the weather prospects are looking pretty grey for many of us this week. the best of the brightness to come if anything tomorrow. a very mild weekend ahead. we are pulling in air from the south—west, a long way south—west, sending temperatures well above average, particularly in scotland and northern ireland. this afternoon some wet weather for scotland and northern ireland. england and wales hanging on to a lot of cloud with fog lingering in the east and brightness in the west where the breeze picks up. highest across the board ten to 12 of that this evening and overnight but a more rain spreading across scotland. the mac can sap further south. just look at the temperatures. these are the overnight lows, 9 degrees in aberdeen and belfast — exceptionally mild. temperatures could be up to 15 degrees on the moray firth.

hello. this is bbc news with shaun ley. the headlines: the star of grease olivia newton—john is made a dame in a new year honours list which also recognises four members of england's world cup winning cricket team. ben stokes receives an obe. more than a thousand people are recognised, including 94—year—old d—day veteran harry billinge who raised over £10,000 for a national memorial. a woman whose husband and two children drowned on christmas eve in a swimming pool at a resort in spain says all three could swim. she blames a fault with the pool. concerns for australia's wildlife as an extreme heatwave hits the country, putting increasing pressure on fire fighters battling the bushfires. iamoff iam offto i am off to gargle. now its time for the the travel show.

mike corey has been travelling across malaysia's biggest state, sarawak. he s ventured deep into the bornean rainforest and explored one of the world's most remote food festivals. this week on the travel show, i am in the jungles of borneo exploring malaysia's biggest state... sarawak. in the western corner of malaysian borneo, sarawak has some of the most spectacular and diverse ecosystems in the world. but it can be overlooked by tourists drawn to the bright lights of kl or the resorts of its neighbour state, sabah. so i am going to discover for myself the sights and inhabitants of this remarkable state. along the way i will be hanging out with these guys... climbing jagged peaks... easily one of the most beautiful and most difficult hikes i have done. ..and getting a taste of one of the world's most remote food festivals.

sucking she laughs i have to work on my snail sucking technique. yes, i love sarawak so much. everything very unique in sarawak. we have 26 ethnic groups in sarawak. sarawak means "surrender to you" in malay. my trip starts here in sarawak‘s biggest city, kuching. and does the word kuching mean, it means something special, right? yes, kuching means "cat", in english. like the city of cats? yes, cat city. we are starting here in the state capital, kuching, and we are travelling all the way up here to the kelabit highlands. it's going to be a journey. on my first stop, i am going to meet one of the state's most iconic residents.

and here he is. the orangutan. so much soul in their eyes. 97% of their dna is shared with humans. that's where they get the name — orangutan means "man of the forest." 0rangutans are native to only two islands in southeast asia. some live on sumatra, but the vast majority live here in borneo. i have come to the semenggoh nature reserve where the rangers are preparing for the morning feed. it looks like they eat quite well because there is a whole buffet here, and it seems like every day there is a different meal plan. so today is saturday,

so they will have 21 kg of bananas, and then sweet potatoes, chicken eggs and pineapples. oh, it's heavy. maybe 15 kilos. ooh, 0k. where are we at? almost 20. we are ready, 21 kg. so emel, tell me what is special about semenggoh nature reserve? ok, so semenggoh wildlife centre actually started off as a rehab centre, so we were established back in 1975, so it is 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. it is very different to a zoo, there are no orangutans in cages here. yeah, totally different to a zoo.

two in the basket. yes. 0ur ranger, he will... thank you very much. no problem. yeah. enjoy. he will bring the food to the main feeding area. when the tourists arrive, a ranger heads to the feeding platform to call the apes. welcome to our centre. coming here is no guarantee you must see the orangutan. if you happen to see one, 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 don't need this extra food. but lucky for us, we don't have to wait long for a sighting. this is edwin, one of the biggest males in the park.

and like the ranger said, this is not a zoo. the orangutans can come from any direction at any time, so you have to be 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 is 23 years old, born in 1996, and he was the first male offspring born in semenggoh. now fully grown, edwin is competing to become the reserve‘s sole dominant male. only one orangutan dares to approach him on the platform. seduku, rescued from captivity in the 1970s, and one of the first to be rehabilitated here. are they a thing? yeah, in a way.

we call her the great old lady, because she is the oldest female, age 48 years old. and she is doing still very well. she is a8, he is 23. that is quite a big age difference there, right? yes, but love doesn't see age as a problem. feeding time is over, there is no more, and here is edwin. i'm nervous. he is massive, so much hair. if you saw that from behind you wouldn't 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.

it is now estimated that there are just over 100,000 orangutans left on the island. and so, the facility here, how does it help? by having a centre like semenggoh, people get a sense of seeing the wild orangutan, and not disturbing the orangutan in their natural habitat. and i guess the more people come here, the more they learn, and that also helps as well? definitely, the feeling of excitement of seeing wild orangutan, brings you closer to conservation efforts, and to be able to share it with people out there, it really means something. next up, i am crossing the state

to reach gunung mulu national park, sarawa k‘s largest piece of protected rainforest. this place is teeming with wildlife, over 4,000 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 to deforestation, so the vast majority now stay in settlements like this one. he plucks instrument. laughs. i didn't expect you to do that. ok, with the nose... laughs.

so these are flutes, right? blowpipe? you make these? can you show me? i see, so you drill it by hand, so many times... he speaks own language that would be countless hours. there we go. mike corey, blowpipe maker. blowpipes are the penan‘s traditional hunting weapon. they are loaded with darts, tipped with strong poison extracted from the bark of the local tajem tree.

and you would use one of these big ones? wow, it's, look, iam about six feet tall, that would be 1.8 metres. ok, so we are here like this... that one goes in the back. armed and dangerous. you first. safety off. sharp shooter! i guarantee i will not... like this? like this. and then... 0k. here we go. hopefully there is some beginner's luck. i hit the target?! further inside the park

there is a truly unique landscape. below ground there are some of the world's 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're 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 tourists 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 climber.

we you are sorry, we have to say you are not qualified. so if i don't make the first checkpoint in 60 minutes, you turn me around and say sorry, you are going back home? yeah, this is the rule here. 0k, we are just about to head to bed for the big hike tomorrow, this is bed tonight actually, underneath this mosquito net, this is a bee, by the way, that just flew away. this is coming with me tomorrow. person: shh. there are some people sleeping, ijust got shushed. i am a little bit nervous for the hike tomorrow, it is supposed to be quite hard, a lot of very, very steep inclines, so i am going to get a full eight hours tonight, i will see you in the morning and we will see if we can make it to the top.

"caution, a high degree of physical fitness is required past this point." eight hours round—trip. lead the way. let's go. i havejust 60 minutes to make it to the mini pinnacles, the first checkpoint. you weren'tjoking. how is it? steep. the checkpoint is less than a kilometre up the slope but the humidity makes it feel a lot further. we've only just started and i'm already exhausted. and we're here, the pinnacles! not quite, right? mini pinnacles. that is...not a joke.

having reached the checkpoint within the time limit, it's another kilometre before i reach the most treacherous stage. this is the first ladder, mike. helmets on, right? who's first? after you. after me? 0k, one down, 70 more to go. beautiful limestone cliffs are sharp but at least lots of places to grab onto. it looks like it's rained down there. think it's going to rain? yeah, heavy rain.

500 metres to go, 100 metres to go. hope we get there before the rain. what ladder‘s this? last ladder. this looks like the summit. isn't it? the summit, yes. we are here, guys. wow, yeah. and there are so many of them. this is beautiful. yep. just daggersjutting out

of the forest canopy. really is spectacular, right? the final stop in myjourney across sarawak is bario, in the kelapit highlands, home to one of the world's most remote food festivals. it is not exactly a smooth road, it's like being a greased up piece of popcorn in the back seat, but it's a lot of fun.

i'm quite an adventurous eater, i will try everything. at least once, it is not good, only once. -- if it is. but often when you come to these places will find some pretty far out food and i'm hoping we'll find some very interesting stuff. bumped around and a little bruised from the journey, i get there to find the festival in full swing. we're catching the eye of a lot of locals, because there's not that many foreigners, surprise surprise, in this part of the world. i don't know half of the foods here today and that's quite exciting for me. a local farmer called dayang offers to show me around. would you like to try our dure... i don't know what dure is... one of the local exotic vegetable found here in bario.

it is a plant that lives in the jungle? yes. i can eat that all day. that is delicious. but it's kind of like, i was thinking it would taste like spinach, but it doesn't taste like spinach at all. 0k. it has like a heartier than spinach would. would you like to try the akep? yeah, we can try akep. this looks to be boiled snails. yeah, found in the paddy field here. it smells like boiled snails too. this is how we do it. this lives in the jungle, you suck it out? sucking. just like that. you bit it first? yeah. just a bit, not too much. it's stuck on my teeth. and you suck it? sucking.

there we go. how do you find... the taste must be fantastic? i wouldn't use that word, but it's not bad, it's very chewy. this is classic traditional kelabit food, sourced from the surrounding area. welcome to bario. dayang takes me to herfarm, where she grows one very important ingredient. it's cool, cause each plant has one pineapple? yes, but it will take about one year to ripen. but this looks ripe. look at the colour, its golden yellow. how do we... how do we pick one? you can pluck it. i'm going to have puncture wounds after this but it's ok. that was easy.

yes, because it's golden ripe pineapple, is very sweet. look at this, my first pineapple. 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 do you have to drink to have a really good day? i'm not sure. shall we find out? i'm joking, i'm 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 up to the top, grab your prize and climb down. it's my turn.

ok, you can go. so... slowly from the bottom. freestyle ? yeah, freestyle. ok, here we go. as the games continue, my form doesn't really improve. it was by a feather that we lost. applause a game that i'm not bad at, i think it's my height advantage. let's watch. that's way farther than mine.

i guess you might think that coming so far away, you wouldn't be able to make friends, or that it might be a strange tourist experience. but i always find it's some of the best ones, when you come to these places, there's not many foreign tourists, so people are so accepting and grateful that you are here, and will share everything with you. hello. weather—wise, looking pretty gloomy this weekend for one reason or another.

be it a lot of cloud or stubborn patches of mist and fog. hopefully tomorrow perhaps brighter weather on the way, particularly for england and wales. basically dominated this weekend by a south westerly airstream that has picked up quite a lot of moisture as it has travelled in across the atlantic. a weather front moving in to the north—west bringing rain into scotland. the defining feature for the weekend will be how mild it will feel. looking pretty wet this afternoon, particularly later in the afternoon across scotland, rain for northern ireland. dry for england and well. —— and wales. lots of cloud. the best chance of brightness in the west. temperatures widely in double figures. if you are heading out this evening, still looking pretty wet for scotland, some heavier rain in the west for a time. stretching north eastwards before finally starting to clear during the small hours. clearer skies for northern ireland, some clearer spells across england and wales.

at this time of year, you might think it will bring us some frost but we are sitting in mild air, 9 degrees as a low for aberdeen and belfast. this air mass graphic gives you an idea of what is going on. the bright orange stretching up from the azores is what will sit across scotland and northern ireland on sunday. some remarkably mild weather. on sunday, we will pull in some drier air to england and wales from the continent. if that mixes with the cloud breaks will form and more in the way of sunshine to be seen. scotland, overall a drier day with rain from the western isles pushing in to the north—west of the highlands. in the south and east of sunshine, also to northern ireland there will be sunshine and a south—westerly wind. temperatures up to 15 celsius. unseasonal for late december. into the week ahead and we approach new years eve, figures do come back down closer to average. a cold front with not particularly

cold air will make its way across the uk on monday. not much by way of rain and it moves us into the fresher air on new year's eve. for new year's eve eve it should be dry. dense fog patches will return.

this is bbc news, i'm shaun ley. the headlines at 11. the star of grease — olivia newton—john is made a dame in the new year honours list which also recognises four members of england's world cup winning cricket team. england midfielder jill scott gets an mbe this feels really surreal. it has been a great journey this feels really surreal. it has been a greatjourney for women's football from the time i started playing until no and the recognition women's football is no getting as very pleasing. more than a thousand people are recognised — including 94 —year—old d—day veteran harry bill—inge who raised over ten—thousand—pounds for a national memorial. it was far from my mind that i was ever going to be recognised for doing a bit of a collection. a woman whose husband and two children drowned on christmas eve