Upon arrival at Banjarmasin airport, you would be greeted by this signage when you enter the airport from the air field. Welcome to Banjarmasin!
One of the many churches we saw along the way. There were some towns (i.e. those north of Dayu if I did not remembered wrongly) with dayaks (people indigenous to Borneo) who are Christians forming majority of the population staying there. The warungs (samll casual outdoor restaurants) within such towns might not be Halal and could serve pork (possibly from wild boars) and therefore would not be suitable to stop over for meals if the driver whom you engaged was a Muslim. Be mindful of such details.
A typical wooden house along the road.
Cows grazing along a stream.
A typical road lined with houses on both sides.
Typical paddy field along the roads.
Yet another view of houses along the road. We were quite disappointed with south Kalimantan. There were very few pockets of forests along the main roads for us to explore. The roads were either lined with houses, paddy fields or rubber plantations. Our driver told us that rubber was one of the main economy for many people living in south Kalimantan.
We drove past many mosques with people lined along the road outside the mosques armed with net, trying to gather donations from passer-by for redevelopment of these mosques. Our driver threw a few small notes and coins out of the car window now and then as he drove past them.
A road passing by a large town (i.e. those shown on the map).
On day 2, we went up Gunung Besar ("Gunung" = "mountain", "Besar" = "big"). At around altitude 200m plus (according to our cheap GPS which I felt the altitude readings could sometimes be rather unstable and inaccurate), we found a fast flowing river (it rained heavily the night before for the whole night). My explorer friend thought he saw some black patches along the river bed at the other side of the bank so we walked to the river side to explore.
My friend was wrong, the black patch was some flat rocks submersed under water. Instead, I saw a small patch of submersed plants growing at our side of the river bank.
I reached in and plucked a leaf out to see what type of plant they were. Cryptocorynes! Yeah!!!!! We were luckily for if my friend had not mistaken some submersed rocks as patches of plants, we would not had walk to the side of such a large and fast flowing rocky river and found this small patch of cryptocorynes.
The river bed was sandy and the pH of the water was rather high, about 7.5to 8.0. And because of the high altitude, the water temperature was rather low.
As it was rather late already, we hurriedly collected some specimens and moved on. Upon reaching our hotel that night, I examined the collected specimens and found one with a blooming flower which looked like an orchid (haha just joking).
An unopened spathe was found. I thought it looked that belonging to C. striolata / keei / hudoroi / etc. type of cryptocorynes with long slender twisted tail at the tip of the limb. In accordance to the information recorded on 'the crypt pages', I would termed them as C. cf. striolata here.
The specimens had deep rizhomes to attached themselves firmly onto the sandy bed of the fast flowing river.
One characteristic of these specimens was the reddish "chicken feet" veins found on the leaves base. The bullate leaves were cordate in shape and were greenish to brownish in colour (the mix of colour being highly variable). The underside of the leaves was typically reddish in colour.
Would low temperature be a important factor to sucessuful cultivation of such specimens found at such high altitude?
This was the 3rd location in Dayu where we found cryptocorynes. The 2nd location was a river with a lady washing her clothes and bathing inside so we did not want to bother her and did not explore that location
At this 3rd location, we found some emersed specimens growing on the banks of the river.
Below was the 4th location where we found cryptocorynes. The location was somewhere near to Taminglayang if I did not remember wrongly. Only submersed specimens were found there.
From the reflections on the water, you could probably guessed where this location was located. Yes, under a bridge. Haven't I told you all before that cryptocoryne hunters are lazy people who only search under the bridges along the main road? Hahahaha.
No spathe was located at both locations but from the location where they were found and the current records available on the internet, we guessed that these specimens should be comparable with C. cordata.
The first cryptocoryne we found around south Kalimantan was near Dayu but we failed to locate any spathe. From 'the crypt pages', it was recorded that only C. cf. cordata was found around this region so we guessed that this should likely be C. cf. cordata too.
The river water level was high and all the cryptocorynes found here were in submersed condition. We were told by our driver that the rainy season was not over yet and encountered a few heavy rain pours during our 3 days 3 nights trip there. Large carpets of cryptocorynes could be found.
The cryptocorynes were growing with some beautiful long stem water plants with greenish leaves with serrated edges.
The leaves of these cryptocorynes are one of the larger ones which I had found so far. The underside of the leaves were very purplish in colour.
The substrate of the river was formed with fine sandy base mixed with pebbles and the pH of the water was rather low at around 4.5?
Oh, and did I ever mentioned before that we frequently found cryptocorynes growing in rivers used by the local for washing clothes, bathing, and disposing of human waste? This was no expeption. Always ask to use the toilet when you can't find the cryptocorynes!
19th Feb 2010 (Fri)
1500hrs - Finally managed to send out one last work related email to address my boss's concern. After a quick bath, I rushed out of house, took a taxi to pick my explorer friend up and then headed together to the airport. Luckily the traffic was smooth and we managed to reach the airport on time to check-in our baggage.
1715hrs - Boarded the plane to Jakarta.
1755hrs (Jakarta time) - Reached Jakarta and queued for a long while to clear immigration and claim our checked-in baggage.
1855hrs (Jakarta time) - Got out of the arrival hall and rushed upstairs to the departure hall only to find out that the local flights were at another terminal which required us to take a shutter bus or taxi to reach there.
1905hrs (Jakarta time) - Managed to reach the terminal 1 via taxi to complete our check in baggage.
1955hrs (Jakarta time) - Boarded the plane to Banjarmasin.
2230hrs - Arrived at Banjarmasin Airport. 20th Feb 2010 (Sat)
0005hrs - Finally managed to complete our negotiation with the taxi counter at the airport and hired a car + driver.
0600hrs - Reached Taminglayang for breakfast at a road side warung (meaning a casual outdoor eatery in Bahasa Indonesia)
0700hrs - Reached Dayu, found our first cryptocoryne, likely to be C. cf. cordata with large submersed leaves.
0730hrs - Found 3rd location with C. cf. cordata in Dayu with emersed specimens.
0900hrs - Reached Ampah, decided not to travel further north, turned back and started travelling south.
1100hrs - Found 4th location with C. cf. cordata in Taminglayang.
1500hrs - Reached our last hunting location for Day 1, Tebing Tinggi.
1730hrs - Went back to Tanjung for dinner and stayed over in Tanjung. It rained heavily from 1900hrs until early morning the next day. 21st Feb 2010 (Sun)
0500hrs - Woke up, checked out of hotel and headed towards East Kalimantan.
0550hrs - Had breakfast along a roadside warung.
0650hrs - Found yet another location for C. cf. cordata near Haruai.
0800hrs - Reached foot of Gunung Lumut near the border of East Kalimantan, the furthest to the east we travelled to before turning back.
1000hrs - Reached back to Tanjung for Lunch.
1230hrs - Reached Barabai.
1600hrs - Reached Gunung Besar.
1630hrs - Found C. cf. striolata on Gunung Besar.
1710hrs - Reached a waterfall on Gunung Besar.
1720hrs - Friend almost hit by falling rocks at foot of waterfall.
1930hrs - Stayed over in a hotel on Gunung Besar. 22nd Feb 2010 (Mon)
0600hrs - Woke up and started hunting around Gunung Besar.
0800hrs - Found another location on Gunung Besar with C. cf. striolata.
1100hrs - Left Gunung Besar to head back towards Bajarmasin airport.
1300hrs - Spathe of collected specimen of C. cf. striolata 'Gunung Besar' opened.
1440hrs - Ended search between Banjarbaru and Rantau for C. hudoroi, no luck...
1610hrs - Reached Banjarmasin airport.
1620hrs - Managed to find a toilet to bathe in the airport before checking in.
2000hrs (Jakarta time) - Reach baggage claim area and waited for friend's luggage.
2010hrs (Jakarta time) - Baggage conveyor belt had not even started. Decided to split up, I headed to terminal 2 hoping that they would still allow me to check-in for the connecting flight scheduled at 2050hrs while my friend continued to wait for his baggage. If I missed the flight, I would have to stay over in Jakarta and not be able to attend an important meeting the next day. Stressed!!!!
2015hrs (Jakarta time) - Reached terminal 2, happy to see that the check-in counter had not closed and was still serving 3 last passengers.
2020hrs (Jakarta time) - Cleared immigration, went to boarding gate.
2030hrs (Jakarta time) - Delighted to see my friend being escorted to the boarding gate by an airport staff.
2050hrs (Jakarta time) - Boarded plane back to Singapore.
