Arriving at our hotel in Kerinci well after dark we met our ground team of Bobbi and Yudi from Explore Kerinci - see here. Bobbi was the bird guide and Yudi was our driver and hot / drinks / food provider. Two great guys. We were all tired and hungry and the guys went out and got us nasi goreng which is fried rice and egg. Something we'd get very familiar with in the next 9 days. The rooms were very basic and not very comfortable. Our alarms were set for 5 am but there was no change of sleeping that late - jet-lag and the morning call to prayers at 5 am saw to that! Breakfast was hard boiled eggs and plain white bread with jam - no butter!
Today was to be our first day exploring the dormant volcano that is Mt Kerinci and we piled into the pickup for the bumpy drive to the trail entrance in the dark. We'd hoped to pick up Sumatran Frogmouth but despite hearing them we couldn't find any.
As it got lighter we moved to one of the hides where we hoped to catch up with Schneider's Pitta and Sumatran (bronze-tailed) peacock Pheasant. Unfortunately it wasn't to be with only a couple of people (including Fred) lucky enough to see the pheasant as it approached from beneath ha fallen log to the left of the clearing. Today was going to be a long day of near misses and rain! The weather certainly didn't help our cause and for the remainder of the day and the following day we struggled to find our target species. Using the thermal after dark on the edge of the forest, in the hope of picking up a Salvadori's Nightjar we, instead, found a cool looking Slow Loris. A new species of mammal for me.
However, we did manage to find a Schneider's Pitta roosting in the thermal and, unbelievably, a roosting Salvadori's Nightjar.
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