Sukau Rainforest Lodge
The other side of the river from the lodge is a huge area of lowland forest and oxbow lakes: a place for trekking with expert guides and effortless wildlife spotting. You don’t have to cross the river to see something phenomenal, though: the lodge’s local orangutan, Lucky, and her youngster, are often seen foraging for figs.
So good are the wildlife opportunities here that one former guest at Sukau Rainforest Lodge was Sir David Attenborough.
Accommodation
Your ensuite bathroom comes stocked with organic toiletries, fluffy towels, and a hot-water shower that washes away the day’s adventures. Step through the mosquito-netted sliding doors onto your private balcony: cane chairs await, perfect for morning coffee or tea as you listen to macaques calling downstream.
For a refreshing pause, slip into one of two rainforest dip-pools, one with a poolside bar keeping your iced drink within reach. When you crave quiet, head to Gomantong Hall or the Gecko Lounge to curl up on a bamboo sofa with a field guide from the mini library, or drift between hammocks strung in the shaded gardens. Boardwalks wind through manicured gardens rich with pitcher plants and ginger blooms and into the forest, where you’ll find viewing platforms for spotting your share of hornbills and other wildlife gems.
Experiences
- With an expert guide who knows their established routes, track Bornean pygmy elephants over the floodplains and along shaded tributaries.
- Take a walk through the local grounds and forest on the Attenborough and Hornbill walkways. You’ll see plenty, and you may even spot Lucky, the resident orangutan. The boardwalks have two ‘elephant passes’ to allow pygmy elephants to keep to their time-worn tracks.
- Join a tracking expedition with experts of the HUTAN Orangutan Research Unit. It’s the longest-running orangutan study organisation in the country.
- River safaris at dawn are particularly good for spotting pygmy elephants, proboscis monkeys, hornbills, and crocodiles as the jungle awakens.
- At night, guided boat trips take you into a realm of slow lorises, flying squirrels, and giant cicadas under the starlit canopy.
- Bird lovers will not only delight in the possibility of seeing a rhinoceros hornbill but also relish the prospect of Storm’s stork, oriental darter, the Bornean ground cuckoo, and other fascinating endemics like the Bornean falconet and the Bornean bristlehead.
- Venture to the primary rainforest reserve around the limestone Gomantong Caves, following boardwalks through an environment that’s home to langurs and orangutans.
We prioritise working with properties that collaborate with local communities and address location-specific needs from education to anti-poaching. We assess our partners to ensure the people we work with share our values of ensuring our trips continue to act as a force for good. Here we share some of the positive impacts your stay here contributes to.We prioritise working with properties that collaborate with local communities and address location-specific needs from education to anti-poaching. We assess our partners to ensure the people we work with share our values of ensuring our trips continue to act as a force for good. Here we share some of the positive impacts your stay here contributes to.
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