Blog for 2009-07-02
From BiodivBorneo09
At 03:30 am when it was still dark and the sky was full of stars, “Team Slow” (Le, Mindy, Aby, Sreekar, Dita, Agri and I) hoped for a good journey, and started our trek to reach the peak of Mount Kinabalu. The trail to conquer Kinabalu is not easy when you move to the higher height, breathing trouble begin and the temperature getting colder. First we need to pass the wooden stairs with big rock then the steep part (thankfully there is a rope to guide us in the dark). In the dark, you can see the beams of torch lights as the procession of climbers trudge higher and higher.Then after lots of sweating and praying, I finally passed Sayat-Sayat Hut before reaching the peak of Mount Kinabalu, the second highest mountain in South East Asia or the highest mountain between the Himalayas and the snow mountains of Papua Barat (New Guinea Island) this magnificent granite massif stands at 4,095.2m (13,435ft) tall. Yay…… but I still couldn't believe that I can make it.
I stayed only few minutes because many of the visitors were waiting to take a picture at the summit and it was not only cold but also windy. Unfortunately, I didn’t take good photos because a Tourist from Hong Kong that was busy taking pictures was in my photographs as well (Hey guys take turn please!). Oh No! The way down is the hardest part and I was scared till somehow in some point my legs don’t want to move even just little step but my brain keep saying “come on move, keep walking!” Oh, I don’t know how to control my sore legs. After we arrived in Gunting Lagadan, we packed up our stuff before heading to Laban Rata to have breakfast. Then at 10.20 am, Agri and I decided to get ready for the next 6 Km walk back down to Timpohon Gate. We arrived at Timpohon Gate at 4pm and the bus brought us to Balsam Café in time for a late lunch. The funniest thing just happen when we walk down the stairs to Balsam Café, we realized that our knees really hurt so much, and couldn’t stop making “aw….aow sounds” but our knees also felt like they were going to give way so we would walk awkwardly whenever we walked down stairs, but somehow the pain was still enjoyable! So let’s review: the walk going up (Timpohon – Laban Rata = 6 km) + (Laban Rata – the peak = ± 2.5 km) = 8,5 km, so the walk back down is the same distance of 8.5 km, which makes it in total 17 km. Over all I really enjoyed and was grateful for every second that I had today in Mount Kinabalu.
