Sabah

Mount Kinabalu and the Crocker Range

The Crocker Mountain Range dominates western Sabah and culminates in Mt Kinabalu at its northern tip. At 4,095 metres Mt Kinabalu is the highest mountain between the Himalayas and New Guinea and provides exhilarating but non-technical mountaineering. At its base, the Kinabalu National Park is one of the world's most biodiverse reserves, with over 5000 species of plants, 300 species of birds and a wide variety of reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates. Its diverse habitats range from lowland rainforest through deciduous oak and chestnut to sub-alpine montane forests. A short drive away are the hot springs of Poring which offer a canopy platform, waterfalls, rainforest walks and good chances of finding rafflesia, the world’s largest flower with blooms measuring over one metre in diameter. These can also be seen at the nearby Rafflesia Forest Reserve. To the far south, there is a spectacular rail journey from Tenom to Beaufort following the Padas River, which also affords good white-water rafting.

Sepilok Orang-Utan Centre

This world-renowned centre works to rehabilitate orphaned or injured orang-utans back into the wild. Many of the released individuals return to the centre for supplementary feeding, giving wonderful close encounters. There is a resident Sumatran rhinoceros and the surrounding rainforest is home to pig-tailed macaques and large numbers of bird species. On night walks, flying squirrel, slow loris and other nocturnal species can be observed.

Kinabatangan River

At a length of 560km this is the longest river in Sabah and offers a staggering amount of wildlife along its rainforest waterways and oxbow lakes. The area around Sukau is particularly renowned for proboscis monkeys which arrive in large groups at the trees of the river banks during late afternoon. Borneo pygmy elephants are found here, as are wild orang-utans, macaques, gibbons, silvered langur and maroon langur monkeys. Birds include all eight species of hornbill, oriental darter and the large buffy fish-owl.

Sukau Rainforest Lodge

Designed to minimise environmental disruption, the lodge has a network of boardwalks (complete with elephant crossing points) providing covered, safe walking through the rainforest.

The Danum Valley Conservation Area

Covering 438 square kilometres of pristine dipterocarp rainforest, the Danum Valley is one of the most outstanding wildlife areas in all South East Asia. With its towering rainforest trees and stunning landscapes, the reserve holds a vast array of fauna including all ten of Sabah's primate species, the highly endangered Sumatran rhinoceros, wild elephant, the beautiful clouded leopard and 275 bird species.

Borneo Rainforest Lodge

Widely regarded as one of the best wildlife lodges in Asia, it has an extensive network of trails and a fantastic canopy walkway giving a bird’s-eye view of nesting orang-utans. Night game drives are provided for nocturnal wildlife viewing.

Gomantong Caves

Close to the Danum Valley, the caves are surrounded by primary rainforest (orang-utans are common here) and home to millions of bats and cave swiflets. The caves have a remarkable guano-based ecology and, at certain t imes of the year, local villagers can be observed precariously traversing the high cave walls on bamboo ladders as they harvest unused nests for making bird’s nest soup.

Sabah

Mount Kinabalu and the Crocker Range

Sepilok Orang-Utan Centre

Kinabatangan River

The Danum Valley Conservation Area

Gomantong Caves

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