After a night of almost constant rain that banged loudly on our wooden ceiling, we were very surprised that come 9am the sun started to appear and allowed us one final visit to the Sepilok orangutan sanctuary.

At the sanctuary, there are two feedings during the day at 10am and 3pm. Last time we visited for the 3pm and apart from some noisy Chinese tourists and locals answering their mobiles it was all pretty quiet. The 10am feeding was tourist central, there must have been over a hundred of us and almost all pointing cameras at this one ape with its child. Poor thing, but better than being hunted in the wild and it didn’t seem to be bothered by all the attention.

Even with all the shutter noises and some flashes going off all the time – why do people still have the old camera noises switched on with digital cameras? – It was still a magical experience to be that close to such an animal.

(*) – Thanks to the description of the librarian at Unseen University, we do know that orangutans are apes not monkeys. Thanks for making sure our posts are factual Mr. Pratchett.