Wild Women Expeditions (WWE) will host five departures in 2019 for a women-only trip to the Indonesian Archipelago.

These will explore international efforts to preserve the critically endangered Bornean orangutan.

The 14-day itinerary, Untamed Indonesia, delves into one of the world's oldest rainforests(140 million years) on Borneo, the world's third largest island.

The island of Borneo comprises the three countries of Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, with the latter representing 73% of the island.

This is the traditional home of a great ape native to Asia and whose numbers are dwindling apace with habitat slashed and burned for paper pulp and to clear land for palm oil production.

These trips start on Indonesia before moving on to other Indonesian islands including Flores, home of the endangered Komodo Dragon, and Bali.

Guests paddle long wooden canoes into the Bornean freshwater swamp, home to proboscis monkeys, hornbills, Brahmini kites and orangutans.

Enroute they visit a site where the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation makes it possible for orangutans birthed in captivity, rescued or domesticated to be resocialised into the wild.

The group will also visit the orangutans in their protected island "forest school", where they are supported to be rehabilitated and released back into the wild.

The tour will continue on to Flores Island, inhabited by some 2,000 of the Earth's largest lizard (3m long, 65kg), the dinosaur-like Komodo dragon that can run 13 miles an hour and swim from island to island.

Here are wild boar, deer and buffalo, plus cockatoos, gosong birds and giant pigeons.

A cruise visits an island with a mangrove forest, home of nesting bats that at dusk do fly-overs in search of fruits and, on another island , snorkelers share the waters with giant manta rays.

While trekking through an ancient rainforest, an expert will explain the uses of traditional herbal medicines gleaned from the forest.

Useful links

​ www.wildwomenexpeditions.com/trips/indonesia