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After MANY delays, yesterday I finally bought my air ticket to Padang in Sumatra. I’ll be going near the end of June and staying for about 2 weeks. I’ll arrange for a hire car to be waiting for me at the airport so I can cut loose as soon as I arrive.

I’ve just been sitting here on the floor, surrounded by all my maps, planning where I’ll be going. I will probably hang out in Bukittingi for a few days and do a few “easy” mountains to start with. I’m going to take my little guy who’ll be 7 so he will need some practise too.
After that I plan to head south to Sungaipenuh to do a few mountains there, and then north to Sibolga and lake Toba. I am hanging to try Gunung Pangulubao again.

From past trips I expect to see about 19 species including ampullaria, adnata, bongso, inermis, singalana, carunculata, tobaica, gracilis, reinwardtiana, longifolia, sumatrana, eustachya, albo-marginata, spectablis, mikei, rhombicaulis, spathulata, talangensis and some other thing that looks like a strange singalana. IF I have the time and inclination I might try going up Talakmau again to see dubia as it’s SUCH a cool plant.

I went to see some people at the university here in Denpasar and they are happy to give seed culture a shot for me so I’ll try to score some seed, as well as a bunch of pics, of course.
My son will be on his school holidays and I will get him to make a diary and I’ll take pics for it so he’ll have something interesting for show and tell when he goes back to school.

This anticipation leading up to the trip is almost as much fun as the trip itself!

YEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAA !!

Cheers, fatboy.

PS Sorry, not trying to rub it in but you guys are the only ones that will appreciate this trip like I do. Everyone else here goes back to Australia for their holidays and they all think I'm mad.
 
Fatboy don't forget the Droserae! Remember to look down and keep an eye peeled for Drosera indica red form seeds:)
 
(Edited by Tamlin Dawnstar at 9
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9 am on May 23, 2002)
 
Woot! Sounds AWSOME! Can't wait to see the Pics!
Tony
 
I was just about to say you better take pics I doubt if any of us would forgive you if you forgot your camera (quick go pack it now!) :cheesy:
I am so envious!!!! That would be awesome!
 
Lucky you! What a trip! Wish I were going. But I can live vicariously through your descriptions. And that's neat your son is going too. I know you'll have a blast and can't wait to hear about it. And see the PICS.

Suzanne
 
Ahhhhhh, I'm so jelous!! I've been casualy planning a trip to Borneo for quite a while, hte problem is, noone will go with me. My partner says that he gets enough CP's at home, so why whould he want to pay loads of money and travel half way round the world to see more! None of my friends are interested either. I nearly convinced my mum to come with me, but she reckons she's too busy now. People are boring aren't they. I'll get there eventualy, even if I have to go on my own.
Rose
 
Hey there Rosie

If things go according to plan I am hoping to do another trip later in the year to Borneo. Borneo is very different to Sumatra, there is not nearly as much infrastructure and in most places there is not nearly the variety of species.

Don't go to Kinabalu, it's very pretty but you may as well go to your local herbarium.
I am planning on flying in to Balikpapan, from there to Tanjungredeb and then hire a canoe to go up the river to climb Gunung Guguan. It's about 10,000 feet (2,800m) and very isolated. I feel there's a small chance of finding something new as I don't think anyone has been up there.
There's another right in the middle of the island that another friend of mine wants to do with me too.

Let me know if you want to know more details, who knows...?

Cheers, fatboy.
 
I'd love more info! :smile:
Have you noticed the lack tourist info about Borneo, even on the Net, it took me quite a whille to even find out what country it came under!! Do you know any good travel books about it?
Rosie
 
  • #10
I don't know how much you know about Borneo so my apologies if the info here appears condescending.

Borneo is divided in to two parts, the northern third owned by Malaysia and is further divided into two states, Sabah and Sarawak. The southern two thirds is owned by Indonesia and is called Kalimantan. Indonesia has named each area for the direction it lies, eg: Kaltim = Kalimantan Timur = east Kalimantan.
Oh yeah, you also have Brunei stuck in the middle of the two Malaysian states.

Malaysia is a lot more organised and you should find quite good info on travelling in Sabah and Sarawak. It's pretty easy to get around, they have good roads, shops, etc. It's just like a western country. Lonely planet have comprehensive travel guides on those two states.

Indonesia is quite different. Roads are scarce and most of the remote towns are only reachable by light aircraft. There are lots of rivers but Borneo is famous for its massive rapids and you wouldn't make it up many of the rivers. There is a mission system that has regular light aircraft flying into the middle of the island. What all this means is that there is still heaps to discover on the Indonesian side as it hasn't been explored that much. It also means that it is time consuming to get around and you can waste a lot of time and effort trying to get somewhere and then find you are on a wild goose chase. I did that a few years back in East Kalimantan looking for campanulata!

Email me if you still want to discuss it further. hachiya@indosat.net.id

Cheers, Troy.
 
  • #11
Hi Troy,
Thanks for the info, it's not at all condescending, I thought that Borneo was entirly Malaysian - top quality research as you can tell, so i am glad to have been set straight. I will definatly email you!
Did you see the thread 'discovery article on Neps'? It's about searching for N.campanulata in Borneo.
Rosie
 
  • #12
how do you post pics here,i have tried but i dont know how too.any help would be much appreciated
 
  • #13
Yeah I did see that article and it annoyed the heck out of me!!
The original campanulata was found at a site called Ilaas Bungaan, a few days walk up a river, in east Kal. I went to east Kal and followed the directions and found the site but it was entirely burnt out. I wasted a total of three weeks in the area looking around for it in other likely places but struck out. I did find mapuluensis which is kinda cool, and a sh*tload of mirabilis. Call me a snob but I don't have either mirabilis or gracilis in my collection as I consider they are almost a noxious weed. There was a VERY interesting mountain that the locals tell me had about 5 different species on it, and from their description one sounded like campanulata. Trouble was they said they had only ever been up the mountain once, in a chopper with some mining people, and they thought it was haunted so I could NOT get anyone to take me up. Also, given that most non CP people cannot tell that lower and upper pitchers (which as you know can be vastly different) are actually the same plant, I guessed that there were more likely 2 or 3 species up there.

Anyway, warrants more investigation but it is HARD WORK in that area!!

Chien Lee is a lucky guy!!
He is extremely good at what he does, and he found campanulata in bloody WEST Kalimanatan I believe.

Go figure....

Cheers, Troy.
 
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