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Published: January 19th 2007
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Mountain Accommodation
Kettle was the only source of heat available! (Nice gloves, huh?) Well we're having a great time here in Borneo. Been up to all sorts, but just going to tell you about our big trip for now, as it's quite a long one and I'm sure some of you have been worried about us (hi parents!).
DAY ONE - 7am
It was raining, so we bundled into a mini bus with our driver Jak. We only started to panic slightly during the two hour drive to the National Park when Jak let slip that he works two jobs and hadn't slept for the last 24 hours! (He's a big coffee drinker!)
DAY ONE - 9am
Still rainng, but all was good as we arrived at the park and met our minimal english-speaking guide Tony - or so we thought that was his name, but realised 36 hours later that it was actually Downi - oops!
DAY ONE - 10:10am
Still raining. Took a second mini bus from the park entrance to the start of the Summit Trail 4km away at 1866m above sea level. If you think this is cheating, feel free to try it yourself!! We gave in and finally bought some stupid looking ponchos to put on
top of our coats and clothes. In hindsight, this was a good call! Our guide didn't say much, but we soon realised that we just had to walk/climb and he would follow. So we started out, initially a little dismayed to find that we were going down hill! Not for long though and we soon realised that 8.7km was going to be hard when you have to go up 2.2km at the same time! The path climbed up through the rainforest (we saw no wildlife on any real interest, but our panting probably scared everything away!) The scenery was very similar to the Cameron Highlands, at least to our non-botannically experienced eyes (sorry Dr Trewin PhD). So have a look at the pics from there to remind yourself if you want. The path became more and more uneven and rocky with 2 foot plus steps becoming more and more frequent. Regular rest stops were well needed to catch our breath and gradually remove jumpers/coats and stuff more high energy (i.e. sugary) food down us to keep us going. As the forest began to thin out, we came across the first accommodation huts, but were disappointed to find that ours were
a good forty minutes further up the mountain, and the path was very steep and slippery by now due to the rain washing down the granite rocks.
DAY ONE - 3:45pm
We got to our room 4.5 hours after setting out, 6km along the ground but 1.5km up. Feeling exhausted we were gutted to find out that there was currently no power or heating due to generator failures! Luckily there were lights for a few hours once it got dark, but that was all.
DAY ONE - 6:30pm
After a delicious pot noodle dinner we climbed into bed freezing cold and wearing all our clothes that weren't wet, and some that were. We wrapped oursleves in the thick blankets and tried to get some shut eye.
DAY TWO - 2am
Time to get up to climb the last 2.5km to the summit and hopefully see the sun rise. An early morning treat was provided by our fellow climbers from Sweden, who had tea bags for an early morning brew (many thanks again if you're reading this!) After yet another rapidly deteriorating peanut butter sandwich, we set off at 3am in the pitch black with the other hundred
Mountain Peaks
There are several summits (we did the highest one!), this is the one next to it. or so people in a torchlight procession. The jagged rocks were eased in places by manmade steps, but these soon both disappeared along with the remaining vegetation and were replaced by granite slopes and ropes. We were blessed with clear skies and dry rocks, so it could have been much worse (the climbers the day before weren't allowed to head to the summit at all because of the weather). Even so it was pretty scary at times; mums and dads probably would not have approved, possibly with good cause. The ropes were more of a path than a hoist in places, but a harness would have been appreciated a couple of times!
DAY TWO - 5:40am
Bow down to us you mere mortals, for we have conquered the earth and survey all! By which we mean, we made it, and with 10 minutes to go before sunrise. An amazing feeling, although we would have appreciated it more if it wasn't quite so ruddy cold! It had clouded over slightly, but the view was still fairly spectacular all the same.
DAY TWO - 6:10am
Time to descend and feel slightly smug that we beat lots of people who missed
Mountain View
Through the cloud gaps you could see for miles (or KMs as they say here). the sunrise. This feeling quickly disappeared once we realised how carefully you must walk down damp slopes (especially Laura!). The quickest way was to essentially abseil on the rope without a harness (or slide on your bum, but this was more painful). Where the ropes weren't needed, some snowboard style traversing seemed a good ploy to lessen the gradient.
DAY TWO - 8:05am
Back at the lodge for a pot noodle breakfast (two pot noodles in 24 hours shows how hungry we were!) And to gather our things to do the remaining descent - already feeling pretty jelly-legged, with 6km to go.
DAY TWO - 12:30pm
Back at the park HQ with a near drunk like feeling in our legs. Laura managed several slips, but was relatively unscathed; Lucas fell once but twisted his ankle (chicken legs!), but is a trooper and pushed on anyway!! (Guess who wrote that bit!!)
THE RECOVERY
Next stop was the Poring Hot Springs; another part of Kinabalu National Park. On arrival we hobbled our way straight to the outdoor hot sulphur baths for a soak and boy were they hot! We stayed in until we were on the verge of passing
Hot Baths
And relax... out! The dorm at the hot springs was basic to say the least, although it did come complete with thick brown blankets, slightly nasty smell (?urine?), enormous moths, and the occasional bat in the corridor! Oh well, it was only for one night.
The next morning we both awoke feeling that our legs may have been crushed by a steam roller in our sleep. Lucas seriously struggled getting down from the top bunk! After a weird breakfast of some kind of sweetened egg yolk bread roll, we were rather stupidly tempted by the rainforest canopy walk. The walk along the slightly scary rope bridge suspended 41m above the ground was pretty cool, but getting up to it and down from it was pretty painful! So in an effort to recover once again, we had a swim in the ice cold rock pool followed by another long soak in the hot baths! (This is probably the wrong way round to do it!)
We were due to be picked up and taken back to our hostel in KK city at 3pm, and by this time all our clothes were filthy and/or wet and we were looking forward to a hot
Big Bamboo
They use this as scaffolding in Hong Kong instead of steel as it's apparently stronger. Cool! shower and some clean clothes, when it just started to rain. Whilst waiting for our driver Jak, the park staff gave us a message that there had been a landslide on the road back to KK and we'd probably have to stay another night (not good as we had no money!) After to speaking to our tour organiser in KK, he said we needed to stay put and would have to sort out money when we could. So we checked back into a room, but five minutes later got a message to say that Jak had found a way through and would be picking us up in half an hour. What a relief!! Boy were we happy to see Jak.
We had an interesting ride back across the Malaysian countryside on some seriously bumpy unsurfaced roads. We finally got back to KK just gone 7pm, the only remaining problem being how we'd tackle the three flights of stairs up to the hostel!
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Monika
non-member comment
WoW Waht a sunset!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Guys, Happy Xmas and New Year - just found out how to add a message; you know what a technophobe I am. I was scared I'd manage to delete it all. What a fanatastic journey so far - the beach and the mountain sunset my favourites. Maybe I'll get your mum to come with me on a geriatric tour if we ever retire. Lots of beer I have also noticed mentioned in the text and visible in the pictures!! I know avery good alcohol counselling in case you need one on your return. Enjoy!!! Love you lots Monika XXXX and all the Ms XXXXX