Now it was time for the hard bit of our trip, climbing South-East Asia's tallest mountain Mount Kinabalu. It's 4,095 metres (13,435 ft) making climbers susceptible to altitude sickness. Whereas in Peru we climbed higher on the Inca Trail, we were acclimatised to the altitude, here we went from sea level to the peak in under 22 hours. The first day involved taking a bus from the port town of Kota Kinabalu up to the start point of the walk at 1800 metres above sea level. Although the walk to our overnight hostel was only 6km, it was unrelentingly steep, taking us nearly 5 hours. By the time we were approaching our hostel at Laban Rata, I needed to stop every 100m or so for water. Unfortunately for climbers, the top of the mountain is usually
... read more