At the Home of the Ancestral Spirits…

September 20th, 2002 at 12:00am

Good stuff. I’m finally here in the park, at the base of the beautiful Mount Kinabalu, the whole reason why I wanted to come to Malaysian Borneo.

Tomorrow I set out for the 2-day summit climb, first to the rest camp at Laban Rata (3272 m) and then the following morning, around 3am, heading up to the summit, Low’s Peak (4101 m) and then descending all the way down on the same day.

I got up early this morning and left Sepilok on a 4-hour bus ride to get to the park. I was very happy to see that it was a proper’big bus’ with aircon and comfy seats, no squashed minivan full of smokers. We even had a tv showing movies – lucky me, I got to watch a Lindsey Wagner made-for-tv classic called Danger at Something Creek. 80′s cinema at it’s best. Everyone got shot in the end but they all survived, even Buster the dog.

Arrived at the park at lunchtime and went through all the check-in procedural stuff – buying a climber’s permit and entry ticket, scheduling the climb, getting batteries and snacks, and packing my day bag for tomorrow. I’m all sorted now and ready to go.

Just a few facts about the mountain. At 4101m (13,433 feet), it’s the highest mountain between the Himalayas and New Guinea. On a clear day you can see the Phillipines from the summit. Only about 10% of the 170,000 people who visit the park each year actually climb the peak.

Hopefully I’ll be one of those 10% in 2-day’s time.

Here’s more straight from the brochure:

With it’s granite massif dominating the surrounding landscape at the peak, Mount Kinabalu has an awesome mystique all it’s own. No wonder that, long ago, the Kadazans/Dusuns named it ‘Aki Nabalu’ or ‘home of the ancestral spirits.’

Yep, looks like Im at the right place

The summit is up there…

somewhere in the clouds

Entry Filed under: Borneo,Hiking/Trekking,Malaysia