Once we touched down in Kota Kinabalu we headed straight for the hostel. This one had a much nicer bed than the last and actually provided a sheet you could sleep under where as the last one we just got an under sheet. The wall had the most amazing wallpaper which was a picture of Mount Kinabalu .... inspiration for the following day I guess :-). There was free hot chocolate and coffee on tap and alright wifi.

We headed out for dinner at an Italian restaurant to break up the noodle eating cycle then tried to get an early night in preparation for our 6.20am pick up which was to take us to the Mount Kinabalu trek, a trek up the highest mountain in Borneo at 4095m. Unfortunately the common room and kitchen were right outside our room and very noisy until 11pm, we did finally get some sleep though.

After being picked up in the morning by a minibus we headed to the headquarters of Kinabalu park which was about 2 hours away. Once there we met our mountain guide Silvester and were handed our packed lunches.

To start the hike we were driven up to a gate at the start of the track and then off we went! There was a sign at the beginning of the trek showing the times people have made it up and down the mountain during the annual race, the fastest was a Kenyan at 2.5 hours!!! This is 17.4km of very steep, uneven path.

The first day we walked for about three hours 6km up hill. The path was very steep with loads and loads of steps so a real thigh work out. The scenery was a bit dull to be honest, it was all forest and muddy ground and just before the hostel the wind was howling and rain blowing in our faces. At 4km we stopped for lunch only to find they had only given us a cheese sandwich with the crusts cut off and an apple ... we were very hungry!!

When we reached the hostel we were shown to our 12 bed dorm room and spent the afternoon relaxing, reading and playing cards. At this point we were both starting to wonder what all the fuss about Mount Kinabalu was as so far we felt it had been less than spectacular and pretty hard work. Dinner was served in the canteen and resembles school dinners so a bit of a disappointment but it filled a hole.

We managed to get to sleep at about 9pm (jet lag finally wearing off!!) but for some reason people started getting up at 1am because they needed 2 HOURS to pack what they needed for the hike and have breakfast. Esben and I had planned to be up at 2.15am but once the light was on and everyone else was up it was impossible to sleep.

At 3am, after a breakfast of eggs and bread, we started the ascent to the summit of the mountain. For parts of the trail you had to pull yourself up the rock with a rope and in the dark, cold rain this was pretty scary. It took us three hours to reach the summit up the steep ascent and unfortunately it was shrouded in cloud when we got there. We immediately came back down from the summit, after a quick picture at the sign, as it was freezing and wet.

Just below the summit there was an amazing moonscape plateau and the cloud cleared enough for us to see this and some of the surrounding views for some pictures. Getting back to the hostel took about 45minutes and after another breakfast of eggs and bread we started the descent back to HQ. this was absolutely exhausting as we had been up and trekking around since 1am. It took us 3 knee crunching hours to trek the 6km down again and we were both very relieved that we had!!

After lunch they took us back to our hostel and we had an early dinner before heading to bed at 9pm and sleeping for 12 hours!!! The joys of having a room with no windows. We are both still tried today and my legs are so sore that I am hobbling around and nearly scream if anything puts pressure on them! All in all I think we felt a sense of achievement for reaching the top of the mountain and the plateau at the top was cool but we are not sure it is good value for money and I think we have both had enough of mountains for a while now!!

We are currently waiting for our plane to take us to Sandakan where we are spending one night in a jungle lodge before being taken to turtle island. The theme of the next few days is relaxation as I feel a bit mentally and physically traumatised by the Mount Kinabalu hike :-D!

I will blog about the turtles asap.

Alice
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