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When I think about jungles or other natural habitats, often 2 perspectives form a bittersweet mélange: an archaic passion and longing to be in these places, together with a sorrowful knowledge of what we as mankind are doing to these places – directly through logging, poaching, ruining the living space of mother earth’s breeding grounds, and indirectly through all of our consumption and lifestyle patterns.

Scientifically we don’t know everything by far, but we know way enough – what is needed to save these places, stop the decay and exploitation of rainforests, and change the trajectory for the better. Although reason and data are important pieces of a collective call to action, they will probably not ignite our ultimate passion to fight for a cause. You need to feel WHY. This is why I travel to these places, try to switch off my ever-talking mind for a while there and let my senses and heart take over.

At the age of eleven it was crystal-clear to me that I wanted to become a researcher in the rainforest. And I had a quite pronounced idea how a rainforest would look like, probably inspired by some books I had at that time, and for sure also inspired by the Jungle Book movie. Later I have always imagined the place to be something like the breeding ground of our world, where the really important chemical to macro-level stuff happens, hidden beneath huge trees and a dense canopy of leaves.

How does it feel to enter a picture that you may have seen many years ago, in a book in your childhood? How does it feel to enter the Jungle Book, King Louie and Mowgli’s territory?

I was sitting in the middle of the lively small river, well blocked between some bigger rocks, surrounded by prickling water bubbles playing around me. Trying not to drift away, I raised my eyes to observe the forest gently rising on both sides. It was noon and therefore rather useless to watch out for monkeys in the trees, nevertheless I did. A bit further down was a smaller island in the stream formed by sand, rocks and pebbles. Liane and huge aerial roots were hanging around everywhere, strong enough to hold a person. Butterflies black and white, turquoise, yellow. Suddenly I realized that I was right in the middle of a picture I have had in my heart already for eternities. This is the jungle of my childhood dreams.

I’ve been to rainforests before – Taman Negara in Malaysia, Cat Tien in Vietnam and Chitwan National Park in Nepal – they were always exciting, an intense experience, high with adrenaline, sweat and wonder. The jungle around Ketambe in Sumatra’s Gunung Leuser National Park is no different in this respect, but for the first time I felt welcome in there. Felt safe, could lean back, relax, close my eyes, just listen to the sounds and breathe. Perfect calm and peace. Everything is where it belongs.

I was thinking of my granny, who had always said, that she needn’t go to church, instead she would rather go into the forest, because she is nearer to the godesses and gods there.

Talking about rainforest, first of all we need to talk about trees. Century-old giants standing strong or having been captured by ficus trees, forming impressive ornaments around the original stem. The biggest ones are like pillars of the first and most powerful cathedrals of mankind, filled with bustling life. Providing the air that you breathe and breathtaking at the very same time. Some trees you just need to touch. Say Hi and Thank you to them. All of them have a special place and purpose in the ecosystem, being nutrition, shelter, a place to play and fool around, a pathway to cross a water or a graben, protection from the rain and sun, background for camouflage and a communication network beyond imagination. Three-quarters of the top-ranking global prescription drugs contain components derived from plant extracts. Big Mama Earth’s laboratory and playground.

Where are the orang utans? There a basically two places, where you can start jungle treks in Sumatra’s Gunung Leuser National Park. Bukit Lawang is a busier place with more touristic infrastructure, and the chances to meet orang utans there are practically 100%, as they have been released back into the forest around the area and are used to contact with humans. It is also “easier” to reach (in Sumatran terms of course). I chose for Ketambe however- a small village with a few houses spread along the road and the banks of the river Alas, some guesthouses, a few shops, an elementary school, a community health worker center, and access point to a large conservation area, which is only open to local and international researchers and national park staff. The Gunung Leuser Nationalpark is said to be Asia’s Last Great Wilderness, with a size of 2,7 million hectares, around 4 times as big as Yellowstone NP – the minimum area considered to be needed to provide a habitat big enough for tigers, elephants and orangutans. The animals living around Ketambe have been living there practically ever since, it’s their place. That’s why I wanted to go there, be a humble guest for a few days and trust in chance to meet some of them. And moreover, trust in a guide, who knows the jungle in and out.

And we are lucky. For some parts of the way we hike quite swiftly, in other parts our guide Putra stops frequently and listens quietly. Proceeds. Stops again. Sometimes I get the idea what he is searching for, and often I have no clue. But it works, and how. You always hear them before you see them. Not long after we’ve entered the dense forest, I encounter my first orang-utan up in the trees. See it move slowly and easily, changing from tree to tree to select his or her favourite fruits. We follow its path, slowly, whispering only although the hairy orange-brown fellow is of course long aware of us, peeking down at his strange relatives every now and then.

After a long while we proceed, going slowly up and downhill. Suddenly Putra signals us to head back up again, fast, nearly running, puuh, we jump back over fallen tree trunks, take some shortcuts, up again and there he is. The big one. King Louie himself. Up in the trees, but still in a touching and impressive proximity. Maybe 30 meters distance? Less? More? We look for the best spaces to see him through the canopy and then find a premium spot to sit down on the ground and silently watch him. He is not stressed at all, he is savouring on fruits, it’s around midday and he seems to hang around already quite lazy, chillex, like still taking some nighty-night snack before looking for a comfortable place for his siesta. Timeless. Priceless. Shoooubiduuu, I wanna be like youhoohooo…

We will see three more in the coming days – among them also a younger, quite hyperactive guy, moving effortlessly but with enormous speed in a large circle in the tops of the highest trees surrounding us. For me it was both blithe and uplifting to encounter wild orang utans. This is what I want to see and experience, nothing else. And there is this sincere wish that it will be possible for me and others in the future, to meet them in the wild, in a place which they own. Not re-wilded, not in the zoo, not in some artificial surrounding.

Frequently we encounter squads of Thomas Leaf monkeys aka ‘funky hair monkeys’ – jumping around, snacking, climbing and grooming each other in the afternoon sun. They must be close relatives of King Julian in Madagascar – super punky hairstyle, grey, blueish, white fur. I like to move it, move it….

We have also been in an area with a great density of high trees, where gibbons are present frequently. They haven’t crossed our way this time, but that’s fine – maybe the next time. I hope they are still there and wait for me.

Sleeping in the jungle is both very special and no big deal at all. The sun goes down fast and early near the aequator and I felt just tired after long and intense days. We all were hungry for dinner, sat down together on a plaid, lit some candles, asked stupid tourist questions to our guides and talked nonsense.

We were sleeping next to the river in a tent, big enough for 6 to 8 persons. I didn’t bring a sleeping pad or mattress, which meant a bit of a harder ground, but my sleeping bag kept me nicely snug and warm. Something is always happening around the tent, but it was never frightening. By the way: noises and noise level in the night are not a lot different from daytime. This has also been scientifically confirmed by Bernhard, who reportedly set his alarm at 4:30 am only to wake up the whole party, embarrass his girlfriend and check on this. Haha!

What about all the small beasts? I have definitely seen more spiders, scorpions and mosquitos in the villages than in the jungle. A good example of irrational use of medicine were some travelers I met in my first guesthouse, who were consulted to start taking malaria prophylaxis right on the day the go into the jungle (which is nonsense in itself already). They had to stop their trek due to side effects of the medication and were wholeheartedly complaining about the pharma industry. Well…  And – yayaya – we had practically no leeches at this time in August, which made moving around stressless.

Snakes? Yes, I have encountered one of the most poisonous snakes our earth hosts, a red-headed Krait. A rather thin snake, black and white body, red head. Its venom is a highly potential neurotoxin, causing paralysis and death by asphyxiation. It was sitting in the dry leaves alongside our path and I have now clue how Putra spotted it. Fascination. Respect. It did not shoo away to hide, but raised its head, looked at us, signaling “don’t you dare”. Obviously, snakes are much easier to spot during night walks. What I didn’t know at that moment, was that our guide was carrying antidotes with him. Good.

A few days later a guy from the village was showing a black viper to me, which he has been carrying around in a big plastic container in his bag for days. He had rescued it from people who were trying to kill it, taking care of the beautiful reptile, giving it time to heal before he wanted to release it in the forest again. That’s the kind of wood the people I met around Ketambe were made of. Kudos!

Ketambe’s jungle was full of moments, where time seemed to stand still. A most special spot is a place where boiling water bubbles out of the ground and between hot stones. The hot springs mix with cold water from the river, vapour steam clouds waft between the trees, a discrete sulphurous scent fills the air. Stones and pebbles from the river have been used to build a number of smaller and larger pools, where you can linger in and switch to different temperature areas just by moving your body for some centimeters. The water will do the rest, every now and then shocking you with a sudden surge of hot or ice-cold flow. I spent hours in there, chatting, hanging around like the first amoeboid cells and watching night fall. Wonderful beyond words. What a power place! Or, as Charlotte would say: tough life 😉

And when you are stretching your bones in the morning, the river is still loud. When you are crawling out of your sleeping bag, stumbling out of the tent, trying not to wake up someone still soundly sleeping in the hammock, the forest is awakening as well. When tea water is already boiling over a small wooden fire and the group is slowly getting ready for the day, you may well find yourself gently humming  … look for the bare necessities, the simple bear necessities, forget about your worries and your strife… I mean the bare necessities, old mother nature’s recipes, that brings the bare necessities of life… doodeldüüdeldiduu …the bare necessities of life will come to you …. will come to you!

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