Date: 9th July 2011

Place: Mount Kinabalu

Weather: Sunny

I couldn't believe the day had come to climb a mountain! We got up super early, had a big breakfast and then went to get the bus to the mountain. After doing all of the signing in bits and paying for our guide we got another bus to the base of the mountain. When we first saw it I couldn't help but swear. I couldn't believe I had paid to climb this thing it was huge!

The first part of the climb was downhill which was kind of annoying. Then it began going up and I knew that was it for the next 8.5km/4000ish meters up. The climb started out with pretty normal steps which were still hard work because they were really high! Even by the first check point which was only 1km in I was sweating like mad! By the second I was soaked.

The climb was the same for the majority of it. It swapped between steps and scrambling over rocks. We went past people who were coming down from the night before and they kept telling up good luck which was a bit worrying. I couldn't believe it when we reached the clouds. It was absolutely freezing (well what I thought was freezing then). I knew we couldn't be far from the lodge then which was a nice thought. It took us 5 hours to get to the lodge that we were staying at for the night.

We attempted to have a shower but the power station was having problems so the water heater didn't work so that was almost impossible because the water was so cold! I had to brave it and used my sponge bit by bit. We then warmed ourselves up by having a hot cup of coffee whilst waiting for dinner to start. Everyone ate a lot but it then gave me a stomach ache which I found out was due to the altitude.

Carm and I went to bed at 5pm! On a Saturday night! That's 10am at home. I hardly slept though. I don't know if it was because I was nervous about the next part of the climb or if it was all the coffee I had just drank.