Mount Kinabalu National Park
Trip Start
Feb 04, 2008
1
41
105
Trip End
Jan 19, 2009
Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia
Friday, May 9, 2008
On the way to the Mountain we stopped at a little village to peruse the 'way of the local people' although it was really just an excuse to try and make you buy stuff. Good views though and significantly more chilly than where we'd just come from!
We hopped back in the van passing nothing but jungle either side of us when we got to a small array of huts on the side of the road. Gavin advised that they were illegal immigrants from the Philippines that came over for the factory work. We carried on to the park and realised that the condensation on the windows was on the outside - it was colder outside than in the aircon van!!!
We jumped out at the visitors centre and had a walk round learning about the history of the mountain, the people that have climbed it and the ones who never came down again. We learnt about all the different types of animals and plants that can be found at different altitudes.
Mount Kinabalu stands at 4095 metres tall and has to be climbed in 2 days to allow climbers to adjust to the altitude. The first climb takes about 6 hours to the halfway camp where climbers stay overnight then begin their final 4 hour trek at 3am to make it to the summit in time for sunrise. Will and I didn't climb the mountain for a couple of reasons:-
1. you had to pay a permit fee to climb and that, including the accomodation was going to add up to about 100 quid each which we hadn't expected;
2. we spoke to quite a few people who had done the climb and hadn't been allowed to do the second part of their climb on the second day due to bad weather conditions, which we thought would be a bit of an anticlimax; and (lastly but probably the biggest reason....!)
3. we were a bit worried that we weren't up to the physical challenge! I managed to pass out at the top of Mount Teidi in Tenerife because of the altitude and that was only 3718 metres!
So anyways, we admired all the people that we about to climb, or had just climbed, and then - sensibly - hopped back in our van onto our next destination, Poring Hot Springs stopping for a very yummy lunch on the way.
The springs were awesome, Gavin took us on a short trek to a canopy walk in the jungle first where we saw a very very green lizard and a pigme squirrel! I was very excited about the pigme squirrel!
After trekking back from the canopy walk we were more than happy to relax for a while in the all-natural hot water (even if it did smell a little bit eggy!) There was also a cold plunge pool for when we got a bit too warm.
Next destination - Sepilok - home to the Orangutans!
