As I stepped down the embankment to the wooden boat that would take us up river, Mr Mistar, our guide, made me pause. “She disappeared,” he said in an ominous tone. I looked up inquiringly, waiting to hear more. “A woman washing clothes. The crocodile ate her.”
With that, we pushed off. I knew the trip to pursue wild orangutans in Sumatra would be tough. Wading thigh-high in swamp was expected, as was the risk of strange diseases. I hadn't wagered on man-eating reptiles but nothing was going to stop me now. Many years back, I was thrilled to encounter feral gorillas in Rwanda – one even touched my shoulder. And so I jumped when my brother-in-law, an expert on orangutans, offered to arrange access to Asia's only great ape. I was conscious that, at most, only 6,600 orangutans remain in Sumatra. Scientists warn that this close human cousin might disappear in a decade or two as a result of the destruction of its habitat for palm oil plantations.
The photographer and I travelled for two hours up river to our destination, a research station called Suaq Balimbing in the Kluet swamp, where the animals live unmolested. As we sailed past the pristine forest of gigantic trees, Ellen Meulman, a Dutch researcher, identified hornbills and the rare Storm's stork. We saw kingfishers while indigenous fishermen paddled by in dugout canoes, their wicker baskets filled with river oysters. Mindful of Mr Mistar's cautionary tale, I recoiled when something reptilian slithered into the water. Thankfully, it was just a monitor lizard.