Experiencing the Gibbon Experience

The Gibbon Experience is either a conservation project under the guise of fun; or fun under the guise of a conservation project, depending on your perspective.

Why did Jeremy and I spend 3 days traversing valleys on zip lines, spending two nights in a treehouse suspended more than 50 metres above the valley below? Why did we hike many hours each day scanning the trees for wildlife? How did we end up cuddling a one month old asiatic bear, and how did my camera and sunnies almost get stolen by a cheeky monkey?

Not paid sufficiently to avoid the temptation of hunters' bribes, the sparse forest guards supplied by the government are ineffective at protecting the Bokeo Nature Reserve from poachers and logging. As well as tigers and bears, the forest is home to a species of gibbon, previously thought to be extinct. A Frenchman hatched an ambitious plan to protect the 123,000 ha of reserve by using the local village people to run low-impact visits to the forest for people like Jem and I - there are a network of ziplines which keep us off the ground and very entertained. The money is used to pay locals properly to work as forest guards.

The experience, so-called because of the early morning shrills of the gibbons reverberating through the forest each day, was also a great opportunity to reset the body clock from CPH over-indulgence to waking up at or before dawn, and being in bed by 7.30pm. Not even any red wine at dinner!!

Best of all, for me, was being outside 24 hours a day. The treehouse was without walls. It was a delight to fall asleep to the chattering of the nocturnal nightlife. It was also somewhat liberating to shower nude exposed to a 270degree vista of mountains and forest. This almost embodied the feeling of the whole experience: getting away from technology, electricity, conveniences - and back to nature.