Indonesia 2025. Day 5. The road to Samarinda

Finally we are on our way. We had all sorts of plans for today, but I am afraid our batting average is very low. First we got an out at the Orangutan National Park, where we found out that it is a private reserve operated by a luxury lodge, so to visit it you have to make a reservation with the lodge. We had none so we were politely shown the way out.

Then we got a hit going to the Sun Bear preserve, which is also private, but where visitors are encouraged to just walk in and learn all about the equatorial rain forest and the small Sun Bear (also called Honey Bear), which is as large as a fat Rottweiler and particularly peaceful (but still has long claws that it uses to break into hives and strip down fruit, and sharp teeth). It is black with a white "collar" and we were lucky enough to spot a sleeping one with is belly up to the sun.

Our second disappointment was after we had gone for 45 minutes on a side road, to reach a cave, but had to stop 10 km short of the site because the dirt road became impassable.

To compensate we took advantage of the new toll road from Balikpapan to Samarinda, which just opened and is practically empty. We got great views of the forest canopy, but our little geologist hearts sang in rhapsody seeing numerous cyclothemes, each of which starts with a continental sand, followed by a coastal coal seam, and are capped by a marine shale (a typical transgressive sequence). Then follows a rapid regression for a new continental sand to be deposited so the cycle can start again. The exposures were spectacular because of the cuts made for the new toll road, but I suspect the jungle will reclaim them in a few years.

I learnt that over eastern Kalimantan (Kalimantan is what Indonesians call their portion of the island of Borneo) there are numerous coal mines. According to Irvan it is mostly bituminous coal of Cenozoic age, and most of it will be used for energy generation. As we reached Samarinda and crossed the Mahakam River we saw dozens of barges and colliers that are used to get the coal out into the power plants of, for example, Sumatra and Java.

Being the port of embarkation of the coal, Samarinda is a busy "industrial" city that was more trafficky than Balikpapan, but we had the good fortune to have chosen a brand new hotel so once we were there we were able to relax. Later in the evening we will go to the riverfront, but I will tell you about that tomorrow.