The dreaded Mount Kinabalu!!

After 3 days in the jungle we were smelling like, well words really can't describe just how bad we smelt! We were definately ready for a bath and not just any old bath would do. We decided to visit 'poring hot springs' where seriously hot spring water is piped into bath tubs big enough for two people to sit in and relax/sweat!

We all really enjoyed relaxing in the hot baths and when it all got a bit much we headed outside and jumped into the freezing cold outdoor pool or copied Adam and just tipped a massive bucket of cold water over ourselves - very ummm refreshing!

After a day of relaxation at Poring it was time for the bit I was least looking forwards too - climbing the 4095.2m peak known as Mount Kinabalu. Our guide book describes the climb as 'unrelenting, with seemingly endless steps - actually there are 2500 - as far as Laban Rata. Then it gets a whole lot tougher' and continues to describe the assent to the summit, 'The trail becomes even steeper as you approach the summit, then disappears altogether on vast, near-vertical fields of slippery granite. Every step can be a struggle as you gasp for breath in the thin air.' Sounds like fun!!

So we set off and to my surprise it wasn't too bad. Ridiculous amounts of never ending steps yes, but overall, not too bad. However, the steps went on, and on, and on. We climbed continuously for about 5hours, pausing to stuff our faces with choclolate (we needed the energy!! AND IT WAS A GOOD WAY FOR ANNA TO GET AROUND HER LENT! Sorry that was Adam putting his views in!) and to try to get our breath. With the steps getting increasingly more vague as we climbed higher and higher we were releived when we arrived at Laban Rata where we were going to spend the night. After a huge bowl of unappetising and extremely bland rice topped with a fried egg - certainly different! we headed for bed and set the alarm for the unheard of waking hour of 2am!!

When the alarm went off in our little dorm room it was freezing. Seriously, it was a similar temperature in our room as it was outside on the mountain! We put on every item of clothing we could possibly find (Nigel even purchased some rather fetching purple gloves!) and then we set off.

More steps faced us as we began climbing up sheer rock in the pitch black and the higher we climbed the worse I felt. Think I suffered a bit from altitude sickness - a combination of feeling as if I was going to be sick and a thumping headache that resembled an invisible man playing the drums on my head - nice! We kept climbing and climbing and then the steps disappeared and in their place was a rope.

OK - picture the scene - it's about 3.30am, very dark, it's freezing cold and the wind is blowing violently across the side of the mountain, I feel ridiculously sick and I now have to hold onto a rope and literally haul myself up the side of the mountain!! I found the whole experience pretty tough! We continued hauling and climbing for what seemed like hours until finally the summit was in sight. I was so glad that I wasn't on my own and I had Ad, Anna and Nigel to help me get to the top. The views of sunrise from the summit were absoluetley awesome and definately worth every painful step. The landscape around us changed dramatically as the sun came up and illuminated the darkness we had climbed through. Thank goodness it had been dark - there is no way we would have contemplated climbing up the sheer rock faces had we been able to see them!

Coming down was so much easier (well it had to be really, didn't it?!) This was until I took my boot off at the bottom and realised that what I thought had been pain from a blister was in fact a sprained ankle! My ankle resembled a tennis ball for the next couple of days! We were all aching loads by the time we got back to our hotel - in fact, Adam compared the pain he felt in his legs everytime he took a step downwards to being stabbed in the leg with a knife and I think that described it perfectly!

As it was our last night together we headed out for a farewell and celebratory drink, which once again ended in Adam and Nigel singing loudly in a bar!

Hippie hating Orang utans!

After a bumpy boat ride back from turtle island we were straight onto our next adventure. This time it was Orang Utans and not turtles though. Not far from Sandakan there is a place called Sepilok which is a Rehabilitation Centre for orang utans. It is set in a vast jungle but there are several feeding platforms where there are usually Orang Utans to be seen at feeding time.

Arriving early we decided that we would go for a walk into the rain forest to explore. ––”t”Tl‹„—Í‹„—Í‹„ñ•C˜ ŠD˜ —Í (sorry I'm in Hong Kong and for some reason the key board just started writing in Chinese! If any one can translate what I have written please let me know!) Anyway..... yes we decided to explore! There was a trail that we could follow that would take us about 2km into the jungle. Not far we thought, it will only take us about an hour. We didn't really think about the mud covered, fallen tree blocked, undulating path that we would be following. After about 3 hours we emerged from the jungle filthy and sweat covered only to be confronted by 3 young Orang Utans playing on a small bridge (oh Nigel went for a pee in the jungle and almost had a nasty incident with a leech! Could have been very interesting and painful!). This was amazing (the Orang Utans - not Nigel and the leech!) as neither Ells nor me had seen any before. However the best was to come as they decided to steal a ladies coat, try and put it on while hanging upside down and then pull bits of it apart. They rolled around and generally had a good laugh.
However I did feel that one of the Orang Utans was on the same wave length as me. I hate people who have been away from home for a couple of days and get bloody braides in their hair. Why oh why would you do that??? Anyway the Orang Utan in question either had the same hatred for them as me or just saw lots of ropes, because he reached up and hung off them. This was so funny as the stupid hippy that they were attached to was reduced to a screaming pile on the floor! Oh how we laughed! (well Nigel and I did anyway!)

After this amazing chance encounter we also went to see the feeding time which was great but not a good as seeing them in the wild just doing their thing! (and hurting hippies!).

After spending the night near the sanctuary we set off on another adventure, this time into the middle of the rain forest. This required a bus journey then a boat trip of just over an hour. This sounds great, however once again it was tipping it down and rain whacking you in the face while on the boat resulted in temporary blindness and a wish to be in a nice warm bar with a nice cold beer! Anyway after the boat journey we were faced with a walk to the camp through what can only be described as a swamp. Once at the camp it stopped raining and we settled into out 3 walled cage that was our room and had some dinner (things were looking up!). Over the next 3 days we had an amazing time going on night boat trips and treks into the jungle where we saw crocodiles, monitor lizards, snakes, spiders, frogs, monkeys and again wild orang utans. Nigel, who is a very very keen bird watcher in his spare time (when he's not train spotting) was very impressed with the abundance of Hornbills in the area (Over 5 species apparently including the blue beak!).

However my personal favorite things at the camp were the jungle football and our search for the jungle elephants! Football is self explanatory but the search for the elephants was ill conceived to say the least. It involved all of us setting off down the river in torrential rain and then jumping onto a river bank that was so deep with mud it came over my knees (spent quite a while getting my shoes back and freeing Ellie's and Anna's feet so that they could get out of the mud). After this we trekked for several hours though thick jungle into palm plantations to get to a place where the guide thought the elephants would be. After waiting a while he consulted some local people who "apparently" told him that the elephants would appear at 6pm. It was only about 4pm but some of the gung ho and gullible fools we were with decided that we should wait the 2 hours for them. As you can image standing around in the rain waiting for some "elephants" was not our idea of fun. Little did we know that the fun was indeed only just beginning. As you guessed the elephants didn't appear singing and dancing at 6 so we trudged back in the pitch black to the boats (without torches!). It was at this point though that the true level of stupidity of our guide came out. Not realising we would be returning so late he hadn't brought any boat lights with him which meant that we had to go back down a log and crocodile infested river blind. "Sorry I can't go very fast. If we hit a log the boat will turn over" was the last thing Nigel and myself heard before we stared to plan how we were going to kill him and drink all the beer in the camp!

After having a bucket shower that involved filling a bucket with brown water and tipping it over ourselves outside in the cold we decided not to kill him.......

....but we did try and drink all of the beer in the camp!!

PS: Sorry Nigel, I was only joking. Everyone knows you don't go train spotting!

Turtle Time!

We spent our first few days in Borneo relaxing on beautiful beaches and snorkelling in super clear waters - until about 2pm each afternoon that is. This seemed to be some sort of witching hour as at exactly 2pm every day it absolutely tipped it down!

Our friends from home arrived and after a good drunken catch up (which ended with Adam and Nigel singing along with a live band in a bar at the top of their voices but using their own made up words) we set off on our Borneo adventure.

First on 'the planner' was a trip to turtle island where, if you're lucky, you got to see wild sea turtles laying eggs on the beach. This only happens at night and so we had the day to explore the island - in the rain! After lots of snorkelling, playing pit pat and taking it in turns to amuse Adam it was time to head indoors and wait for the turtles (they won't come onto the beach if it's occupied).

We waited, and waited, and waited. Then we waited some more. You get the picture - after a pretty long wait we were told that it was 'turtle time!'. A mother turtle had landed on the beach, dug quite a deep hole and had started laying eggs. We crept outside and stood around her while she continued to lay eggs, in total 109!! It was awesome to watch.

However, the best was still to come. As turtles are an endangered species rangers on the island collect the eggs as they are layed and take them to a special hatchery where they bury them in fake nests. After a couple of months the eggs hatch and the rangers take the hatchlings down to the sea to be released. We saw about 50 hatchlings get released into the sea that night, they were so tiny, much smaller than the palm of my hand. They could swim pretty fast though considering how little they were. Kind of scary to watch them swim out into the sea though as they have an absolutely tiny chance of survival, something like 1 out of every 100 survive.