Rude nose

This is a picture from our first week away, when we went to Bako National Park, in Sarawak. This was one of the first things we saw at the park. We assumed it was all going to be like that, but it turned out that our sighting was a lucky fluke. About five minutes after this sighting we came across people tiptoeing around and shushing each other because they had spotted a group of proboscis monkeys way off in the trees. I showed them the pictures I'd just taken, and their guide said he'd never seen such a big proboscis monkey close up like that, and got all excited. I felt a bit embarrassed to tell them we just sort of ran into him before we'd even got to the beginning of the trail, and had stood right under his tree and chatted while taking pictures. I guess that particular monkey hadn't read the guidebooks either.

Although we then walked for three and a half hours, much of it vertical (what WERE we thinking?), this guy and the distant group at the beginning were the only proboscis monkeys we saw.

But you know that old wives' tale about nose size? I think it must be wrong.