Bako NP

Today we went to Bako National Park. The park lies on a peninsula that extends north-east of Kuching into the South China Sea. I found it very beautiful and really enjoyed hiking a swimming, and going on a boat out of the river mouth along the peninsula to reach the park headquarters.


Mangroves grow very wall in the coastal estuary and there are quite a variety of animals and plants in the area. In face we even saw a few Proboscis monkeys climbing among the trees. Along the hike there at many points it seemed pitcher plant vines overtook almost all the other vegetation.


We arrived to the peninsula through a boat dock and hiked a 5.6 km circuit to a secluded beach. Most of the hike follows a path several hundred meters above the sea, which provides excellent views along the coast, and also meaning the beach lied in between high rocky rises providing protection from wind and too strong of surf.


The beach was about 100 meters long and the slope into the ocean was moderate allowing plenty of variety of water depth to swim and walk in. A stream fed into the ocean right through the beach, probably why this little section was so much lower than the surrounding rock formations. It wound up through the sand and into the jungle. Near to the ocean sand gobies jumped around at anyone’s step into the stream. I really enjoyed seeing the small little fish move about by flicking their bodies. For fish they can make surprisingly agile and quick movements across the sand bars.


After returning to the park HQ we found the tide had receded such that the shore line was now about 50 meters from the boat dock where we had arrived. In order to get to our boat we had to wade out through the surf and climb into it from the water. I guess they had warned us that we would get our feet wet.


I really enjoyed the park hiking through the jungle, swimming in the cool water at the really beautiful beach and boat rides are just really fun.