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Published: July 26th 2008
So I just got back from the Sandakan War Memorial, which was dedicated to all those involved with the death marches from the 1940s. Funny bit of trivia - Thiess actually built the memorial! Now for a more in depth take on climbing Mt. Kinabalu. Skip through the below if you are not interested!
As a bit of background - Mt. Kinabalu is 4095m above sea level. The night before we climbed the mountain it decided to rain... heading down the stairs to dinner, I slipped and bruised my left ankle...it became quite a dark colour quite quickly and I sat there resting it against the wet ground whilst our tour guide tried to find ice. Funnily enough there was no ice! only cold cans of coke so that had to do. Strapped up my ankle and I was good to go. The first day we hiked for 8 hours straight, the first 4 we had good weather, but then the heavens decided to open upon us and we were met with a deluge of water. I drank water from the mountain as we climbed and found it fine - however others in the group weren't so lucky and unfortunately were sick in the day that followed. As the day progressed we got higher and higher until at 3000 odd metres we reached the place we would be staying to get acclimatised to the altitude, Laban Rata. We had our dinner then went to sleep at about 7pm, as we were to awake at 2am to climb the remaining 3km up in the dark for sunrise.
Let me tell you, this 3 km was the hardest physical challenge I have ever faced. For the first portion we climbed steep windy stairs up the mountain, followed by the use of ropes to pull us up the cliff face. no safety nets!! It was the dark that prevented us from seeing how high we were. I made it to the checkpoint with the group, however Rafi (one of the guys on my tour) was affected by altitude sickness and hung back. I walked on by myself for what seemed an eternity. The darkness engulfed me and I continued to climb, as I would reach the top of each hill, another endless plane of rock faced me. It was very foggy and the mountain rock seemed to eerily resemble some sort of moon surface.
The ascent grew colder and I put my beanie and two extra layers of warmth on. I was starting to really struggle once I was approximately 1km from the top, and was stopping every few steps to catch my breath. It was on one of these stops that I felt an arm grab my arm and pull me along. I looked to my side and our guide, Halay was there, pulling me along. He pushed me along, forcing me to go a little faster as we needed to reach the top by sunrise. I passed others in my group who had made it and they urged me forward. After what seemed like an eternity, I could see the summit. I could no longer feel my fingers and my face was tingling. I walked and walked and walked and climbed the final pinnacle to reach the top. The view was unfortunately only white clouds, however I felt I had achieved something fantastic. Halay rushed me down the mountain and I believe as a result of this I experienced altitude sickness. My head pounded and I felt lightheaded. I rested for a moment back at Laban Rata and ate some food to regain some strength. We walked another 7km down the moutain that day to the bus. I was bloody exhausted but it was definitely a great experience.
The past few days we have spent in a jungle camp, observing wildlife from boats and the place where we stayed. A few monitor lizards would come to visit each night which was pretty cool too. I have heaps of pics but no time to upload at the moment. Sorry guys!!! Kristy is sick at the moment (I think she has food poisoning) and is resting back at our b&b. Tonight is the final night of our tour before we go diving. Missing everyone 😊 Your comments are welcome!!
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CD
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Wow!
Heya mate, thanks for the updates!!! Great to hear you made it to the top, sounds like a huge effort, and very well done! :) Glad you didn't get sick, hope you can keep that up! Give my regards to Kristy, hope she's feeling better soon! All the best for the diving, really looking forward to the best part of your holiday (ie, the diving part, hahahaha!!!)... Be good!!! :) CD xoxo