Well, it’s taken a while but here they are, finally.
To see everything (without captions) visit the Mt. Kinabalu page in the gallery.
The journey from Kota Kinabalu to Mount Kinabalu takes around two hours and involves a long, steep, twisty road. However, instead of having a sporty car to enjoy the road with, we have a minibus… with dodgy tyres. It makes for an interesting journey. Driving through the mountains, there are peaks as far as the eye can see. Suddenly, rounding a bend, an enormous mountain looms far above everything around it, partially obscured by cloud. My first thought was “uh-oh.”
The record board. Some people say those times also include the descent.
At the start of the climb, we descend to a small valley.
The smile didn’t last long.
Yeah, we’re headed for the summit…
Past a waterfall.
Five hundred metres! How hard can it be?
Well… it gets more difficult.
Only another 5km to go…
Stairs. Uneven height and endless. From memory (I didn’t count) there are 3500 of them.
Mountain squirrels are everywhere. They’re timid, yet friendly.
Halfway!
We ascend through the clouds and everything becomes shrouded in mist.
While we struggle up the mountain, our female guide has no trouble. She doesn’t even break a sweat. The porter carrying up thirty kilograms isn’t struggling, either.
Our guide, pointing something out.
Looming out of the mist, we spy Laban Rata. It’s a relieving sight, as we’re both exhausted.
In the morning, we can clearly see Laban Rata perched on the side of the mountain.
More rainforest…
A shelter.
Standing next to the shelter, looking up the trail.
Turning around, looking down the trail.
Cloudy.
As I said, there are more photographs in the gallery.
I’m recovering slowly, and I’m feeling a bit better now. I leave Kota Kinabalu for Bangkok tomorrow morning, and I’ve got three days planned there before heading elsewhere. I’m not sure where yet – maybe Chiang Mai, maybe the north east instead.
I’ve been made aware that the Singapore Open golf tournament is going to take place in mid November, so I’m quite tempted to go to that. We’ll see…
