At great expense I decided to spend the night before the start of the climb in the Kinabalu National Park. I got a lift up with a family from KL who were staying at the hotel and who were friends with Jamal the owner. After 2 hours stuck in the back with a 4 year old and a 10 year old I was really grateful for the peace and quiet of the park! Took to a few of the local walking trails and checked out the botanical gardens - unfortunately it was hammering it down with rain all afternoon and getting my limited clothes that I had with me soaked wasn't exactly part of the plan! Met a few interesting people at the park including an elderly American couple whose friends thought that they were nuts travelling to somewhere that most of them hadn't even heard of, and a Japanese girl who had completed the climb that day.

After a good night's sleep in the dorm and breakfast I met a Singaporean guy who was also climbing that day. To save some expense we shared the cost of the guide who was called Indra. What purpose the guide actually served I am not sure, but he was a nice guy all the same! The climb up to Laban Rata was pretty nice the whole way - you walk though constantly changing flora from rainforest, through cloud forest and finally granite rockface. There was not too much fauna other than the odd insect and some rattty/squirrel things and a frog. The climb up took about 3-4 hours and when we arrived at Laban Rata we were the first up that day! We watched an ever increasing number of people staggering through the door, getting wetter by the minute (luckily due to walking quickly and starting early we had missed most of the rain). After an early dinner and a couple of games of cards with Phil, Daniel and Johny Wilkinson who I had met at the rest hut it was bed time. Unfortuntely the place were i was sleeping was a good 200m up the mountain from Laban Rata! As there was a problem with the power there was no chance of a hot shower... Very surreal going to bed at 7.30pm, but then it was equally surreal the alarm going off at 1.50am the next morning!!!

Unfortunately, we woke up to drizzle as we walked down to get some food and coffee to fuel the climb to the summit. Luckily the weather did not deteriorate so the guides were happy for us to set off to climb to the summit at about 3.15am. It was a bit of a procession up the steps to the start of the granite rockface and the rope, but once we were there we managed to get ahead of most people. Daniel and I arrived at the summit at about 5.15am. Phil had already been there 30minutes after being the 2nd to the top behind a Swiss guy called Laurent. I think that they were regretting walking so fast/not starting later as it was freezing at the top!!! By the time that the sun finally rose at around 5.45/6am we were all pretty cold and keen to get down. Although it wasn't too clear, it was cool to be above the clouds and see lightening below us! When it is clear from the highest point in SE Asia you can see the whole of Borneo and across to the Phillipines.

Set off down from the summit after the obligatory photos and had a proper breakfast at Laban Rata before starting the descent about 9am. Scaling the rockface in the daylight was quite an eye opener, seeing what we had walked up in the pitch black! The descent from Laban Rata to the Tiphon Gate took 3 hours and by the end of it we were all feeling pretty stiff and sore...

4 days from getting down from the mountain and I can still feel it in my thighs, although stairs are no longer quite the challenge that they were 2 days ago!!!