This is the mountain that we had come to Borneo to climb (though not photo of actual summit). Mt Kinabalu, standing at 4090m is the highest mountain in Australasia and one of the so called seven summits of the world. The guide book informed us that it was a relatively easy climb if a little sore on the legs and knees. What an understatement that this would turn out to be!!!

I don't think that either of us imagined that it would be so STEEP. At the best of times it was like climbing a ladder into the attic of the sky. I'm not kidding, the steps were so high that I almost had to give Isabelle a bunk/leg up. It was hard enough for me to stretch my foot up to the next step, but for poor Isa it was like climbing a series of medium sized walls all the way to the summit. It was relentless. Constantly climbing up, without any downhill to ease the strain on the legs. It took is 5 hrs of hard slog to reach the resthouse at 3300 m.

The next morning, we were up at 2am (!!!), to begin the final assault toward the summit. In almost complete darkness we made our weary way towards the top. It was actually really amazing, just by the light of the half moon and our little headlamps, we picked our way along the granite face.

Ropes were fastened all along the trail to aid the climbers in steep or difficult parts. This often lead to bottlenecks as people of different levels of fitness and age constantly josteled for positions on the way up.

At 5.30am, when we finally reached the summit, we couldn't get to the offical peak point. The Japs had taken over. There were literally dozens and dozens of them all over the summit all waiting for the sunrise. So we sat and waited until 6.20am, offical sunrise time, hoping to take a picture from the offical point. But, they wouldn't budge! Even with the freezing cold they just stayed and took photos of each other in every pose imaginable. Was like a fashion shoot!

So, we just snapped what we could and headed back down to where we could get a better shot of ourselves.

On the way back down I stopped to take a few photos of some of the other smaller peaks that surrond the summit.

The views into the valley were really spectacular.

Between the sky and the clouds, you could see all the other peaks and ridges across Borneo to the sea.

The trek down was even harder than the climb up. Even by the time we got down to the resthouse for some grub, our legs were shaking from the strain. And we had another 6km to go, descending down another 1500m, before we could finally rest. Isabelle was almost in tears by the time we got down, 3 hrs later. I was in bits too, resorting to hobbling side to side down the steps, arse sticking out- wincing on every step. I must have looked like an aul fella with a bad case of gout. But, even now, 3 days later, still nursing our aching knees, we say it was worth it. A great experience.