In Sarawak Again

Continuing our Malaysian holiday adventures from the last post, we had engine problems on the aircraft which forced us to turn back to KL, from half way to Miri. It was a long half hour back with the engine making bad grating noises and my wife Liz looking very worried and not appreciating me saying a couple times, 'Boy, that doesn't sound good!". We found out later, people on the plane were making calls on their mobiles, basically saying goodbye to loved ones! But, all's well that ends well. We landed in KL and were back on a new plane heading to Miri within an hour.

We may be going down, but there's always time for a glass of fine wine. Only joking.

Great to be on the ground again and birding at Mulu.

Good birding along the river at Gunung Mulu National Park. Last time I was here, I saw a fruiting tree full of Asian Fairy-Bluebirds and Green Broadbills.

 

The new accommodation at Mulu is fantastic.

I'm very happy.

Nice modern rooms.

But no muddy boots inside!

Birding is serious hard work.

A great dinner back in Miri with our friends Musa and Sara.

A day's birding with Sara at Lambir Hills National Park. Sara dwarfed by the rainforest.

Wonderful location.

Hard to get these little people off your back sometimes.

Another beautiful Lambir rainforest stream.

Musa, an expert on Bornean fireflies, shows us one of his favourite locations near Miri.

A morning's birding at Taman Awam Miri (Miri Public Park).

The bridge and walkways are great locations to get eye-level views of birds.

One of the residents at the park is this Striped Bronzeback Tree Snake (Dendrelaphis caudolineatus).

Good friends birding, Jen, Liz and Steve.

So ended our first part of holidays with Jen, having seen 71 bird species in Sarawak (6 new for Liz, 3 for me). Liz and I still had 8 weeks of birding holidays in Dubai, the UK and Turkey to look forward to. Lots of mileage and lots of birds.