Borneo: Kota Kinabalu, Sepilok, Mt. Kinabalu
After 6 days in Malaysian Boreno we are back in Kota Kinabalu waiting to fly to Kualar Lumpur in the morning. On arrival we went to a travel agents in town to book our climb up mount Kinabalu. The only free space was on the 15th, so from KK we headed to Sepilok. Whilst there we visited a rainforest wildlife centre, unfortunately we didnt see as much wildlife as we had hoped! However afterwards we went to the Orangutan rehabilitaion centre. We arrived in time for feeding, along with a large crowd of tourists. As the keepers arrived with a bucket of bannanas a lone orangutan appeared to feed. He was not completly alone however, as there were other monkeys on the hunt for bannanas! The crowd obviously scared off the other orangutans. Luckily on our way out we saw the same one up a tree on the side of the path and he gave us our own show! We then headed back to KK in preparation for the climb.
We left our hostel at about 7am and about 2 and a half hours later we were at the park headquarters. Once we had collected our guide and our packed lunch we jumped in a bus to the start point which is at just over 1000m above sea level. From here we began our ascent to our over night stop at 3300m. It was a hard long slog in cloud all the way but we were relieved to reach our lodge about 4 and a half hours later. After a quick hours sleep before dinner the weather had cleared in time for a glorious sunset! We got an early night for our extremely early start of 2.30am the next day! We woke up still knackered from the day before, donned our head torches and set out for the summit! The sky was still clear and the stars were incredible. It was considerably colder and got colder still the higher we climbed. Altitude sickness, which had set in late in the climb the day before, was taking its toll but we pressed on. We reached the summit at 4090m at about 5.30 just as the sun began to rise. Although the temperature was close to freezing we admired the amazing view of the sun rising from high above the clouds! Half an hour, lots of photos and some shivering later we headed back down. We stopped of at the lodge for breakfast and a bit more sleep before the inal descent. By about 3.30pm we were back at park headquarters, struggling to walk but extremely pleased with our experience of the highest mountain in south east asia!
Tags: 1
robmorgan
Boy, are your legs going to ache! Sounds just amazing. The Lake District will feel like a cold, wet walk in the park. The stars must have been awesome. I think your brother will be v jealous when he reads this! Hope you can rest up a bit when you get back to KL. What an uplifting experience. (no pun intended!)
Your account up Mt. K. was absolutely thrilling but it made me feel cold and tired just reading it. It’a v. cold in the UK just now: you don’t need to know that. All is doom and gloom after England’s unbelievably poor performance. Have watched, listened to or fallen asleep for all the games so far and my head is a fruit salad of games.