Advertisement
Published: October 30th 2008
Edit Blog Post
First and foremost - HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! You don't look a day over 50!
The climb up Mount Kinabalu was booked for Friday so on Thursday morning we left for the park, as we had booked a night in the park before to do a bit of exploring in the rainforest and to acclimatise (this is due to the fact you start at around 1900m).
We got to the bus station in town and we were ushered into a little minibus about the size of a VW camper van. This thing could seat 14 people due to the fact it had no boot and the seats were made for Malasian people! This meant that we had to pay for an extra seat for our luggage and spent the next 1 and three quarter hours cramped up in this van (even Marissa found it cosy!) while it snaked up into the hills.
We arrived and checked into probably the best room we will stay in the whole of Malaysia. When I say room it was actually a suite on two levels with 2 bathrooms! (It was like Malaysia's version of a villa at Center Parcs!). Needless to say we
didn't want to leave the next morning, especially as it was 6.30am and we knew what was lying ahead of us.
But leave we did, wanting to get an early start on the climb (Marissa made it very clear that she wanted to go SLOW, so we envisaged getting there around 5pm with an early start - ha!). The first bit of the first leg of the climb (to Laban Rata, our home for the night - or at least some of the night!), is 6km and should take about 5-6 hours. We set off at 8am and made it about 1.20pm, so we did pretty darn good.
This part was mostly made up of steps, either man-made or made from the roots of the trees. Each step was at least 10 inches high so we both found it rather tough going (yeah, that's an understatement!). Little did we know this was probably the easiest bit!
To help us on our way we had to have a guide (in case we decided to throw ourselves over the edge or something). Our guide was called Nordin. He was really nice but didn't speak much English (so rude, with
him being Malaysian and all) and with us being typical Brits and speaking no Malay, it was a quiet old walk! Oh and every time we asked him how far to the next hut he would say 25 minutes even though most of the time it was at least 50! That's a way to get us moving!! We also hired sticks for the climb and would highly recommend them. They helped us drag ourselves up on the way there and were probably the one and only reason we made it down in one piece!
With about an hour left of the first stint of the climb the heavens opened so we were really glad when we finally made it to Laban Rata. This is the half-way point of the climb and is just over 3000m. It was nice to get out of the cold and to have a hot shower (even though when matt tried to have one there was no hot water left). We played some cards and had some dinner - which was surprisingly nice due to the fact that all the supplies have to be carried up. As you walk up the first bit you have
Pitcher Plant at about 4.5km in
A brief distraction from the treachery to stop to let men with 40kgs of stuff on their backs past. This also means that everything is a bit more expensive than down at the bottom but I guess you can let them off.
We went to bed early that night about half 6 because we were due to be up at 2am to start the climb to the top. 2am came round far too quickly and we were soon on our way - following the patch of light our head torches provided. It’s weird because when you have only that to look at it really focuses you and you don’t really notice what’s around - which we later found out was a good thing. After 700m the vegetation disappears and you come out onto the sheer granite. This is where the proper climbing begins - a single white rope leads all the way up to the top and you all have to take turns pulling yourselves up the rock face.
After a grueling 3 and a half hours we had finally made it! We got there a bit early and had to sit around for a while waiting for the sun to show itself. This
Marissa lagging behind
you can also see our guide Nordin in the background is where the altitude kicked in a bit for Matthew and he had to take some time out freezing his ass off at the top while Marissa moaned about how she didn’t like the photo from the summit. We were lucky we got there a bit early because a queue forms to have your photo taken and we saw lots of people perched uncomfortably waiting for their turn. The sun came up and we were lucky to see the little bit of light we did as the night before was completely cloudy. After that we hung around for a bit, took a few more photos and then started on our way down - which we both thought would be the easy bit.
It’s amazing how quickly you forget the climb up while you’re sat at the top enjoying the view. There were parts on the way down where we had to abseil down holding ourselves with the same white rope we had used to climb up. Looking back it’s a good job they make you climb up in the dark because it would be too scary in the light. We made it back to Laban Rata in a
couple of hours and had some food.
Tired, cold and a bit fed up we set off on the final leg back down to where we had started the previous day. Within about 10 minutes the heavens had opened once again and they didn’t let up for the whole 4 and a half hours back down. Anyway, it was an amazing experience - i guess that's what people say when they know there never gonna do something again.
We had booked a night in one of the hostels at the bottom but the thought of having to share a bathroom wasn’t the most inviting. So we paid the extra 17 quid to upgrade back into one of the suites. Also matt knew that the suites had ESPN and the football would be on! We had another lovely nights sleep (if you ever go there that’s the place to stay) and got up early to head to Sandakan (to see some monkeys).
In a bit guys! (well probably in about half an hour - we have got a bit behind with these so we are doing them all at once - if you look at the date on
them it will give you a good idea of when things happened).
At least this one has pictures!!!!!!!!!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.079s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0539s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb