Climbing to Laban Rata, Mt Kinabalu

Tuesday 19 August 2008

Mt Kinabalu National Park Headquarters to Laban Rata

We walked under large rhododendron trees, passed ferns, delighted in both terrestrial and epiphytic orchids by the dozen

I woke at dawn as usual to a beautifully clear, but cool morning. However, my joy was somewhat short-lived when I found out that there was no water in the pipes. And there I was, looking forward to a long cool shower before another hot day of climbing. There was nothing for it but to put on yesterday’s dirty clothes. There was certainly no point in putting on clean clothes. My shoes and Teva sandals stink to high heaven …what with the mud and water from pushing the long boats a couple of days ago and my sweaty feet. I even bought a boot brush to scrub them, but to no avail! Cold, wet clammy socks and shoes and clammy tee shirt and shorts…ugh! But at least dressed and ready to go!

The sun has now just risen over the hill and clouds of moisture are already rising off the Pittosporum bushes at my door. We were shown a trick yesterday, when walking through the botanic gardens, which explains one of the common names – kerosene bush - which is used for this plant both here and in Australia. If a berry is squeezed, the resultant juices ignite on the application of a flame and burn quite well. The locals carry a supply of berries in sections of bamboo to light their fires. This saves a bit on the cigarette lighters. Presumably they used flints and rubbing sticks before butane lighters came along.

It may be quite cool but the relative humidity is still very high. Ah! The water has just come back on but it is only 10 minutes before I have to leave the room. Now that’s a big bugger! But then it’s only a trickle, so a shower with lots of water was still out of the question. Just time for a few more lines before we get on with preparing for our ascent of Mt Kinabalu – yes, another big climb.

And part of that preparation is to leave my tripod behind! Now I know that I council video makers to always use a tripod. Well, even I have given up carrying my tripod on these climbs … it is just too hard. To begin with, the tripod is extra weight. Then, every-time I want to use my video camera I have to stop, thereby breaking my walking rhythm, take off my backpack, take out the zip-lock plastic bag the camera has to live in to keep it dry, take the camera out of the plastic bag, and this is all before I even turn it on or attach it to the blessed tripod! And, of course, the reverse has to be contended with to put it all away again. Camera yes, tripod no! After my experience in climbing the Pinnacles, I know that it has to be something particularly good before I’ll go through that performance again! Sometimes I ask myself, why do I do it? The answer is obvious after the pain has subsided; when I’m at home viewing the results on a plasma screen from a comfort of a comfy armchair.

Some climbers of Mt Kinabalu start walking from Park HQ, where all climbers have to check in and pay their fees before starting the climb. However, we had the luxury of a vehicle to carry us the 5km to the beginning of the Summit Trail. I have a feeling that every step saved will be appreciated by the time I get back to Park HQ, some 30 hours from now.

Later: It was 08h50 by the time we arrived at Timpohon Gate and had our names checked in the big book that records who is on the mountain. As we entered through the gate we were surprised to find ourselves walking steeply downhill into a valley. Once at the bottom though, it was up, up, up… forever upwards, but at a much less steep gradient than the Pinnacles climb. This track at least followed some of the contours! Frau G dropped off the back of the line and again took our guide, Baldwin, back to the comfort of last night’s resort… leaving us to climb on our own. She should never have attempted either of the climbs – a very selfish, self-centred individual.

The walk was not easy but our interest was held as we walked up through various types of vegetation as the elevation changed. The jungle was quite dense lower down but soon gave way to cloud forest with mosses and lichens dangling from twisted and gnarled trees. We walked under large rhododendron trees, passed ferns, delighted in both terrestrial and epiphytic orchids by the dozen and very importantly, and with some excitement, saw a number of species of pitcher plants. Above the cloud forest the trees became shrubs and these in turn became smaller and less dense on the ground as we climbed up, and up. It was still very hard work walking in the humidity although it was cooler than the Pinnacles.

There are resting huts with long-drop toilets every half kilometre along the way but the toilets were places not be frequented unless absolutely necessary!

I reached the guesthouse at Laban Rata at an elevation of 3,272 metres at 11h50. Not a bad effort for having climbed 1406 metres in a walking distance of 6 kilometres. An electronic screen at the front door recorded the temperature as being 110C. It was another hour and a half before the girls and Barry arrived. Barry had had to use a loo or two on the way because he had the trots and poor Sarah threw up a number of times. I must also admit that I had a couple of visits to the loo after arriving at the guesthouse so it must have been something we ate at the resort last night or for breakfast this morning, although that sounds a bit quick for such reactions.

With our entire group, less Frau G, at the guesthouse, James our very competent back-up guide, was able to book us into our rooms. Up until now, we had been sitting around in a large cafeteria area drinking many cups of tea in an attempt to re-hydrate and eating the boxed lunch we had carried up from the bottom of the climb.

Barry and I ended up in a small ‘group’ room that contained two bunk beds and an oil heater which took up some of the very limited spare room. And that was it. We found out later that we were going to share our room with two porter/guides who turned out to be as quiet as mice and who took up very little space due to their small body-build! They could have shared one of the beds and still had plenty of room to spare. No sooner had I dropped my backpack in the room than I was off to the showers. A lovely hot shower followed - although the water pressure was not good. It took some time to wash the soap off, but in some way, that just added to the pleasure of the feel of running hot water. It was 14h00 by now and a sleep was called for. But sleep was difficult due to people continually arriving after their climb. Never-the-less, the rest was welcome.

A buffet dinner was served from 17h00. Again, I had to force myself to eat from a good selection of noodles, rice, meat and vegetable dishes. The desserts were well left alone as they consisted mainly of gelatinous, amorphous globs of unbelievable colour. I lost count of the number of pannikins of black sugary tea I drank but it must have been around 8. I drank because I was somewhat dehydrated, even though I was aware that 8 cups of tea was going to cause me slight discomfort later in the night.

The place was packed with the hundred odd climbers who were going to attempt the summit climb early the following morning. Dinner was well and truly over by 18h00 and, even though we were all going to be woken at 02h00, it was far too early for me to think about going to bed. So I sat outside on a raised balcony by myself and watched the twilight descend on the valley below and, of course, on Laban Rata. There was a lot of cloud movement around, most of it below me. The cloud came and went on the changing air currents, sometimes sweeping up towards me and moments later swirling back down into the valleys. All the time the cloud was changing colour from white and grey to all the different pinks and oranges found on an artist’s pallet. It was wonderful!

By 19h15 it was pitch black, the sky above was ablaze with twinkling stars and the valley below twinkled with lights from far away villager’s huts and the odd small town. I went inside. Less than half those who were at dinner were still around. As there is nowhere else to go, I presumed they had gone to bed to grab a few hours sleep before the rude awakening at 02h00 that we were all dreading. This early rising is to allow for a 02h30 departure from the guesthouse for the last leg of the climb to the summit. Now that I’ve managed to write up my notes for today, it’s time even I went to bed.