We reached Sukau, a small village of orang sungai, located at the bank of this 350 miles long river. Our boatman was ready to pick us up, the very next day for our first taste of adventure. There were only 4 of us, me; Farez, my son and assistant; Zul my cameraman and Wan the audioman. It was our first time here and was excited for the new experience.
We captured some shots of wild orangutan swinging from tree to tree and some birds known as the Oriental Darter, diving into the water to catch some fish and i mean literally diving into the water!!!!It appeared with fish in its mouth and started to fly again....What a wonderful sight!!
This was also my first time to see in real life, the strange looking Proboscis Monkeys with its bulging belly and big pinky round nose hanging on its face. I still have problems finding the real purpose of such a troublesome nose!! Somehow with its big belly, the male monkeys seem to attract the ladies more. The bigger the belly the more ladies in its harem (Mmm....I wish i could do the same with mine!)
However after a few days of shooting we still found it hard to capture any shots of wild crocodiles. The rainy season swelled up the river and crocodiles would rarely be seen hanging around basking at the bank of the river as it would normally do during dry season. At times, we had to bear with the rain pouring on us as we usually get so wet without any cover in the moving boat. It was dissappointing from one day to another.
The rain was making the crocodiles more elusive and hard to find. On the fifth clear day, as we were moving slowly inwards, we found a baby crocodile basking on a tiny dead branch. We were so excited. Finally we realised our luck might change that day...And how true it was. As we moved along slowly, we suddenly saw a 18 footer huge crocodile lying motionlessly at the bank of the river.It didn't realise we were moving slowly nearer to it. My guessed was it was sleeping but as Zul was rolling his camera, it suddenly woke up and was startled to see us. In just a few seconds, it moved its body straight into the water and went underneath our boat. The strong splash of the water nearly turned our boat over..But thank God it didn't! It just rocked side to side a few times. We saw small bubbles coming out from the water and we knew it was swimming away from us...But we were happy to finally captured (even for a few seconds of shots ) of this monsterous creature that had eluded us for so long.
As we were traveling back we saw a 12 years old orang sungai boy diving into the river and swimming happily just a few hundred metres away from the crocodile we just captured on film!!. As we were watching him, i told Zul to roll his camera. The boy realised tht we were shooting at him, so he smiled and waved to us. I was saying to myself, "Wow..This boy is swimming in a crocodile infested area!! Is he crazy or what!! Doesn't anyone here care???"
As it was late, we decided to go back and rest. The next day we went to the village of this Orang Sungai and expresses our concerned to one elderly representative regarding the boy we saw swimming the day before.He was listening to me and was quiet for a few seconds before replying. As Zul was rolling his camera, he said;" I was born and raised in the village for all my entire 64 years and alhamdulilah, there was NEVER any case of crocodile attacking anyone in this kampung". We were stunned for a while in disbelief but he continued; "Yes, we often told the boys not to go swimming but you know, being boys, we can't stop them. We do live next to a river." Then he continued in a more serious tone, " We have an unwritten agreement with the crocodiles.. We don't disturb them and they don't disturb us." I was speechless. He continued again ;" The crocodiles have all the food they want. Birds, fish, monkeys, river prawns and even monitor lizards. They don't need to get into trouble by eating us", and he laughed.
We went back to our bed that night realising that we had gain a a new knowledge that we couldn't get in any school anywhere in the world. An unwritten agreement between man and nature. In Tuaran, each year a number of people were killed by crocodles due to crocodile attack. Why... because Tuaran is just 30 km away from the bustling Kota Kinabalu. Human and its modern development have repeatedly disturbed the habitat of crocodiles in Tuaran and they eventually fought back to ensure its survival in the world.
However, the situation is different in Sukau, fortunately. The area is still protected as a conservation area with animals living in harmony among each other, until human find a reason to change the agreement. So i guess as long as human stays away, there is no reason for crocodiles to retaliate. After all, they have all the food they need from the 2nd longest river in Malaysia, the Kinabatangan river..
After that experience, i began to look at nature in a new fresh prespective.
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