Gunung Palung National Park

General

The Gunung Palung National Park lies in the province West Kalimantan and is 90,000 ha. The park comprises a large variety of habitats. Around the mountains Gunung Palung (1116 m) and Gunung Panti you'll find untouched mountain forests. At the coast there are beach and mangrove forests and in between peat and freshwater swamp forests and lowland rainforests are to be found. At Gabang Panti is a research station established by Harvard University but you can't visit it.

Access

Gunung Palung National Park is one of the least accessible national parks on Kalimantan. You can reach the park in two ways. For both you need a lot of time and money. However, when you love to be off the beaten track, the journey to the park should be an adventure in itself. Be prepared for the ghosts you meet on the way.

1. From Pontianak take a boat or plain to Ketapang, where you have to hire some kind of transportation to Sukadana. In Sukadana hire a boat for the last 10 hrs! to the park.
2. Take a minibus to Rasau from Manara station in Pontianak (1,5 hr.). From Rasau catch a longboat to Teluk Melano. This journey will take 5-10 hours, depending on the boat you take. It is possible to reach Teluk Melano by boat, directly from Pontianak, but this journey will take 10-20 hours. In Teluk Melano hire a boat to Simanjak from where you have to travel the last stretch by canoe or klotok.

Accomodation

There is no official tourist accomodation inside the park, but you can probably sleep in the several KSDA offices. Visit the KSDA office in Pontianak before you go and make arrangements. An other possibility is to sleep in the kampung at the border of the park. Register at the kepala desa of the kampung.

Adresses

KSDA, Jl. Abdurrachman Saleh 33, Pontianak.

Flora

• Beach forest:
  Casuarina equisetifolia, Callophyllum inophyllum, Terminalia, Morinda and Hibiscus tiliacea.
• Mangrove forest:
  Rhizophora spp., Bruguiera spp., Sonneratia alba, Avicennia spp.
• Peatswamp forests:
  Medang trees (Litsea amora), Ubah besi (Parastemon sp.), Meranti (Hopea sangal and Shorea leprosala), Bintangor (Callophyllum sp.) and Nyatoh (Ganua motleyana).
• Freshwater swamp forests:
  Medang, Ubah besi, Shorea sp., Bintangor, Meranti bunga (Hopea sangal), Alseodaphne, Parastemon urophyllum, Shorea laevifolia.

Fauna

Mammals

Orang Utan (Pongo pygmaeus), White-handed Gibbon or Owa (Hylobates lar), Sambar Deer (Cervus unicolor), Malayan Sunbear (Helarctos malayanus), Proboscis Monkey (Nasalis larvatus), Agile or Black-handed Gibbon (Hylobates agilis), Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis), Maroon Leaf-monkey (Presbytis rubicunda), Common or Cream-colored Giant Squirrel (Ratufa affinis), Large Flying Fox or Kalong (Pteropus vampyrus).

Reptiles

False Ghavial (Tomistoma schlegelii), Reticulated Python (Python reticulatus), Water Monitor (Varanus salvator).

Fishes

Arowana (Scleropages formosus)

Birds

Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indus), White-bellied Sea-eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster), Black Fish-eagle (Ichthyophaga malayensis), Buffy Fish-owl (Ketupa ketupu), Long-tailed Parakeet (Psittacula longicauda).

From ed.colijn@tip.nl