Exploring Borneo’s mighty Sungai Kayan for eco-tourism
Published on: Friday, February 24, 2023
By:
Yamin Vong, FMT
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A specimen of the Malayan Mahseer that was netted by the local crew for dinner. (Yamin Vong pic)
Their project was prompted by the opening of a tarmac road from Sibu to Kapit two years ago, that replaced what would have been a days-long trip on a barge up Batang Rajang.
The real challenge though was the 12-hour drive from Kapit where the tarmac stopped and the gravel began, to Long Nawang in Kalimantan Timur, Indonesian Borneo.
Long Nawang, the largest town in the Apo Kayan plateau with about 1,500 inhabitants, is the furthest up Sungai Kayan and is accessible by land. It is reached through a variety of unsurfaced highways for heavy commercial off-road trucks transporting timber.
The final 20 km stretch to Long Nawang is via muddy and 4×4-only tracks through an area of no-man’s land buffering Malaysia and Indonesia.
Led by expert Sarawak and Sabah jungle road navigator, Robert Kamijan, and supported by TK Jong’s Mapsme smartphone GPS app, the group reached Long Nawang with the objective of meeting the Camat or District Officer to propose the development of an eco-tourism project for catch -and-release sports angling featuring the empurau, the king of river sports angling.
The start of the gruelling 12-hour off-road track from Kapit in Sarawak to Long Nawang town in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. (Yamin Vong pic)
Pak Setim Ala, the Camat, was agreeable about promoting sustainable ecotourism including catch-and-release sportfishing where only fish above a certain size would qualify for one’s consumption at the campsite while roe-bearing fish and junior-sized fish would be released.
The conclusion was that the Malaysian team would mount a second expedition with experienced sports anglers and wild camping enthusiasts to assess the potential for sustainable eco-tourism here with the Camat providing a team of boatmen and longboats for five days of assessment of the fish stocks of the Sungai Kayan.
So it was on the morning of Feb 1 that the second recce team’s 4×4 trucks were at Sibu airport to fetch the Malaysian group arriving from KLIA. The cloudy grey sky and continuous drizzle was a grim portent of what lay ahead.
The Sibu to Kapit leg was on a new road and certain sections offered views of the Batang Rajang far below the road.
A sudden break in the Armco barrier along the road and a track entering the jungle was the only sign that this was the way to Long Nawang. Without the expert local knowledge and TK Jong’s route on his Mapsme smartphone GPS app, the drivers would have whizzed past the junction and lost hours.
Once on the gravel track, the drivers didn’t think twice about engaging the free-wheeling hubs on the front axle and entering into 4×4 mode after factoring in the rain and the slippery condition.
The team proceeded on the gruelling drive on wet, slippery tracks. There were stops only for toilet breaks and a meal-on wheels to devour dinner.
The final section was the dedicated 4×4 track through a giant timber concession and across the Indonesian border Army Checkpoint. This border zone can take two to five hours depending on whether winching is required on two hills, one featuring white clay and other hill black clay.
Because of the obstacles, the last two trucks of the team reached Long Nawang only by 4.00am and tumbled into the official rest house for a few hours of sleep.
A continuous drizzle met everyone the next morning and with the water level of Sungai Kayan high and the water murky, sports angling was ruled out. So after breakfast, team members packed their communal tents and personal gear into the eight longboats to begin their eight-hour boating experience.
But because of the cloudy conditions and darkness approaching, it was decided to set up the campsite even before reaching the planned destination. The riverwaters kept on rising and the local crew had to decamp and move to higher ground.
Since sports angling was ruled out once again, the team remained at the campsite for another night, leaving Tee Kim Tsew and Steve Chong to try their luck around the area, including two of the nearby tributaries.
A section of Long Nawang town in the background and Sungai Kayan in the foreground. (Yamin Vong pic)
The nets the boatmen brought for a “just in case” situation supplied enough catch, including of empurau, patin and a 2kg freshwater shark for fish soup and barbequed fish every night in the jungle.
For potable water, the expedition employed Efinity water filters. This minimised the littering posed by single-use plastic mineral water bottles. Also, filtering unpolluted river water is more logical and efficient than transporting crates and crates of mineral water.
The expedition was cut short by two days by the inclement weather. The bountiful catch by net also convinced the sports anglers that there must be a third expedition in the dry season in December.
Much thanks to Sabahan Kamijan, 56, who developed a taste for off-roading when he crewed for the pioneering TransBorneo 4×4 international expeditions in 1986/87 led by Anuar Ghani. Given his hunter/gatherer instincts, more association with catch-and-release sports anglers will influence him to be a custodian of the river and jungle.
