Failing to find the Mahakam manatee, I find instead another rare species: black orchids in bloom.
The
ces boat piloted by Acong slowly docked on the west side of Melak Harbor
on the Mahakam River. Syachraini and I, the only passengers, leapt
out of the small canoe with its 16-HP outboard motor and onto the wooden
pier.
It was now 12 noon. Since 7.45, we'd been traveling up the Mahakam from Muara Pahu in search of the pesut, or manatee (Orcaella brevirostris), a rare water mammal similar to a dolphin that lives only in the Mahakam. But though we'd had our visual radar on these past four hours, we hadn't seen even one. And we'd spent the previous day, from morning to evening searching for pesut, as far as Lake Jempang and even up the tributaries of the Mahakam'– nothing.
Realizing I now had little chance of seeing a pesut – there are estimated to be only around 80 of them, in a river hundreds of kilometers long, not to mention the many tributaries – Syachraini, my guide, recommended we fall back on "Plan B" and stop off at the black orchid conservation forest at Kersik Luway, around 15 km south of Melak. "I phoned the caretaker last night, and he told me some orchids are in bloom."
Syachraini, who works on the staff of YK-RASI (Yayasan Konservasi-Rare Aquatic Species of Indonesia), which has been monitoring the Mahakam pesut since 2003, had evidently foreseen our difficulty and made an alternative plan, because as soon as we docked at Melak, a friend of his came over and lent us his motorbike.
So we set off, through the market and the city center, then turning south. I was a bit surprised to find that Melak, here in the interior of East Kalimantan around 350 km from the provincial capital, Samarinda, had such wide, well-paved main roads. And we could see cellular towers around, so we shouldn't have any communication problems.
After we passed through a rural area with platform houses on both sides of the road, the road started to get hillier. The main road then turned right, but we kept going straight on the access road to the Kersik Luway conservation forest (also sometimes spelled Kersik Luwai). Still 3.9 km to go, the road sign told us. The road was now made of cream-colored limestone, with dense rubber plantation on both sides. Since it was the dry season, the road was nice and hard, easy for a motorbike or even a car to travel on.
The Kalimantan black orchid (Coelogyne pandurata) is one of the six species in the orchid genus Coelogyne. It's an endemic plant in Kalimantan and also found in Nepal, China, the Philippines, Papua, and many Pacific islands. This orchid can be found in many places in Kalimantan, though the locations are not always that accessible. The Kersik Luway conservation forest is one of the easier places to get to.
Didimus, a conservation forest official who is also on the staff of the East Kalimantan Forestry Service's Natural Resource Conservation Center, welcomed us at the forest entry post. Two personnel are on duty every day at this lonely site. As well as protecting the forest, they escort any visitors who show up. "There are always a few people coming here, mostly tourists from Europe," he said.
The trail to the orchids gave me another surprise; it was made of
fine white sand. As it turns out, kersik luway means "silent sand".
Since the trees resemble mangroves, someone who saw only a picture
might well assume this forest was at the seashore.
According to Didi, this white sandy soil is only found in the part of the conservation forest where the black orchids grow, only around 17.5 hectares. The other parts of the conservation forest, which covers 5,000 hectares, have black sandy soil. This is not a typical forest with thick tall trees, but rather a karangas forest, with slim, low trees no higher than four meters.
The most common type of tree here is the berengganyi, which is also the black orchid's favorite habitat. Its branches are no thicker than an adult's arms; its leaves are bright red, turning to green and then yellow as they mature. It has small yellow fruits that turn black and sweet when they are ripe. Another tree is the pelawan, with red bark; there's also the uwai, somewhat larger, with black wood. There are also ferns (suplir and pakis) and kantung semar, or pitcher plants (Nepenthes). Kersik Luway seems to be heaven for these insectivorous plants, because I found kantung semar of many colors –green, yellow, and red– both hanging from trees and scattered on the ground.
After only a five-minute walk, we entered a denser forest, where it was cooler. Several times the soil collapsed under our feet – loose, crumbly humus that had been decaying here for years. This forest suffered fires in 1982, 1987 and 1997, but fortunately the orchid species were not destroyed. You can still see parts of the forest that are charred and not yet regrown.
And soon we came upon our first black orchid plants, which were not yet blooming, clustering upon the humus at the surface, between the berengganyi trees. The orchid plants have pale green stems, shaped like a flattened tuber, and fibrous roots. The leaves are long and wide like those of a palm. The shoot emerges from the base near the root, then grows into a pale green stem, from which the blossoms eventually emerge, typically between six and ten flowers. It takes around four weeks from the initial emergence of the shoot until the flowers blossom. Black orchid plants blossom anytime, but most abundantly in December. "I don't really know how old the black orchid plants are when they put out their flowers; I only know it takes several years," explained Didi, who has served here since 1996.
As well as black orchids, we came across several other varieties of orchid growing here: Anggrek tebu, a tall variety that resembles sugar cane; anggrek anyaman, anggrek tajuk tuan, and anggrek kipas. "There are also anggrek merpati, buluh rindu, manuntung, kumis kucing, anggrek bulu landak – 57 species in all," Didi noted.
The forest was dense, but there were lots of white sandy trails. I came across another black orchid that was blooming when Didi cleared away a bit of underbrush by the trail, and… surprise! I had assumed that these orchid flowers were entirely black, but no. On this one stalk, which had three blossoms in bloom and three other buds still not opened, each blossom had five pale green petals, much the same shape as kenanga (ylang-ylang) petals. At the base of the petals was a crown, shaped like a bowl, with black filaments containing the head of the bud. From this bowl protrudes a long black tongue adorned with pale green spots as if dusted with powder.
I was stunned by the black that covered the middle part of the flowers "tongues". When examined more closely, the black appeared to be not just a single layer, but more like the accumulation of soot on a car muffler that's never been cleaned. And along the edges are patterns in black resembling tattoos. So unlike most other orchids, whose beauty lies in their luxuriant colors, these black orchids display their beauty through the exotic black structures on the tongue.
If Didi hadn't mentioned that there were still at least three other plants in bloom, and if I hadn't remembered we still wanted to search for the pesut after this, I would have continued photographing this amazing black orchid much longer.
The second black orchid plant had three flowers in blossom and two
unopened buds. Looking at these, I suddenly noticed something else:
if you draw a vertical line from the tip of the tongue to the bud head,
including the five petals, it displays a perfect left/right symmetry!
I followed Didi again, and we passed a wilted black orchid. "If
they get too much sun, like this one, they'll wilt within three days," he
explained. "But if they're shaded by other plants, the blossoms
can last up to a week."
We passed another two clusters of unopened black orchid buds; Didi then pushed aside some berengganyi leaves and revealed another black orchid stem, this one around 50 centimeters long, with four blossoms and four closed buds. I had lost track of where Syachraini was, as we were both engrossed in taking photos. One nice thing about photographing these black orchids is that they grow fairly near the soil surface, so it's no trouble to shoot them.
The fourth black orchid plant I encountered seemed to be the pinnacle of this day's experience, because all eight flowers were in blossom! And they were very nicely arranged too, with five on the left and three on the right. Didi said that when they are fully open, black orchids emit a fragrant aroma. I took a sniff; hard to describe, because it was so subtle, and so different from any other flowers I've smelled before.
We passed some more wilted black orchids; Didi then found an example of another orchid species, anggrek tajuk tuan, that wasn't blooming yet, and I found several spotted pakis ferns. Our trail then led us back the way we had come in, so our tour was over. It had only been an hour and a half, but full of impressions.
We said goodbye to Didi, and to Pak Torung who was coming on duty to relieve him, and we headed back to continue our search for pesut on the way back to our base camp at Muara Pahu. But this time, I wasn't worried whether I saw any pesut or not, because I'd seen something else at least as fascinating.
Garuda Indonesia flies from Jakarta to Balikpapan 41 times a week, from Makassar and Manado 7 times a week.
How to Get There
To get to Kersik Luway, take an eight-hour bus ride from Samarinda's
Sei Kunjang terminal to Melak and then continue by'ojek'(motorcycle
taxi). Alternatively, take a boat up the Mahakam river from Sei Kunjang,
near the bus terminal, to Melak; this takes 20 hours (!). There are
also flights from Samarinda to Melalan airfield at Barong Tongkok,
10 km west of Melak, but these are restricted to military, government,
and medical purposes.
For accommodation, the Swiss-Belhotel Borneo Samarinda (Tel: +62 541 200 888, E-mail: samarinda@swiss-belhotel.com) is a good first choice. If you want to spend the night at Muara Pahu while searching for pesut, try Penginapan Anna (Tel: +62 812 5517379). Contact Syachraini (Tel: +62 812 5893504) for the pesut trip. There are also plenty of basic hotels and inns in Melak. Two with good views of the Mahakam are Penginapan Flamboyan (Tel: +62 852 46838580) and Penginapan Wijaya Kusuma (Tel: +62 545 41860).
