Ain't no mountain high enough...
Trip Start
Feb 25, 2008
1
21
22
Trip End
May 06, 2008
Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah,
Malaysia
Monday, April 7, 2008
We spend our day in KK shopping as holly has no mountainous clothes..ive been carrying trusty thermals and fleecy things around since we left but we end up purchasing matching bobble hats to keep our heads warm and do a grand tour of several 'Plaza's or Malls. Holly buys a full 80s tribute outfit complete with orange joggers with white 'go-faster' stripes down the side... Twas not exactly culturally reckoning but whatever, we decide that the next day we will visit an island off the coast...
Manukan was pretty much a tiny paradise of white beach and crystal clear water... We got off the boat and could see shoals of tropical multicoloured fish swimming just below the surface...we walk along the jetty and find a spot on the beach without people near us (this isnt hard, its practically deserted) lube on the old suncream and run like small children into the sea which, for your information is like entering a just run bath....wahhhhoooooooooooooooooo!!!! its mighty hot and we fry a little, despite applying suncream liberally 4 times hannah ressembles a freshly cooked lobster on exiting the sea. we cover up and sit in the shade the palm trees create and babble about all of the 'paradesical' moments weve had...and what on earth we will be doing this time tomorrow.
Basically, for some reason that i cannot quite remember, i though that, in the name of Rucksack Club we should climb a HUGE mountain whilst enjoying our travels around S.E Asia...Mount Kinabalu, on the island of Borneo is half the size of Everest and the Highest peak in Malaysia...at 4095 metres tall is a bloody beast.
We booked our ascent as there are only so many places at the lodge under the summit, and therefore we couldnt back out due to sheer laziness....
We got up at an ungodly hour, woke up most people in our dorm whilst vacating teh premisis and ate a relatively unsubstantial breakfast of peanut butter and white toast...a driver called henry drove us through the fabulous national park to get to the base of the montagne, and i slept the entire way, missing it all....we met our guide, Petrus who is about 45 and fitter than the three of us put together. He climbs it twice, maybe 3 times a week and has run to the top in and hour and 45 minutes......we start at Timphon gate and begin our uphill struggle, just to say weve done it...after about a kilometre were jolly and happy, by 2 and 3/4s were tired and hungry...at each reststop hut we have a bite to eat and look at the rapidly changing landscape...i give my nature valley bar to a hungry and inquisitve squirrel and take many photos of my shoe in the process, trying to capture the 'moment'...
Teh clouds roll in and i put on my bright orange 'Orange' Glastonbury poncho as it drizzles, but im sweating so much inside that i might as well just not wear it...the trees change from rainforesty jungly exciting ones with calling birds and squeaking bugs to akind of brush by the time we stagger to the top and find our way into the heated lodge...its taken us 5 hours to walk not very far..And then we find our accomadation has been changed to the 'unheated' Gunting Lodge, another half a Km up the path, and our dins are back her in an hour. grumblegrumblegrumble. Our lodge is a room with 4 bunks, on a corridor of other same rooms...the showers are hot but i cant bear to undress to have one cos everything else is cooollld....i have 2 wool blankets on my bed and hope to god thatll be enough.
At din we talk to a really nice girl called Rachel who is climbing up with her Ma...shes English too and done a lot of shopping too so we have a large amount in common. Dinner was all you can eat and we stuffed ourselves, having found out that you dont get breakfast til after youve summited and returned at 10am the next morning...
BEd at 8pm, havent done that since about year 7.
Several bangs wake us at 2am...i slept ok in all of my clothes, which makes getting out of bed fairly unpleasantly cold. Blearily we find Petrus who is looking spritely and we begin the last 2km walk up top..../passing people suffering from Altitude sickness having to drop back. Torches are the only thing lighting the way and its steps and rocks which quickly turn into sheer granite slabs and ropes to pull yourself up. I havent wanted to give up as much in my whole life, as when i saw the summit (not visble from the bottom as its so high) and realised how far away it was....but i thought of all the things that would be waiting for me once id done it. mainly all you can eat fried breakfast, but also a massive sense of achievement, and self belief that if i want to spend my weekend hill climbing for pleasure, i can.
Sunrise is at 6am and we make it with 10 minutes to spare. the air is ridiculously thin and were all wheezing and stopping every 5 metres to catch our breath...i feel geriatric. AT the top were a combination of people whod been waiting for hours, and those who like us had just made it in time. behind us was a long trail of littloe torch lights indicating the people who hadnt made it in time. To be perfectly honest teh rising of teh sun was lost oin me. i was too busy being pleased with myself to pay ultimate attention./ After about half an hour at the top hunger strikes and we return back to teh lodge, stripping off clothes as the sun heats us through and thanking god that we had climbed it in the dark, because if id seen what i was doing idve stopped hours before!!!
Breakfast was appreciated greatly, TEA!! and Eggy Bread and scrambled eggs and cereal and weird green rice pudding with tapioca balls in. our decent was worse than the ascent. My legs seized up and we hobbled down. it took the same amount of time to get down as it did to get up....a shameful thing to admit....we wewrent exactly an advertisement for success either...all the people passing us saw the pain in our eyes and the obvious effort of taking small steps downhill...we put fear in many a persons heart im sure.
We had lunch and got our certificate and apologised to Petrus for being so young and yet so pathetic and got returned safely to Summer Lodge in Town. The next day we were to fly to Jahor and then travel on to Singapore so for tonight at least we crash out....
Theres one for Rucksack Club : )
