We woke up this morning to find the atmosphere filled with smoke from the forest fires which are burning across Borneo. The fires have a number of causes, natural, small holder farmers clearing forest and land, hunters and large scale deforestation for crops like palm oil. More that 4000 fires or ‘hot spots’ have been recorded with the majority in Central Kalimantan where we are with the Orangutan Foundation deep in the Lamandau wildlife reserve. The fires threaten everything

It’s all about the monkey business today! We woke up nice and early again, ready for the day ahead, to the sound of Gibbons calling to each other across the forest. We’ve been told that most mornings they call to each other, and it was incredible to hear them. After posting yesterday’s video, via satellite, John set up to paint. Yesterday we were shown a typical orangutan nest up in the trees in camp. Today John felt that he should paint a nighttime scene of the Orangutans in

Today we woke up in Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, excited for what was to come. It’s all about Orangutans here! It was an early start, around 6am, to ensure we didn’t miss anything. This early start also meant that we were able to release our video via satellite! Yes it works! At 7am the first set of baby orangutans were let out of their beds ready for breakfast. Here at the Orangutan Foundation, they aim to teach these orphaned orangutans how to care for themselves, find food,

Hello! Today we left our hotel to take the journey to our next destination. This week, we are working with the Orangutan Foundation in Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, Kalimantan, the very south of Borneo. Our journey began with a flight from Jakarta to Pangkalan Bun, which unfortunately was delayed by nearly two hours. When we eventually arrived, we were met by our guide and translator, Dimas. He works for the Orangutan Foundation as a vet, therefore should be very helpful to us a

Today is our last day in Mulu before we fly to the very southern tip of Borneo , Lamandau Wildlife Reserve. Sadly we said goodbye to Robin today, who took a flight back to the UK. We’ll really miss him as we continue our travels south but it has been so valuable having him on board for our Mulu adventure! Having had a really busy few day since arriving in Mulu, we took today at a much slower pace. This gave John an excellent opportunity to paint the last two paintings from ou

HEAD OVER TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO WATCH ALL OUR VIDEOS SO FAR. DAY 4 VIDEO TO BE RELEASED 9am UK TIME 10th SEP (if all the tech works!) We had another fairly early start this morning to ensure we kept to the plan to leave camp at 8am. This morning we went to Deer Cave. Deer Cave is home to the 3 million wrinkle lipped bats we watched leaving the cave in spectacular form on day 1. It’s also home to 11 other bat species, cave swiftlets, turtles, snakes, and many creepy crawli

Today was hugely fun and hugely busy! This morning started with a boat ride, our final destination set as Clear Water Cave. En route we took an unexpected detour, a walk through Batu Bungan, the Penan village. The reason for our detour was due to low water level in the river meaning our boat was struggling to get through without running a ground. To make life easier, we hopped out and walked, as the boat and boatman navigated the shallow water without our added weight. Whilst

Today we woke up refreshed after an excellent nights sleep. Even though it took until after breakfast for me to realise my shirt was inside out, much to my embarrassment, we set out for an exciting day. At “promptly” 8am, which turned out more like 8:30, we took a taxi to Batu Bungan, the village where the Penan tribe live. Due to deforestation they were forced to move out of the rainforest and they now live a settled life in their village which was created for them. In many

Day 1 – Person of The Forest Hello everyone and welcome to our second chapter of Last Chance to Paint, “Person of The Forest”! We have been looking forward to this chapter and are delighted to say that we are LIVE NOW! After a very long day with some hair-raising near missed connections, travel time added to a total of 20hrs, meaning we were overjoyed and a little relieved to have arrived in Mulu. We are staying in Mulu National Park, home to Deer cave along with many more ca