After we got back from the river and jungle in Kota Kinabalu, we had to prepare for our trek towards the summit of the mighty Mt. Kinabalu in Kinabalu National Park. This park is the first World Heritage Site in Malaysia ad features the highest mountain between the Himalayas and he Snowy Mountains of Papua Barat (New Guinea Island). It's a massive granite mountain measuring 4095.2 meters. Guess we had our work cut out for us. It took us two hours to get into Kinabalu Park HQ with a Colin McRae rally-like insane taxi driver which gunned his 1978 Datsun (with big roaring exhaust) up the narrow mountain road. Glad as we were to have survived this, Sois complimented him on his driving skills to which he grinningly responded: me go vroom vroom!
At the HQ, we had to pay the entrance fees, register for our climb, pay for a guide (mandatory), and get climbing insurance. It was relatively expensive considering other things in Malaysia but we had made the commitment so there was no turning back. After the administrative hassle was over, we went to our cabin and got repacked our backpacks in order to take the right gear and supplies up onto the mountain the next day. Oh, and we did do a short guided walk among of the other trails and a visit to the park's botanical garden. But honestly... this kind of sucked, maybe in part that we were anxious to get up that mountain. Finally, wedid have a great dinner at the very hospitable park restaurant.
The next morning we were up and running at about 7:00 am to get a decent breakfast in the park canteen. The previous night, we had decided that we were going to take a longer route to the summit because we had heard from some locals that it would be more "adventureous" (whatever the hell that meant we didn't know at that time) and that the scenery would be much better. Usually, most people leave from the so-called "Timpohon Gate" just outside HQ which is an almost entirely upwardly sloping trail of approximately 8.7 kms to the top (17.5 km return trip). Yours truly, however, took on the Mesilau trail which measures approximately 10.9 kms to the summit (19.6 kms return back to Timpohon Gate, not Mesilau starting point which is even longer). Let's just start of by mentioning that it was indeed more scenic...
Now that breakfast was gobbled down, we met our guide who spoke only a little bit of English. He would watch us on the mountain, as there have been (fatal) accidents. The park now requires everyone, no matter how good a climber, to take a guide with them. Our guide was called Tumas, a silent small Malaysian guy that hopped up and down the mountain like a frivelous mountain goat. Now that the team was complete, we still had to take a 4WD taxi for a half hour drive to the Mesilau trial starting point. When we got to the trail's start, it went immediately upwards and didn't stop for the next hour or so. We slowly started to get an idea of what the locals meant with "adventureous".
The next 5 hours and 20 minutes, we passd through some magnificent scenery including temperate rainforest, streams and waterfalls, bonsai trees as far as the eye could see, and a thick shroud of cold mist which covered the mountain before noon. Our guide had brought us some walking sticks which we first reluctantly used, then learned to appreciate, and finally simply deemed essential to relieve our knees a little.
We were both carrying quite a lot of gear (incl. water supplies) which actually semed to get heavier along the way. Dragging ourselves further up the mountain, covered in sweat, but still keeping a positive attitude, we managed to reach the Laban Rata basecamp within 6 hours. Here we would take a much needed resting break and glutoneous dinner (which was awful btw - stick to Malaysian food in Malaysia).
We had to share a room with a Swiss couple because there were no separate rooms available. We were very lucky as they were very nice, polite, and quiet people. Chel took an ice-cold shower, while Sois (who was patient enough to let his sweat dry in first... hmmm) had steaming hot water and looked like a lobster when he got. After that, we slipped into our pyjamas, rearranged the single bag we were going to take to the top (incl. some warm clothes as the temperature was estimated to be around 4 degrees celsius at the top - without windchill factor). And with some final applications of Tiger Balm on the sore spots we went to sleep peacefully at around 9 o'clock.
Halfway at last!
After we got back from the river and jungle in Kota Kinabalu, we had to prepare for our trek towards the summit of the mighty Mt. Kinabalu in Kinabalu National Park. This park is the first World Heritage Site in Malaysia ad features the highest mountain between the Himalayas and he Snowy Mountains of Papua Barat (New Guinea Island). It's a massive granite mountain measuring 4095.2 meters. Guess we had our work cut out for us. It took us two hours to get into Kinabalu Park HQ with a Colin McRae rally-like insane taxi driver which gunned his 1978 Datsun (with big roaring exhaust) up the narrow mountain road. Glad as we were to have survived this, Sois complimented him on his driving skills to which he grinningly responded: me go vroom vroom! 
At the HQ, we had to pay the entrance fees, register for our climb, pay for a guide (mandatory), and get climbing insurance. It was relatively expensive considering other things in Malaysia but we had made the commitment so there was no turning back. After the administrative hassle was over, we went to our cabin and got repacked our backpacks in order to take the right gear and supplies up onto the mountain the next day. Oh, and we did do a short guided walk among of the other trails and a visit to the park's botanical garden. But honestly... this kind of sucked, maybe in part that we were anxious to get up that mountain. Finally, wedid have a great dinner at the very hospitable park restaurant.
The next morning we were up and running at about 7:00 am to get a decent breakfast in the park canteen. The previous night, we had decided that we were going to take a longer route to the summit because we had heard from some locals that it would be more "adventureous" (whatever the hell that meant we didn't know at that time) and that the scenery would be much better. Usually, most people leave from the so-called "Timpohon Gate" just outside HQ which is an almost entirely upwardly sloping trail of approximately 8.7 kms to the top (17.5 km return trip). Yours truly, however, took on the Mesilau trail which measures approximately 10.9 kms to the summit (19.6 kms return back to Timpohon Gate, not Mesilau starting point which is even longer). Let's just start of by mentioning that it was indeed more scenic...
Now that breakfast was gobbled down, we met our guide who spoke only a little bit of English. He would watch us on the mountain, as there have been (fatal) accidents. The park now requires everyone, no matter how good a climber, to take a guide with them. Our guide was called Tumas, a silent small Malaysian guy that hopped up and down the mountain like a frivelous mountain goat. Now that the team was complete, we still had to take a 4WD taxi for a half hour drive to the Mesilau trial starting point. When we got to the trail's start, it went immediately upwards and didn't stop for the next hour or so. We slowly started to get an idea of what the locals meant with "adventureous".
The next 5 hours and 20 minutes, we passd through some magnificent scenery including temperate rainforest, streams and waterfalls, bonsai trees as far as the eye could see, and a thick shroud of cold mist which covered the mountain before noon. Our guide had brought us some walking sticks which we first reluctantly used, then learned to appreciate, and finally simply deemed essential to relieve our knees a little. 
We were both carrying quite a lot of gear (incl. water supplies) which actually semed to get heavier along the way. Dragging ourselves further up the mountain, covered in sweat, but still keeping a positive attitude, we managed to reach the Laban Rata basecamp within 6 hours. Here we would take a much needed resting break and glutoneous dinner (which was awful btw - stick to Malaysian food in Malaysia). 
We had to share a room with a Swiss couple because there were no separate rooms available. We were very lucky as they were very nice, polite, and quiet people. Chel took an ice-cold shower, while Sois (who was patient enough to let his sweat dry in first... hmmm) had steaming hot water and looked like a lobster when he got. After that, we slipped into our pyjamas, rearranged the single bag we were going to take to the top (incl. some warm clothes as the temperature was estimated to be around 4 degrees celsius at the top - without windchill factor). And with some final applications of Tiger Balm on the sore spots we went to sleep peacefully at around 9 o'clock. 
Halfway at last!
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