Tanjung Puting National Park

A 4,150 Square Kilometre National Park On Borneo Protecting One Of The Largest Wild Orangutan Populations; Home Of Camp Leakey, The Research Station Founded By Birute Galdikas In 1971 · Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan

Tanjung Puting is four thousand one hundred and fifty square kilometres of peat swamp and lowland forest on the southern coast of Borneo, and it protects one of the largest remaining populations of WILD ORANGUTANS. CAMP LEAKEY, deep inside it, was founded in 1971 by BIRUTE GALDIKAS - the third of the three women Louis Leakey sent to study great apes, after Goodall and Fossey - and it has run continuously since, making it one of the longest primate studies anywhere. The way you see it is the reason people come back: you hire a KLOTOK, a wooden river houseboat with a crew of three, and spend two or three days going slowly up the SEKONYER RIVER, stopping at feeding platforms, sleeping on the open deck under a mosquito net while proboscis monkeys crash about in the trees overhead. It is genuinely one of the great wildlife trips, and the reason it stays small is that no road reaches the interior - the river is the only way in.

Sekonyer River, Tanjung Puting, Central Kalimantan, Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

THE PARK IS REACHED BY BOAT FROM KUMAI, next to PANGKALAN BUN, which has flights from Jakarta, Surabaya and Semarang. ALMOST EVERY VISIT IS A TWO OR THREE NIGHT KLOTOK CHARTER arranged in advance - there is effectively no independent access and no road. PARK ENTRY PERMITS AND FEES are handled through the operator and include separate charges for foreign visitors, cameras and the boat. FEEDING TIMES AT THE PLATFORMS ARE FIXED AND EARLY AFTERNOON at most camps, which shapes each day's schedule. THE PARK IS OPEN YEAR-ROUND; the drier months roughly June to September give easier walking to the platforms, while the wet season raises the river and can flood the trails. ORANGUTAN SIGHTINGS ARE NOT GUARANTEED anywhere but are close to reliable at the feeding stations.

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