Loveable Redheads!

 

Wild, rare orangutans swinging in the trees above our heads, that was the highlight of our time in Ketambe.  One day hiking up a stream bed we stopped to eat our picnic of avocadoes we mashed into guacamole with crackers, and a fruit you can only really eat where orangutans live since it’s up so high on forest trees you just have to wait for them to take a bite and hopefully not be too hungry so they’ll throw it down to you with a lot left!  As we ate, all of a sudden it sounded like a car crash behind us! We spun around to see an enormous limb just before it smashed against the ground.  Up above sat two orangutans staring straight at us with a look on their faces like, “Yeah, we’ve been sitting up here for like twenty minutes, you could at least look up and pretend to take a picture or something!”  In hopes that the next limb didn’t come down on our heads, we watched them swinging from limb (sometimes with their hands, sometimes with their feet) to limb like acrobats, or just sitting and munching on food, occasionally throwing us their scraps at us.  One highlight was seeing and entire family- mom, dad, and little red baby who we watched with delight as they played around the jungle gym of tree limbs.

Plenty of other monkeys and wildlife around to continue the amusement when the orangutans left.  For an authentic jungle experience I would certainly recommend a visit to Gunung Leuser National Park to anyone visiting Sumatra!