Because the low that has brought so much in the way of rain and showers, of late, is still pretty close to the eastern shores, and with time, i think we are going to see the cloud and rain returning, initially to yorkshire and then through lincolnshire, the east midlands to east anglia and further to the south and east, as the day goes on. Out west, it is a brighter day with a passing shower. The wind ever present, especially along these eastern shores. 40 50 mph gusts, perhaps. Out towards the west, gusty in exposure, but less in the way of wind, but it is all coming from the north, so 12 18 will be the best i can find for you through the afternoon. On comes the cloud and wind and rain into the south eastern parts, during the course of the evening. Further to the west, the skies stay pretty clear and with the wind really beginning to fall out, it will be a chilly night away from the east, but a bright sunday to come. Hello, this is bbc news. The headlines. Chadwick boseman, the star of the groundbreaking super hero movie black panther, dies of colon cancer he was a3. New advice for schools in england on what to do if theres a covid outbreak in their local area. Teachers say it should have been published much earlier. A resurgence of coronavirus cases in spain as it becomes the first european country to surpass 400,000 infections. Police in sydney begin patrolling beaches to enforce coronavirus regulations, as lifeguards officially return to duty. Now on bbc news, another chance to join mike corey in this classic travel show episode as he travels across malaysias biggest state, sarawak, and ventures deep into the bornean rainforest. This week on the travel show, im in the jungles of borneo exploring malaysias biggest state. Sarawak. In the western corner of malaysia and borneo, sarawak has some of the most diverse ecosystems, but it can be overlooked by tourists drawn to the bright lights, or resorts of of its neighbour state sabah. So im going to discover for myself the sites and inhabitants of this remarkable state. Along the way, ill be hanging out with these guys. Climbing jagged peaks. Easily one of the most beautiful and one of the most difficult hikes ive done. And getting a taste of one of the worlds most remote food festivals. Sucking. I have to work on my snail sucking technique. I love sarawak so much. We have 26 ethnic groups in sarawak. Sarawak means surrender to you. My trip starts here, and sarawaks biggest city, kuching. In sarawaks biggest city, kuching. The word kuching means something special, right . Yes, it kuching means cat like the city of cats . Yes, cat city. We are starting here in the state capital kuching and travelling all the way over here to the highlands. Its going to be a journey. On my first stop, im going to meet one of the states most iconic residents. And here he is. The orangutan. There is so much soul in their eyes. 97 of their dna is shared with humans, and thats where they get their name. 0rangutan means man of the forest. 0rangutans are native to only two islands in southeast asia. Some live on sumatra but the vast majority some live on sumatra but the vast majority live here, in borneo. Ive come to this nature reserve, where rangers are preparing for the morning feed. It looks like they eat quite well because theres a whole buffet here and it seems like every day there is a different meal plan. Yes, today is saturday so they will have 21 kilos of bananas and then sweet potatoes, chicken eggs and pineapples. Oh, its heavy maybe 15 kilos. 0k. Where are we at . Almost 20. Almost there. We are already 21 kilograms. So what is special about this nature reserve . Ok, so Semenggoh Wildlife Centre is actually started off as a rehabilitation centre, so we were established back in 1975, so its more than a0 years ago. The reserve took orangutans that had been rescued from captivity or suffered from habitat loss, and taught them to live wild in the surrounding forest. Since then the Rehabilitation Programme has been moved elsewhere but the forest is still home to 33 orangutans, and tourists have a chance to glimpse those tempted back by a free meal. Its very different than a zoo . No orangutans in cages. Yeah, totally different from a zoo. Two 7 yes. And the basket. Yes. 0ur ranger, he will. We will bring the fruits to the main feeding area. When the tourists arrive, a ranger heads to the feeding platform to call the apes. He calls. Welcome to our centre. Coming here, it is not guaranteed that you will see an orangutan. You happen to see one, you consider yourself very lucky already. In the rainy season between november and march there is an abundance of fruit in the forest, so the orangutans often dont need this extra food. But lucky for us, we dont have to wait long for a sighting. This is edwin, one of the biggest males in the park. Like the ranger said, this is not a zoo. The orangutans can come from any direction at any time so you have to be a little bit careful, especially around the big males like edwin here. While these orangutans are used to people, they are still unpredictable, so tourists are kept at a safe distance. Edwin, hes 23 years old, born in 1996, and he was the first male born here. Now fully grown, edwin is competing to become the reserves sole dominant male. Only one orangutan dares to approach him on the platform. Seduku, rescued from captivity in the 19705 and one of the first orangutans to be rehabilitated here. Are they a thing . Yeah. We call her the grand old lady because she is the oldest female, aged 48 years old. Wow. And she is doing still very well. She is a8, hes 23 . Thats quite a big age difference there, right . Yes, but love doesnt see age as a problem, no . Feeding times over. Theres no more, and here is edwin. Oh, im a bit nervous to see him so close. Hes massive so much hair. If you saw that from behind you wouldnt know what it was. Sadly, despite conservation efforts, orangutans face an uncertain future. Over a 16 year period, the numbers in borneo fell by more than 100,000 a decline blamed on hunting and deforestation. Its now estimated that there are nowjust over 100,000 orangutans left on the island. And so, the facility here, how does it help . By having a centre like semenggoh, people still get a sense of seeing the wild orangutan, and not disturb the orangutan in their nature habitat. And i guess the more people come here, the more they learn and that also helps as well . Yeah, definitely. The feeling of excitement of seeing wild orangutans brings you closer to conservation efforts, and to be able to share it with people up there, it really means something. Next up, im crossing the state to reach Gunung Mulu National park sarawa ks largest piece of protected rainforest. This place is teeming with wildlife over a,000 species of plants, 20,000 species of invertebrates. That means hundreds of different kinds of spiders, beetles, and butterflies. But no orangutans, though. Not here. Mulu is also home to groups of penan one of the last remaining hunter gatherer tribes in southeast asia. A lot of their traditional tribal land has been lost through deforestation, so the vast majority now stay in settlements like this one. Twanging. I didnt expect you to do that whistling. 0k with the nose laughter. So these are flutes, right . Blowpipe. Blowpipes you make these . Can you show me . 0h, isee. So you drill it by hand . So many times that would be countless hours. Ah, yes. You see, there we go. Mike corey, blowpipe maker. Blowpipes are the penans traditional hunting weapon. They are loaded with darts, tipped with a strong poison extracted from the bark of the local tajem tree. And you would use one of these big ones . Wow im about six feet tall, maybe 1. 8 metres. Ok, so we are here like this, ammo goes in the back. Armed and dangerous. You first. Safety off. Sharpshooter i guarantee i will not. Like this . This . And then. 0k. Here we go, hopefully theres some beginners luck. 0h. I hit the target further inside the park there is a truly unique landscape. Below ground, there are some of the Worlds Largest caves, formed from limestone and shaped by millions of years of ground and rainwater. This process also created a bizarre collection of stone spires above the ground. They are called the pinnacles, and i have come all the way up river to base camp 5 to see them. At almost 50 metres tall, the pinnacles are an imposing spectacle. But to get there, sightseers face a three day round trip and a long, brutal trek through the rainforest. So the guides have some rules in place to make sure tourist are up to it. The first 60 minutes, so this is considered as a check in point. If you make it more than 60 minutes, you are considered a slow member. You are considered a slow climber. And we have to say, sorry, you are not qualified. So if i dont make the first checkpoint in 60 minutes you turn me around and say, sorry, you are going back home . Yes, this is the rule here. 0k. Were just about to head to bed for the big hike tomorrow and this is bed tonight actually, underneath this mosquito net, but is a bee, by the way. That is a bee, by the way. This is coming with me tomorrow. Shh theres some peoples sleeping and i just got shushed i am nervous for the hike tomorrow, it is supposed to be quite hard. A lot of very, very steep inclines. So im going to get a full eight hours tonight and i will see you in the morning and we will see if we can make it to the top. Caution 0h. A high degree of physical fitness is required past this point. Eight hours round trip. Lead the way. Lets go i havejust 60 minutes to make it to the mini pinnacles the first point. Pinnacles the first checkpoint. You werentjoking. How is it . Steep the checkpoint is less than a kilometre up the slope but the humidity makes it feel a lot further. He pants. Weve only just started, and im already pretty exhausted. And we are here the pinnacles not quite, right . Mini pinnacles. That is. Thats not a joke having reached the checkpoint within the time limit, its another kilometre before i reach the most treacherous stage. This is the first ladder, mike. 0k. Woo hoo right, helmets on, right . All right. Who is first . After you. After me. He pants. 0k 0ne down, 70 more to go. It is beautiful limestone. The cliffs are sharp but at least there are lots of places to grab onto. It looks like it is raining down there. You think it is going to rain . Yeah, it is going to be heavy rain. 500 metres to go. 100 metres to go. I hope we get there before the rain. What ladder is this . The last ladder. This looks like the summit. Is it . Yeah, the summit is here. We are here, guys. Oh, wow yeah and there are so many of them 0h this is beautiful yep just daggersjutting out of the forest canopy. Yeah, it really is spectacular, right . The final stop in myjourney across sarawak is bario in the kelabit highlands, home to one of the worlds most remote food festivals. It is not exactly a smooth road, it is being like being a greased up piece of popcorn back here in the back seat, but it is a lot of fun i am quite an adventurous eater and i will try everything. Once, at least once. If it is not so good then only once, but often when you come to these far away places, you will find some pretty far out food and im hoping we will find some very interesting stuff bumped around and a little bruised from the journey, i get there to find the festival in full swing. Actually we are catching the eye of a lot of the locals because there is not that many foreigners surprise, surprise in this part of the world. I dont know half of the foods here today and that is quite exciting for me. A local farmer called dayang offers to show me around. Would you like to try our dure . I do not know what this is. It is one of the local, exotic vegetables found here in bario. It is a plant that lives in the jungle . Yes. I could eat that all day. Thats delicious. But it is kind of like, i was thinking it will taste like spinach but it does not taste like spinach at all. 0k. It tastes much heartier than spinach would. Would you like to try the akep . Yeah, we can try the akep. So akep looks to be like boiled snails. Yeah, it is found in the field here. It smells like boiled snails too. This is how we do it. So this lives in the jungle as well . You suck it out. There you are. Just like that. So you bite, you bit it first . Yeah, just a bit, not too much. A little bit is stuck on my teeth. 0k, and then you suck it, just suck it right out . There we go. How do you find it . The taste must be fantastic. I would not use that word but it is not bad, its very chewy this is classic, traditional kelabit food, sourced from the surrounding area. Welcome to bario. Dayang takes me to her farm where she grows one very important ingredient. Its cool because each plant has one pineapple . Yes. So it will take about one year to ripe. This one looks ripe. Yes this yellow one. Yes, with the colour a golden yellow. So how do we. . Can we pick one, how do we pick one . Sure, you can just pluck it. I will have puncture wounds after this, but it is ok. Hey, that was easy. And twist . Because it is golden, ripe pineapple. Ta da da it is very sweet. Look at this, my very first pineapple. 0h back at the festival, locally grown pineapples have been made into jams, juices and even pineapple cider. Down the hatch. A little chunky. How many of these do i have to drink to have a really good day . Im not sure. Shall we find out . Im joking, im joking. Since it started in 2006, the festival has celebrated both the cuisine and the culture of the highlands. Up top there are some bags with soda pop, cookies. The point is to climb to the top and grab your prize and come back down. Apparently that means it is my turn. Give him a big clap. So, start slowly from the bottom. Freestyle. Freestyle here we go. Come on, come on as the games continue, my form does not really improve. Yeah come on it was by a feather that we lost. Yeah. A game that im not bad at. I think it is my height advantage. Everyone gets a shot . Lets watch. That is way further than mine. I guess you might think that coming so far away, you wouldnt be able to make friends or it might be a strange tourist experience. But i always find its some of the best ones when you come to these remote places. Theres not many foreign tourists, so people arejust so accepting and grateful that youre here and will share everything with you. Hello, it really wasnt too bad a start to what, for many, is the Holiday Weekend of course. Certainly out towards the western side of the british isles, under the influence of a big area of high pressure, things were looking really pretty decent. It is a bit of a different story out towards the east where it was so very wet across parts yesterday, a couple of inches in rain in scarborough for example. This weekend, a windy start east and we will come back to that in a second. It will be fairly cool by day and by night, but it will be mainly dry. I have to emphasise mainly dry, because the low pressure that brought so much in the way of rain in the past couple days, and those heavy showers, is still not a million miles away from us and you will see that those eastern areas are still pretty close to the influence of that low. Increasing amounts of cloud will eventually drag some rain down into these eastern shores, eastern side of the pennines, and then down through the east midlands, on towards east anglia and the south east through the afternoon. Ever present will be the strength of the winds. Some of those exposed eastern coasts, a0 50 miles per hour, and the breeze still there to be had, down through the irish sea as well where many Western Areas a passing shower but a lot of dry weather. The wind is coming from the north, so it is not going to be warm. 12 18 degrees or so. 0nwards, onwards, comes that cloud and rain into the early part of the evening, eventually getting down towards sussex and to kent as well, but at least the combination of the breeze and the cloud will keep the temperatures up. Elsewhere, it is going to be a really chilly night for the time of year, but at least that then becomes a really sparkling morning to start your sunday. The wind still a feature here, maybe some cloud and the odd spot of rain to get away from kent and essex, but that clears away and then that is a pretty decent day. Again, a spotting of showers, not much more than that, but again, despite the fact that the wind is easing, still only on the thermometers, 12 to about 18 degrees, and here is the thing we do it all over again as we go from sunday night, under the influence of the big area of high pressure, so not very much in the way of breeze, not very much in the way of cloud, so it is another chilly start, but at least it is a gloriously sunny day. I think the cloud really will develop through the course of the day and it will cloud over, certainly as the front approaches northern ireland, but many areas will stay dry. But again, despite all the sunshine, it wont be overly warm. This is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. Chadwick boseman, the star of the groundbreaking super hero movie black panther, dies of colon cancer he was a3. The fact that he chose those iconic, historical black characters and icons in history, its testament to the kind of roles he wanted to take and what path he was creating, or leaving behind, for people in his wake. New advice for schools in england on what to do if theres a covid outbreak in their local area. Teachers say it should have been published much earlier. A resurgence of coronavirus cases in spain as it becomes the first european country to surpass a00,000 infections. Police in sydney begin patrolling beaches to enforce coronavirus regulations, as lifeguards officially