Photos from Day 8

I was having problems with my camera on the day of the rafting, so the below pictures are from my final day, exploring Kota Kinabalu.

The lovely walk along the harbour.
One of the tailors on the side of the street with his old fashioned sewing machine.
The front of the market. Inside you could buy everything from wooden carvings, to jewellery, to textiles. Outside was a line of men "creating" and altering.
Further down the street was a market selling local produce.

Wilds of Borneo - Day 8

I awoke early, very unwell. Stomach pains and cold sweats. Kamelia came in and dosed me up with buscapan and imodium and told me just to get through the day. I remembered something which was said at one of the Gulf for Good info sessions I attended before I signed up for Borneo...."Keep a good sense of humour and don't whinge, it'll just bring everyone down and to get through the challenge everyone needs a positive attitude". So I grinned and bore it. I was upset that I wasn't able to raft on bamboo with everyone else, but I really didn't have enough energy left in my body. I really didn't want to miss the final part of our trip, and finally the guide suggests I ride in the support raft, an inflatable often used for white water rafting. This meant that I could paddle and take part if I wanted to, but could rest if I felt ill. It was actually very good fun. I felt much better being out on the water and it was so funny to see everyone on their bamboo rafts, not so easy to steer it seemed and nearly everyone fell in! Being the support raft we were helping the other free themselves from trees on the banks of the river that they had got stuck in and I remember near uncontrollable laughter trying to help Arpana and Raoul, both in the water, clinging to their raft slowing being covered by a tree, trying in vain to get away from the side of the river. Those two really made me smile! There was some white water which was great fun for me as we were able to go through the choppier parts in our inflatable dingy.

At the end of the rafting, we thanked our hosts and were taken to the Shangri-la for lunch. Now I am sure that the spread would have been fantastic, my stomach on the other hand was not feeling up to eating and the very kind manager arranged for me to have some dry toast which was all I could face. I think the staff thought I was crazy!!

Most of the group departed for the airport straight from the Shangri-la and caught afternoon flights home. Arpana, Raoul, Helena and I went into Kota Kinabalu for an extra night and stayed at the Diya hotel. We went for a much needed massage and then met up with Evan for dinner at a local Irish Pub. Bangers and mash were very tempting by this point (although I just about managed the mash!) and we retired early to the hotel. A long and exhausting trip, amazing to think what we had done in the past week!

The next morning, I was alone in Kota Kinabalu. I walked to a local market, along the harbour front and around the local shops. I saw lots of handicrafts and men tailoring and altering clothes on the side of the road with old fashioned sewing machines. Late in the afternoon I transferred to the airport and headed back to Abu Dhabi, a place that seemed more than a million miles away from the place I was leaving. Hard to believe that the jungle and the desert are even on the same planet!

Photos from Day 7

The children who lived at our home-stay.
The view from the home-stay, the moon just rising above the hill. The depth of jungle very apparent.
Evan and Helena having fun on the bamboo sticks.
Ross painting the front of the childrens home.
The children on Don Bosco with a water tank in the background, similar to the 4 we raised funds to purchase.

Wilds of Borneo - Day 7

We left Ceylon after a light breakfast, aching, tired and feeling very fragile! We travelled via a small town where Helena and I bought Kamelia a scarf as a birthday gift, to the Don Bosco Children's home. We were met by the Sister, the Father was in hospital abroad being treated for an illness. A non-mentioned but otherwise obvious sense of concern for the Sister who showed us around.

We met the caretaker of the home who did everything from painting to fixing to plumbing. The front of the home hadn't been decorated in some time and was looking very tired. The caretaker brought us tins of paint, rollers and brushes and we re-painted the front of the home in a pinky-red. At around 12pm the primary age children returned from school. We took out some of the toys we had brought with us for the children. Frisbees and footballs and we played for over half and hour with the children who were smiling and happy. At lunchtime everyone said grace, we had brought packed lunches with us, so not as to eat any of their precious food. The home's kitchen was across the path from the dining room. The kids lined up with their plates and were served from a window hatch.

After lunch we were shown around the home. We saw their dorm-like bedrooms with wooden bunk beds and clothing cupboards at the end of each bed. Shoes were stored on shelves outside the room by the stairs. All the shoes were the same with names written in marker pen on each pair. It was explained to us that the home relies heavily on donations and clothing companies will sometimes donate large amounts of identical stock.

we went up to the library where we were told that the children had a structured day, waking and eating breakfast before heading down the road to school. After school they had lunch and playtime before doing their homework. They had prayer time in the late afternoon and some more free time between dinner and bed. All of the children's books and clothes were donations. We were told that it would cost 9 - 10,000 ringgits a month (approx £2,000) to clothe, feed and educate the 72 children in the home if no donations were received. It was at this point that it really hit home what a difference we were going to make to these children. We were told stories about how the children came to be at Don Bosco. Most of the children had parents, but situations at home meant that they couldn't stay there. Many had only 1 parent who needed to go to work in order to make enough money to survive and then child was too young to be able to be at home alone and take themselves to school. Some children lived in areas so remote that they wouldn't receive an education and some children had parents who were in jail or involved with drugs and were therefore unable to take care of the children. Lots of the children would visit their families during the school holidays, but some would live at Don Bosco all year round.

Sister told us with pride about a young man who grew up at the home and went to school, studied hard, went to university and is now at medical school training to be a physiotherapist. She explained that the children work really hard at school to get themselves a good life.

In the mid-afternoon we went to the river where we would raft the following day. We tried out some traditional bamboo outdoor games and went to our Home-stays for the night. The local community in which we stayed, cooked a large amount of rich food and gave us a show of traditional drumming, before making us take part and try it ourselves and teaching the rest of us how to do the traditional dance!

The houses were quaint and the owners were very proud of them. There were no indoor toilets and washing facilities were outside. We were in the depths of mountainous jungle area and a midnight toilet break required walking down a flight of stairs (in the dark with very sore legs) finding a light, through the kitchen and out of the back door, across a court yard and into the toilet room, trying to find a light with the help of the moon-light.

On entering the kitchen on one occasion I turned on the light and saw a scurry of cockroaches running across the work surface to hide from the light and upon hearing a louder noise I turned and saw a nice fat rat run across the kitchen tops and down the back of a cupboard.....needless to say I am not surprised that I got food poisoning on my last day of the trip! My poor little stomach not so adapt to cope with those sorts of conditions...

Photos from Day 6

The View from our stay at Ceylon after our descent from the mountain.
The view of Mt. Kinabalu from Ceylon. Low's Peak (the highest point) can be seen rising just above the rest of the mountain. Hard to believe we were up there less than 12 hours previously!
The rocky descent from Laban Rata base camp
The descent from Low's Peak
Reaching the summit with my smiley guide Friendy!
At the summit
Girls at the summit!
Sock Monkey made the journey and was still smiling!

Wilds of Borneo - Day 6

The alarms go off at 1.30am. We are currently at 3,300m. We have a quick breakfast and leave base camp, with our head torches securely fastened, at 2.30am. The had stopped but the ground was still very wet. The first part of the climb was very much a game of follow-the-leader. We went up lots of steep steps and then onto the granite rock face. There was a white rope pinned into the granite. We were told to use this as our trail and not to loose sight of it. The rope guided hikers to the top of the mountain along a safe path and avoided all of the sheer cliffs. We left our hiking poles at base camp, there would be no use for those on this part of the climb.

After passing through the summit gate and getting our passes the group began to split up more. The more competent hikers moving forward quickly and others following a little farther behind. I was somewhere in the middle of the group. I was walking with a guide named Friendy. At about 3,800m I started to notice the altitude. I was unable to take the altitude sickness tablets due to an allergy to an ingredient, so I had looked up remedies online and had taken travel sickness pills and ibuprofen before setting off. This did nothing, however, to stop me from feeling dizzy and light-headed. Every 10 steps I was stopping and leaning forward, hands on knees trying to stop the spinning. Friendy began talking to me, we talked about why I was doing the challenge, where I came from, what my family were like and slowly but surely we zig-zagged our way up the rock and to the summit, saying over and over again "It's just one foot in front of the other". I explained to Friendy that in the previous April, when I had asked Dad if he, from his numerous mountain hiking experiences over the years, had any advise, he told me "It's just one foot in front of the other"! On home turf, walking along a coastal path in West Wales, this advise seemed pretty obvious and a bit like Dad was joking with me. At 4,000m it was the advise that got my legs moving and took me to the top!

We reached Low's Peak (Summit of 4,095m) shortly after 6am.

The sun came up, and although it was very cloudy, we were elated to have reached our goal! We took some photos, but due to the altitude our camera batteries shortly died and cameras were put away. When the cloud cleared the scenery was amazing, suddenly we were able to see the enormity of the task we had just undertook! It was extremely emotional, sitting on the top of that mountain, coming to realise what we had achieved. Sock Monkey came with me, she sat in my bag all the way to the top and had her photo taken at the summit!!

Within half an hour the headache began. A shooting pain coming from behind my right ear, through my temple and behind my right eye. My immediate comment, mellow-dramatic as it seems now, was "I need to get off this mountain. Now." Descending quickly, we had to practically absail down sheer rock faces that hadn't seemed so near vertical in the dark on the way up! It was wet and slippery. Our guides were good and told us, follow us, if we turn around, you turn around, if we hold the rope, you hold the rope. Back at around 3,800m the headache disappeared, we were getting back to a more usual altitude! We were following our guides over a particularly dangerous section of the mountain, over a ridge, we turned, held the rope and stepped backwards over the ridge onto a smooth granite surface. We were all concentrating on our own hands and our own feet when we heard someone higher up slip. We weren't near them, we were descending diagonally across the rock face, but the boy, about 18 and English had stepped over the ridge, facing forward and not holding the rope. We were all rooted to the spot. The guides in front of us, from all different groups were quickly working out how to get to him to help him back to the rope, shouting commands on how he needed to act. Then he went to try to stand up. He obviously hadn't understood the Malay accent. I shouted instinctively "DON'T STAND UP!" He stopped, looked at me. "Slide up slowly and hold onto the rope" I was repeating one of the guides. The guy was fine. Embarrassed and a little shaken more than anything and the rest of us carried on our descent peacefully. After a particularly nasty set of steep stairs we were back at base camp just after 9am.

Breakfast was a mixture of cuisines and I was very pleased to see fried eggs, toast and beans!!

Raoul from our group came to me at the breakfast table. He patted me on the back and said "Your Dad will be so proud of you". It was at this point that all of the adrenaline and emotions got the better of me. With a telling off from his wife for making me cry we smiled at each other. I had been talking with Raoul earlier on the trip. We had talked about how we started doing the activities early in life, why we liked hiking, cycling, challenges etc. I explained that ever since I can remember my parents had been taking me up mountains, in brightly coloured coats, rain and shine. I told him how I was wearing my Dad's buff from one of his numerous hikes to the top of Mt. Snowdon and how it's experiences like hiking together that make families feel like families. His words meant a lot to me.

By 10.30am we were on the move again. We were descending to Timpoon Gate, the "easier" track which we hadn't walked up. It was 6km instead of 8km but it was hard. The terrain was rocky and slippery and my legs were like jelly. I threw my ankle out 3 times and by this point I was emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted. I had no idea how I would get to the bottom. The rain started again and at 2.30pm we reached the gate. I was cold and tired, but my headache had gone!

We travelled to the gate house and had a lunch of pasta and tomatoes (and lots of it!!). We were taken to our next stay at Ceylon and were reunited with our luggage! This was not as much fun as it sounds considering that there was a plastic bag in there that contained my soggy, smelly, sweaty clothes from the cycling day! Ewwwww!

We had a group dinner, drinks and then to bed in a truely amazing setting!

Photos from Day 5

Wilds of Borneo - Day 5

Manfred slept badly last night and decided that he wasn't well enough to hike up the mountain. This was sad for all of us, we had become a really close team and although we all understood his reasons, we would miss having him with us, so we said our goodbyes and we would see him the following day once we had descended again.

Starting at around 2,200m above sea level at 9am we signed in at the gate and entered the path. The hike took us up 8km of undulating terrain. It was steep and rocky, with makeshift wooden steps in place over particularly high or jagged rocks. We took this path up the mountain to base camp (there are 2 paths, the other being shorter and easier to hike) because of it's serenity and beauty. We passed waterfalls, birds, exotic flowers and arrived at Laban Rata base camp just after 5pm for dinner. As we arrived, the heavens opened. The rain was torrential and we were told that if it didn't ease up, we wouldn't be able to get to the summit in the morning. By 9pm we were all tucked up in bed in our thermals. The electric went off at the set time and we slept.

Wilds of Borneo - Day 4

Well, it has been some time since I wrote on here. Mainly due to the fact that the notepad which I used in Borneo to write down what we did each day got lost somewhere in the depths of a chest of drawers! Today I found that notebook and my travel diary and so here I am with the continuation of the mammoth trip I undertook last July.

The day started with breakfast at the tea plantation and after a final bike check we were transported to the cycling start point. We did our usual daily warm up (with woodchops and "Oh yeahs"!!!) before our road cycling challenge commenced. The road cycling was a completely different challenge to the dirt track cycling from the day before. Facing different challenges, speed and cars on the road, but no loose rubble to be careful of. The ride was still amazingly hilly and some of those climbs were tough! I put determination on the front of my mind and made it up every hill and didn't push my bike once. I wasn't going to push my bike today and although I stopped a few times on the hills, I got my breath back and peddled till my thighs burned, but I cycled the entire 30km. (I was very grateful for my gel saddle cover!)

We arrived at the Poring Hot Springs and went canopy walking which was great fun! We soaked our tired muscles in the HOT sulphar water after dipping our feet into the waterfall pool where we had a natural fish spa, mini fishes nibbling on our dead skin.....yum!!

Lunch was rice again and we got changed and were taken to a War Memorial, this would be the starting point for our 9km uphill road walk to the Mesilau Nature Resort. The hardest thing was creating a pack which we would use for the next 3 days (an entire mountain trip!) as the rest of our luggage would be seen by us again once we had conquered the summit.

Our walk from the war memorial started at 1000m above sea level. We walked up, over bridges watching young boys playing in the river, we passed a crazy dog whose owner said that he hadn't seen anyone walking along that road in years. The hills were insanely steep and the locals thought we were crazy!

At the nature resort we had a steam boat dinner which was a bit like a fondue, it was amazing and I was so hungry I ate almost my weight in egg fried rice!! The night got cold though and we went to bed early.