Seniors find Adventure in Tanjung Puting
Well folks, it’s a long ways off. You, like me, have probably never heard of Tanjung Puting. Those adventurous seniors among you “hungry for the unknown” will find it here. A recent National Geographic article highlighted Borneo. Here they highlighted Tanjung Puting as a tropical rainforest in a relatively unknown place.
Occupying two-thirds of Borneo’s primeval land mass, Kalimantan is one of Indonesia’s least-visited provinces, so today, I call for you…the adventurous senior traveler to go check it out. Mountains, forests and mighty rivers stretch across the interior, influencing the culture, history and livelihoods of villages throughout.
Tanjung Puting National Park is famous for its orangutan conservation and was made a National Park in 1982. Tanjung Puting is a part of Kalimantan. In English, the term Kalimantan refers to the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo, while in Indonesian, the term “Kalimantan” refers to the whole island of Borneo.
Camp Leakey was founded in 1971 with assistance from the Leakey Foundation. Take a 360 tour of Camp Leakey. Tanjung Puting is one of the natural wonders of the world. And of course TripAdvisor has beat us there and provides not one or two, but 15 reviews of the park and 28 photos. Within its borders is the habitat of over 200 bird species, 17 reptile species and 29 mammal species.
Nine of Borneo’s primate species are found in the park, including about 2000 orangutans and Tanjung Puting is one of the few remaining habitats for this endangered animal. Tanjung Puting is known to have a large diversity of forest ecosystems, including lowland forest, freshwater swamp forest, tropical heat forest which is called “kerangas”, peat swamp forest, mangrove forest, and coastal forest.
Flora and Fauna and Tours Abound For Senior Travelers
Just remember that senior visitors are in a jungle so vegetation is rich and a wide variety of animals live in Tanjung Puting. A 3-day orangutan tour may be of interest to you as that is one of the major attractions of Tanjung Putting. Actually, seniors have a choice of several tours including a 14 day Dive Islands and River Boat excursion and several more tours to consider.
The primary reason for your visit will be to take in the Orangutans. These Adventure Tours will put you in close contact with the native creatures. Lonely Planet suggests 70 things for you to do in the area. The park, rich in wildlife with the commonly seen Orangutans, is mainly composed of low-lying swampy terrain with a complex pattern of black water rivers running through it. Mangrove swamps line the rivers with the forest canopy developing up to 150 feet high with over 220 bird species.
You will have a great personal experience getting close up to the wide variety of animals and birds at Tanjung Puting. jeb
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Dear Jim,
thanks for covering this remarkable orang-utan reserve in Tanjung Puting National Park in your blog. Access to the park is by simple local style 2 deck boats, which give visitors a great breezy view of the forested Sekonyer River and the park canals which they travel along. Sleeping on deck may not suit all visitors, some may prefer the Rimba Eco Lodge at night. Making short walks in to feeding stations to see orang-utans close up is the highlight.
Our more comfortable orang-utan cruise boats are based in Palangkaraya, the same province, some distance away from Tanjung Puting, and accessible by Garuda Indonesia airline. We cater for the traveller who is looking for more comfort, and who wants to learn about Dayak culture and livelihoods. Our guides are trained continuously to give knowledgable and individually focussed service in good English. Orang-utan sightings are from the cruise boat along the river course. The tour price includes a donation to the work of the BOS Orang-utan Foundation, which is rehabilitating these iconic creatures for release to the forests in the north of the province.
We are happy to arrange tours to both of these locations, and can arrange many other activities for the adventurous traveller. Have a chat with us about a program that will suit your preferences!
Best wishes from Morgan