Dagat Homestay

A LOONG bumpy drive through oil palm plantations and then jungle brings you to an oasis in the heart of Deramakot Forest Reserve. The large, neatly landscaped forest headquarters offer rooms in clean, comfortable chalets (with A/C, hot and cold water and 24 h power), a large dining hall, and superb bird watching in the gardens.

We travelled in here with Adventure Alternative Borneo for a 2 night trip. It’s really the only way to get in here. They provided a driver with a BIG four-wheel drive who skilfully navigated the very muddy roads, a cook who prepared delicious meals for us, and a guide (Alcey) who was a great mammal-spotter, although not terribly personable or forthcoming with information except in direct answer to our questions.

We went out on early morning, afternoon and night 4WD safaris. Don’t expect comfort, sitting or standing in the bouncy tray of the vehicle, but do expect exciting wildlife encounters! Deramakot offers amazing mammal spotting opportunities, though jungle wildlife safaris can be a funny business. The first night, we saw very little at all. But then the second night, the forest seemed to be brimming with wildlife! All up, we saw 15 species of mammal: long-tailed macaque, Thomas’ flying squirrel, Prevost squirrel, giant red flying squirrel, colugo, small-toothed palm civet, Malay civet, common palm civet, gibbon, leopard cat, clouded leopard, slow loris, bearded pig, sambar deer and lesser mouse deer. We were incredibly lucky to see the clouded leopard during the daytime – an almost unheard-of encounter! There was plenty of evidence of elephants, but it was a week old and they had moved deeper into the forest, so unfortunately we didn’t see them. There are also plenty of birds- in one large fruiting tree, we saw about 60 rhinoceros hornbills at one time, and later 2 helmeted hornbills. The insect life, particularly around the dining room and chalets at night, is also fascinating.