Our chances of seeing them were deemed to be low by local experts who told us that they had headed hundreds of miles away. No guided tours were on offer. Undaunted and with the fatalism of all seafarers, we headed off to look for them in the small tributaries of the river.
Sailing into the jungle
The Kinabatangan River, at 342 miles, is the second longest river in Malaysia. Bordered by mangroves, rain forest, limestone caves and swamps, it’s like nowhere we have sailed before.