We decided to climb Mount Kinabalu at the Kinabalu National Park which is also a World Heritage Site. We had met a few travellers who had braved the climb and most had climbed in the rain so we were prepared to do that too. This was the first view of the mountain just before we started our climb and we never saw it as clearly again.
As we got quite high up the mountain we saw the giant Nepenthes pitcher plants but there were no rafflesia (the largest flower in the world that takes 15 months to bud and only lasts 7 days) in bloom at the time of our visit.
The first night we arrived we stayed in a lodge at the entrance to the park where we met a nice group of travellers on a trip with "Intrepid Journeys"
It is compulsory to take a guide on the route and we had a guide called Mikey and he lived with his wife, son and father on a rice farm near the mountain.
There were many species of rhododendron in bloom and the park has 26 species of these.
There were also several varieties of orchid along the trail and the park has about 1,200 species.Lil became unwell at about 2800metres- headache, earache, and blurred eyesight. However she continued to the top hut.
The trail had many very steep steps and there were very few flat sections at all. We were passed by porters carrying toilet bowls and food for the restaurant. Nothing is airlifted into the park, although there are 4 helipads, so the porters have a busy time bringing supplies in and taking the rubbish out again.
We were about 5 mins from the Laban Rata lodge/restaurant when it began to rain so the huge pot of milo and coffee was most welcome as we registered and rested a while. Not long after it rained 'orangutans and macaques' and then we discovered our hut accommodation was 200 metres further up the rock climb beside what looked like a raging waterfall.
We got to the hut and had a lukewarm shower and put on a change of clothes and then had to put the wet clothes back on to go back down to the restaurant for dinner. The rain never let up until about 1am.
John got up at 2.00am and made some noodles to eat and then headed off with the guide for Low's Peak, the summit at 4,095.2metres. At the top he saw the Southern Cross very clearly and thought of Sir Ed Hillary who passed away recently.
John on the summit
Sunrise on the summit
The cloud set in later in the next morning but it never rained again so we were very lucky.We flagged down a bus to Kota Kinabalu city and with our 'jelly legs' managed the climb to a nice room on the third floor of the backpackers' hostel.
