Page 43 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL7

 A bridge across Bohorok River leads to the entrance of Gunung Leuser NP.While writing my second hard-cover, coffee-table book, WILDLIFE: IN SEARCH OF THREATENED SPECIES, I decided to travel to the northern part of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia with the intention of photographing in the wild the rare Sumatran orangutan which is endemic to Sumatra and has been classified by the International Union on Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a critically endangered species since 2000. Once widespread on the island, the populations of the Sumatran orangutan, estimated to be less than 7,000 individuals which have been threatened by habitat encroachment of palm oil plantations, are now limited to northern Sumatra, particularly in Gunung Leuser National Park next to the village of Bukit Lawang. The challenge was to trek into the rainforest of Gunung Leuser National Park which, together with Bukit Barisan Selatan and Kerinci Seblat National Parks, forms the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra, inscribed by UNESCO as a natural World Heritage Site in 2004.To trek into Gunung Leuser to find Sumatran orangutan, I engaged the services of Trek Sumatra, a Canadian-Indonesian company located in Bukit Lawang. My itinerary included two-day trekking in the park close to Bukit Lawang with the village as the base and another five-day trekking and camping deeper into the jungle. My party of six, comprising myself, two video cameramen of my TV documentary program on World Heritage Sites, and three fellow wildlife photographers, embarked on a two-hour flight from Bangkok to Medan, the capital of northern Sumatra. We were met at the airport by Robet Tuex, the owner and head guide of Trek Sumatra, and drove three hours through several small towns and palm oil plantations until we reached Bukit Lawang, appropriately called the trek capital of northern Sumatra.Bukit Lawang, located on the two banks of Bohorok River connected by a bridge, serves as the base to trek into the surrounding rainforest of Gunung Leuser National Park. We stayed at Riverside Guesthouse, a nice, clean, small lodge near the river and had our meals at the nearby Sam’s Bungalow restaurant.Elite+ 41