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.