Read Part I first Imbak Tampoi Basecamp A white Landcruiser bounces into the Imbak Tampoi Basecamp and three men jump out clutching rolls of paper and clip boards. I sense forestry officials and so try to lurk inconspicuously. ‘Is that a map of Imbak region?’ I enquire innocently, ‘can I have a look?’ I add before he has a chance to respond. Sure enough it is a map of the proposed logging coupe, an area of nearly 23,000ha in the Sungai Pinangah, Gunung Rara and Kuamut Forest Reserves. Much of this region has already...

Pete and I were standing motionless on the nature trail at Danum Valley Field Centre, our ears craned and binoculars at the ready. We were on a twitch. Some friends of Pete’s had reported sensational sighting of a Giant Pitta on this trail just a month before. The Giant Pitta is high on the wanted list of every bird watcher who comes to Borneo, but at this moment it was the call of a quite different bird that we were straining to hear. The instant I heard it I recalled a similar scenario, an occasion that my father described...