboat. It’s slow, but it really gives you time to soak in the scenery. The journey from Sintang by river takes about 7 hours on a longboat, and on our way to the lakes, most of the journey was spent in the dark with nothing to do but lie back under a spectacular night sky.

Eco Warrior Kodi Twiner spells out her name for a placard alongside the species name of the tree she was planting. “Shorea Belangaran”, or local name “Kawi”, is a critically endangered climax species indiginous to Indonesia. The timber that it produces is very hard, so it is a good building material.  Cameraman Ezther catches it all for the film.

Local produce - Fish provide the main income for most of the locals in the National Park. Over 80% of the freshwater fish consumed in the Kapuas region of Borneo is caught sustainably from this area. For many generations, the locals have been developing their sustainable practises, and because they depend on the fish, they have to. One of the fundamental ways they do this is by banning any fishing in certain lakes.

Eco Warrior Ben Dessen beams after catching a wild reticular python, the longest snake species in the world, after it wandered up to a rubbish dump just outside our house in search of a snack.

This lady was 3.4 metres long, but can reach up to 12 metres. Practically a baby. Can you imagine 12 metres?

We leave Borneo in the next few days, and Paul Daley and I will be heading to Bali for a language course. Paul, my girlfriend Nina and I will be returning to the lakes in dry season in a few months to carry out some biodiversity studies on the area, discuss the implementation of an eco-tourism package, rescue crocodiles and learn now to rig up and climb high into the canopy with the local fire department. The landscape will totally transform as the lakes dry up, and fruiting season will be upon us, which greatly increases our chances of finally spotting some wild orang-utans. I cannot wait.

So it's goodbye for now, Borneo. Sampai jumpa lagi.