Meet the team, hear the stories, and enjoy a talk by renowned explorer, Robin Hanbury-Tension

Please join us for a special evening of talks, drinks, nibbles and networking to celebrate the success of the Murung Raya Expedition, to thank our sponsors, and to launch the next phase of the Heart of Borneo Project.

Robin Hanbury-Tension, renowned explorer, author, and HoBP Patron, will be our guest speaker, followed by tales and insights by the Murung Raya Expedition team about the ups and downs in the field.

The legendary Borneo Brew will also be making a special appearance thanks to Skinners Brewery – don’t miss out!

Some of the products that were kindly loaned or donated to help make the expedition the great success it was will be on display, and we hope to have a small gallery of images from the expeditio.

We will use the event to publish our Final Expedition and Scientific Reports which will be available to collect, and you will be the first to hear about our exciting new plans for the future.

It will be a fun and entertaining evening with great opportunities for expedition veterans and newbies alike to network and share stories.

Details:

6-8pm, June 7th

Xfi Cafe, Building One, Exeter Streatham Campus, Exeter, EX4 4QJ

View a map here

The event is free, but places are limited, so please RSVP via email to book your place:

info@heartofborneo.org

See you there!

Keeping things dry in the rainforest is extremely hard work, but was crucial to the success of our 3 month expedition.

We used around 60 Aquapacs for everything from hauling equipment into the canopy, transporting kit upriver on boats, and day to day exploration of the rainforest. We are incredibly grateful to the significant contribution that Aquapac made to the success of the expedition.

Expedition Leader, Martin Holland, Recounts 55 Wonderful Nights in a DD Hammock on the last day at Camp Foyle

Special Thanks to DD Hammocks for their very generous and well received contribution to the expedition.

Click to view slideshow.

We are very proud to be recognised in this way, especially in a country other than our own. This award demonstrates the success of the expedition in reaching a truly international audience. The magazine will be running a special feature on our expedition in its next edition.

Scroll down to Page 8 to see us.

The Murung Raya Expedition Team are all safely back in the UK and settling into their normal everyday lives after an incredible 3 months in Central Kalimantan. Breaking camp was a huge logistical challenge set against a strict itinerary in order to allow our research team the most time possible at camp. We dismantled our trusty satellite terminal and so we were unable to broadcast this event from the field as we were leaving.

During the 8 weeks we spent at Camp Foyle our team surveyed 12km of transects spreading out from our base camp into the primary rainforest along the banks of the Mohot River. All of the research objectives were met, including the 2 week sub-expedition up the Joloi river in search of a hybrid gibbon believed to be present in the area.

The research team and their guides worked tirelessly in the constant heat and humidity, battling stings, bites, scratches, falls, foot rot, spider bites (almost!), caterpillar rashes, poisonous sap, sub-cutaneous worms, twisted ankles, fatigue and mystery illnesses.

The effort, skill, knowledge and determination of the team to make the most of this opportunity, self-funded in part but only made possible with the support of numrous donors and sponsors, will be demonstrated in the data and results which will be made public soon.

The research team are all busy producing the final Scientific Report which will made available to the public, and shared with our partners in Indonesia to help protect this area of rainforest from imminent destruction.

The interactive element was also very successful. Our kit withstood the rigours of the elements and we were able to send back over 40 videos and many more blogs, photo galleries and twitter updates, all from one of the most remote places on earth. We took part in the first live video links of this kind to be held in the Attenborough Studio in the Natural History Museum in London, as well as two live Q&A sessions on the Guardian newspaper’s website.

We have broken new ground, physically and virtually.

Our relationships with the nearby villages of Tumbang Tohan and Tumbang Naan ended very positiely, with our research area being formally designated a protected zone by the village elders. We look forward to returning and building on this measure of trust and support.

There is a huge amount of work to be done now. The data need to be analysed, the media consolidated, a new website created to showcase our work, and planning for the next stages of the Heart of Borneo Project. More will be posted here soon, with the last videos and galleries shot at camp uploaded as well as a preliminary report, but for now, a huge thank you to all of our sponsors for helping to make this happen.

Filmed and Edited by James Harwood

Filmed and Edited by James Harwood

 

Filmed and Edited by Martin Holland