Mt. Kinabalu, the climax of my electives-Part 1
Sunday, June 1st, 2008
in Sabah, I wake up, and turned to the window in our posh living room,
and get to see this view. A proud figure, so distant, yet so
challenging and enticing me to come to her..Again, I felt the same way
when I met her at a closer distance during my trip to Kundasang. So, I
just HAVE to go and climb her. Even though that means I had to climb up
and down of my 4 fleet of stairs in Radiant Maisonet, our apartment
‘tumpangan’ every day and buat tebal muka dgn penduduk sekitar, or
jogging downhill and uphill at our Radiant Court with stones in my
hands to keep the dogs at bay.. Or keep on calling and going to Sutera
Sanctuary Resort for any vacancies at Laban Rata. I was determined and
all set to go. And I’m dragging Yaz, Am and Sabb along, no matter what.
So,there we were! All 8 of us which includes Mijoe, Haniff, Huud &
Jai. Raring to go at Timpohon Gate after taking our packed lunch at
Kinabalu Park and settling our permits etc.
The next morning, is the climb to the peak!
These
are some of the shelters or ‘pondoks’ for R&R along the way up. The
white building was Laban Rata. Uphill, I started with Sabb, then with
Yaz, pastu with Am, Mijoe and Yaz and finally with Mijoe. Talking bout
changin partners, ey! Puas posing utk nampakkan betapa
‘effortlessly’nye kitorang panjat!haha
On our way up,
Yaz & Am mengantuk due to the altitude sickness tula..luckily it
rained.. But, we weren’t that thankful sgt lepas tuh, when it started
raining cats and dogs, our backpacks were soaked as much as we did. I
had purposely drenched myself and covered my bag to save it la, konon!
Tapi tak berjaya. Should haf packed our stuffs in plastic bags before
putting it inside our backpacks!
Along the way, the tracks changed differently, quite drastically I must say, according to the altitudes.
Later,
it became like batu-batu sungai. I like this part as it was a welcoming
change from the steep tanah liat stairs. Nonetheless, it was slippery
too.
After
a while we reached the Sayat-sayat trees which stood for hundreds of
years already! In Kadazandusun, it means biji benih, most probably
named for its seed-like leaves. More info about the trees can be read here!
Then the tress become more sparse leaving us with no shelter when it rained!
The
plants were magnificent, subhanallah! It was just up to us, to see it.
A variety of paku pakis can be seen, along with wild mountain orchids,
pitcher plants..
In the next entry..journey to the top!
