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Published: April 1st 2009
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28th March 2009
Today we were moving on to Mt Kinabalu National Park. We can’t climb the mountain unfortunately as it’s completely booked up and has been for a while, it’s also expensive, about a hundred pounds each which for one day's expenditure is just out of the question on our budget. We’re obviously disappointed but what can you do.
We pack our bags, say goodbye to our hostess and go for a breakfast of coffee, toast and a cheese slice omelette, god how I miss real cheese. Not one of the countries we’ve visited has any idea about dairy products.
After filling our stomach we negotiate a shared mini bus back to Ranau where we stop to get cash and then another taxi to the National Park, we finally arrive at about 2:30pm.
We get a room at The Mountain Lodge recommended by Lucy our hostess is KK. Our room is large but again basic and yet again decorated in the latest stylish shade of mildew. The whole building is made from wood and hardboard and is clinging to the mountainside on stilts. Thankfully we do have our own bathroom, which is very small with a
cold water bucket shower and a door that doesn’t fit or shut properly. We really don’t mind because after seeing the strange angle of the communal shower/toilet block we figured we’d be safer with our own quaint personal bathroom for an extra 10Rm per night. Seriously though, the next gullible traveller to have a hefty bowl movement in the toilet block could find themselves crashing down the mountainside.
After unpacking a few things and a strong cup of coffee we set off for the park to explore one the smaller trails. The park is very well laid out with very modern facilities including restaurant, private lodges, internet and tour guide, all this comes at a high price though.
We walk down the main pedestrian path down into the bottom of the valley. The first thing that strikes me is not the natural beauty but the silence of the forests. We can hear a few cicadas but very little bird life. We take a seat down by the very picturesque stream. In the clear water I find some native little fishes, they look like a species of Stone Loach. I also find a few tadpoles but what amphibians they
belong to I have no idea. The forest around us is typical temperate forest for this part of the World; everything is covered with lichens and mosses. We explore a few paths into the woodlands along the river and eventually sit very quite for about half an hour but see nothing. The light is now starting to fade so we make our way back up the hill to the park gates. The clouds clear along the peak of Mt. Kinabalu exposing the jagged peaks against the blue sky so we stop and take some pictures and then the clouds come back in.
Opposite the entrance to the park and next to a construction site for a new hotel is The Panataran Resturaunt. As it’s the only one we’ve seen apart from the ones in the park we thought we’d better check it out. The menu is very reasonable at about 5-6Rm a meal compared to 60Rm a head for the buffet in the park. This place would be our eating place for the next three days. The food in Borneo just keeps getting better and again we gorge ourselves on chicken, beef and rice dishes and then wobble down
the hill to our room.
Back at the lodge the hallways are again an entomologists dream. I’ve never seen so many species of moth at one time, at least a 100 species in a few square yards and undoubtedly many unknown to science. In the last ten years well over 600 new species of flora and fauna have been discovered in the Sabah area. I will have to get myself a decent Borneo moth and insect book and check against the 100’s of photos I’ve taken. Some of the moth’s clinging to the wall are no bigger than a child little finger nail while others were the size of small birds. I also found many large beetles overturned and kicking their six legs manically trying to turn themselves back over. I rescued as many as I could find putting them back in the shrubs after carefully photographing them. The power of some of the Rhinoceros and Stag beetles is astounding, it seems weird that with all their evolutionary advantages they fall vunerable to predators and land ladies with brooms if they simple fall from a roof, wall or tree and land on their backs and then being unable to
We found this moth on the path into the park
Amazingly this moth has evolved beetle patterns on its wings so that if it's attacked by a bird the bird pecks at the wings and not the body giving the moth a chance to escape. right themselves fall victims to an early demise. After photographing as many as I could I crept into bed and went to sleep with a smile on my face.
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