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Published: July 16th 2008
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proboscis monkey
has a big, er, nose 16 June - Sarawak - Kuching
So - we hired a couple of cars and actually did make it to the orang utan centre, and also went to a village in the back of somewhere/nowhere and had a mooch around their village and little museum with various old artifacts and pots and tools, on the way, shown around by a cute grandmotherly type lady. Very pleasant.
Our final night as a group in Kuching - oh wailing and sadness. So we had another night of mayhem and debauchery to mark the occasion, commencing with a great dinner at the local outdoor hawker type eating place, I had steak which was Yummy with a capital Y, then we went to a pub and danced, had drinks, a jolly good time, and then carried on partying like it was 1999 at the guest house, til i think about 6am. the usual shenanigans, i think me and english tim were up last again. as usual. these are crazy crazy crazy crazy nights.
17th, Aussie Tim and me flew to kota kinabaloo in northern bourneo, and found a place called Tropicana to stay, we mooched around a bit, ate and arranged to
go and climb mount kinabaloo, some 4,000 metres in an upward direction. Kate, neil and vanessa have already done it and by all accounts its a tough one and leaves your legs in a right old state. great, sounds like fun.
18th, moved from our current (and now fully booked guesthouse) to a great place called Akinabaloo youth (shut up) hostel, as Tropicana was fully booked, we looked round town and generally lounged around the hostel and went for dinner and stuff.
19th, 8.30am - go to Tropicana for Vincent to drive us to Kinabaloo for the ascent in vertical-ness, its a couple of hours away, and he gave his two boffin mates a lift too - they were academics dont you know and talked intelligent stuff on the way. i glazed over somewhat and then my eyes popped out of my head when kinabaloo was pointed out to me on the horizon. looked mighty big to my lil legs. gasp.
so Vincent dropped us off at the start of the climb and we were introduced to our guide, who was 12 if he was a day but very good at his job and fit as a
butchers dog. We started off and i was pleasantly surprised by my fitness levels. Sorry to all those who struggled but i found it very do-able and very enjoyable, i think we got to the base camp area and lodge in about 3 and a half hours, i could be wrong but im pretty sure thats correct. i didnt really need to stop for too many rests and stepped into the zone - or otherwise, found my rythym and trotted on comfortably. tim struggled a bit as he wasn't too well so he said, so we kind of went at our own paces, altho there was no huge gap between us. listened to my ipod most of the way which made me go faster i think, altho i defo could have gone faster.
at the base camp you are already above the clouds and there are some great views. views of the clouds that is. there are a couple of lodges with dorm beds and a great restaurant, we were well sweaty, stinky and bloody hungry so had a massive feed, game of chess (yes i won this one, but he had beat me in a previous battle so
now we're quits), and then i showered and read and we conked out, ready for a 3am rise from and climb to the summit.
3am, was awake around 2am anyway, so we went down to the restaurant for a pre breakfast breakfast, legs slightly achy but hardly anything so not too bad for a start. Back on with the ipod and we started the climb around 3am with Rayner, our little guide, again, i was really surprised at myself, thought it would be way harder than it was, but back in the zone and found i didnt need to stop - just kept on at a steady pace, passed loads of people so dead pleased that all the drinking and sitting around on beaches and in bars hasnt totally ruined my temple, i mean, body. Brilliant, dont think tim was too well tho, he struggled a bit and we walked at our own paces again, anyhoo, again, it wasnt a big gap between us and i waited and we did the last bit together. It was pretty cool at some places where you pulled yourself up the rocks along a big rope, it wasnt too dramatic but enough to
make it more than just a walking trek, the scenery was dramatic, beautiful and the clouds were great below us, very very gorgeous. We made it in 2 hours 40 mins, pretty good going, the summit was well worth the climb altho really really cold at the top at that time of day (inhuman time of day i say), in about 5 mins my hands and feet were numb and i looked gorgeous in my balaclava and puffy eyes. so we didnt stay too long there and started down, we were ok still, not too painful, we arrived at the lodge and restaurant and had a massive breakfast, i ate more cakes than you can shake a stick at in the name of energy.
after a good breaky and rest break we set off on the long way down, after 2 hours or so my knee started to get really painful where i had my old injury on another mountain in another time and space, well - back in morocco, my tendons were really painful and i was in a lot of discomfort, necked some ibuprofen and squeezed a few tears out! and basically carried on the next 2
hours as quick as i could to get down - i knew it would be fine once i was off the mountain. and it was. painful for a bit but we got down in a pretty quick time and again had a massive lunch - ive never eaten so much! all the food was bloody gorgeous and my hopes of losing a couple of pounds were dashed. im a fat b******.
so we got back to kota kinabaloo and my little legs were aching like hideous achy things. hobbled around a fair bit and we hobbled out to pizza hut and had dinner and hobbled back. funny enough, altho i bounded up the mountain (ok, walked at a steady pace in a comfortable manner) it was me who had the painful legs! tim seemed to be pretty much ok on the achy front. lucky arse. you can tell anyone who has done kinabaloo as they all hobble like andy pipkin on steroids for a few days and it is totally unavoidable! the way down is relentless with massive steps which make it worse.
so the next day i flew to Kuala lumpur and tim flew back to singapore.
i was not best impressed carrying my heavy rucksack with my ridiculous non working legs back to oasis, i got the train from the airport and then a walk from kl station. it was pure agony but was fab when i arrived at oasis and saw familiar faces of Karim and the rest of the gang that run the place. they recognised me and it was really nice - well it is the 4th time ive been there! the dorm was full up so they gave me a single room at the dorm price for a night, which was great. i was in luck as the place was full and i met some lovely people again. i spent most of my time with Taavi - aussie from melbourne, mandy and bryon - american couple, and Wainani - a young lady from Hawaii. we all sat around and talked and had a very enjoyable evening.
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Kit
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blimey
Snowdon seems like a little tiddler compared to that. Good on you for doing it looks amazing would love to have a go but would probably take me about 3 days lol. Love the rainbow shot too x kit x