Climbing the Mountain

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My driver picked me up at 6am to head for the base of the Unesco World heritage site, Mount Kinabalu. I received my name tag and got acquainted with my guide, Claudius. He seemed a little moody but I guess he didn't know much English. We started the climb at 08.45 and climbed 6km (3273m) to Laban Rata where I spent the night with other climbers. It took me 1 hour to get to 3km but then another 3 hours to get to the middle point. Claudius said that 4 hours was good going so I was happy with that and he took a photo of me at every kilometre sign.

I had an evening buffet meal and got chatting to Yan and Zoe, a couple living in Scotland but from Yorkshire.

Bedtime was at 6pm due to the fact we were getting up at 01.30 for breakfast to then start the summit at 02.45. This was so much fun, but tough going in the dark. There were parts of the climb that required holding onto rope to assist the ascend. I reached the summit at 5am (another good going time) and waited for sunrise in the freezing cold temperature (I'm glad I purchased a long john 2 piece).

It was an amazing feeling what I had just achieved, I was on top of the world and quite overwhelmed (I even shed a tear or two).

On the way down, it was nice to speak to some other climbers about our success but by the time I had hit Laban Rata, my legs were feeling the pain already. Like they were about to collapse beneath me. When I finally reached the bottom, I was so relieved. A brunch was included to re fuel then I got driven back to Borneo Gaya where I collapsed on my bed a had a good old, well deserved nap.

My next day was lazy. I was aching A LOT! So at least I had a day to recuperate before my flight to Kuala Lumpur.

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