Adventure in the heart of Borneo

Asia
November 9th 2008

Published: November 25th 2008

Malaysian Borneo is a place that Ive always dreamed about - virgin rain forest, interesting wildlife, spectacular caves and mountains, and endless adventures to be had.

i started by visiting the orang-utan rehabilitation center - a jungle reserve home to the fascinating creatures who are rescued from captivity, and are slowly introduced back into the wild. i went creeping through the rain forest, camera poised, trying to spot one of these apes - but after 2 hours i had seen none, and had become food for a douson leeches who somehow found their way under my clothes. at feeding time however, i saw many oran utans playing and relaxing in the trees with freaky resemblance to humans.

i decided to spend my 19th birthday on the summit of Southeast Asia's largest mountain, Mt. Kinabalu (4095m). this involved a challenging 2 day climb which took us 17 hours. we started the summit approach at 2.30am in the cold and wet. the path got harder and harder until we were hauling ourselves up ropes and climbing over rocks, all in the pitch black of night. the air was thin and progress was slow - many people got altitude sickness and had

Sunset in KK

to turn back. whilst i celebrated my 19th, the couple i was with celebrated their engagement. to mark the occasion we ate some cake i took from the buffet the day before (i couldn't find a proper one anywhere), but couldn't stay on the summit long as we were wet and it was freezing cold and windy (the birthday candle wouldn't even light). unfortunately we were unable to see the sunset at the top as we were in the clouds and visibility was only a few meters, but as we climbed down the mist parted and we had amazing views of the surrounding mountains and countryside.

my next challenge was in Mulu National park, but instead of taking the easy option and flying, i went by local transport which took 3 days on 6 long distance buses and 4 boats, and even involved going through the country of Brunei Darussalam.

Brunei is a small mass of land rich with oil with an absolute monarchy ruling under Islamic law. its capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, just feels like a small town, and isnt full of grandeur and expensive looking buildings as would be expected from such a wealthy country. one

roots

day here seemed long enough. the third day of travel involved a relaxing 12 hour boat ride deep into Borneo's interior - riding on the roof of the ferry.

in Mulu i went to some caves and did an even more challenging 3 day trek up a jungle clad mountain to see the spectacular limestone pinnacles - which are some of the only in the world. our long boat journey up the windy river was interesting - the whole thing was rocking from side to side and we had to get out and push the boat where the water was too shallow. the steep climb was tough, involving near vertical ladders and ropes to climb the huge rocks - with only razor sharp pinnacle rocks to break your fall!

i went to a few show caves which were really impressive. we watched 3 million bats fly out of longs cave, which has the largest opening in the world. unfortunately i was unable to see the largest cave in the world as only professional cavers can access it. it is so big a jumbo jet could fly through it. (these caves can be seen on plant earth which has

triumph

some amazing footage)

Although climbing Kinabalu and the pinnacles were hard work, i wanted to push myself even further. we managed to persuade park HQ to let us do some advanced adventure caving. they said it would be hard and dangerous, but i never expected just how right they were. 6 hours through pitch black caves with only a helmet and headlamp. we were climbing over loose and slippery rocks and squeezing ourselves through really small spaces - at one point we had a 50m vertical squeeze where we had to take off our bags just to get through. we entered some huge underground caverns and heard bats flying over our heads. we also saw lots of snakes and giant spiders that lurk in the depths (we had to be careful as they were venomous). there were even small crabs in the small pools. the stalagmite and stalactite formations are simply amazing, and some parts sparkle as if there were millions of diamonds embedded within. we entered a huge underground stream of crystal clear water, and we swam with the current for 2km in it, dodging the boulders and shallow areas on the way. it was so much fun!