- Borneo (1935 - 1936) -
map by R.E.G. Davis
On August 12, 1935 Osa and Martin left the U.S. for their last adventure together, a return to North Borneo...Traveling east by ship they brought only one of their famous amphibian planes...Arriving in Belawan, Sumatra, they reassembled the single engine "Spirit of Africa" and flew on to Sandakan, Borneo making several stops along the way...The final leg of the leg of the journey involved the first flight over a range of mountains deemed dangerous and impenetrable at the time.
From a small basecamp near the town of Abai on the Kinabatatangan river, they traveled by river and air throughout North Borneo recording the customs and rituals of the Tenggara, Murut, Bajou and Dusun peoples...The Johnsons also took photos and filmed numerous primates indigenous to Borneo, including the first pictures of the proboscis monkey in the wild.
The daily rains, constant humidity and insects made filming difficult as it had 15 years earlier, but the experience gained since than resulted in their finest motion picture...They left Borneo in September of 1936 with 3,000 photos and over 150,000 feet of film.
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