On top of the world (Mount Kinabalo)

One of the last things I had decided to do on my journey in Malaysian Borneo was to climb Mountain Kinanbalo. The mountain itself is 4095 meters high and is the highest one in South East Asia. There really isn’t any real rock climbing involved but instead a hard trek so I was a bit worried how I would measure up to the fitness required.
Got on the bus at six in the morning and got to the bottom of the mountain two hours later. I joined a group of five other people and we were given a guide that would walk us all the way to the top. The climb itself was divided into two parts, first we would walk up to the base camp at 3000 meters and then rest and wake up at two in the morning to do the last 1.2 kilometers and catch the sunrise on the top of the mountain.
So off we went and a Dutch couple that was part of my group immediately disappeared in front of me.
My intention was always to take it easy up to the top and that’s what I did. The area around the mountain is a national park and I wanted to take my time and see as much of the nature as possible while walking up (how is that for an excuse).
The first three kilometers up to base camp was actually quite enjoyable. Even if I felt quite tired at times and a little bit out of breath due to the altitude it was very nice walking up slowly with the guide who highlighted animals and carnivorous plants along the way. And after six hours of pretty good solid walking we arrived at base camp for some well deserved rest.
Got to the room where I was supposed to sleep until we headed off again and it was freezing. Turns out the electricity wasn’t turned on until eight in the evening so I went down to the restaurant and grabbed a big mug of coffee to warm myself. Chatted to some people and we all agreed that it had been pretty tough to get that far and we were all a bit tentative about the last walk up a few hours later.
After getting two hours of sleep I was woken up and put on pretty much everything I had in clothes on. It was freezing outside and talking to the guide he said it would get worse.
I decided to take it quite easy on my way up and started to plod along. Got a headache a couple of times from the altitude but it went away after sitting down and resting for a couple of minutes.
The further up the mountain I got the harder the climb was. At times I was on all fours but slowly but surely I was getting closer to the top. The whole thing was quite funny because it was almost impossible to see anything in the dark apart from the light of the torch in my hand and some dancing lights from the people who were in front of me.
Turns out that strategy of keeping a steady pace paid of. The closer I got to the top the more people I passed along the way and when I finally got up there were only a handful people around.
Even if it’s hard to admit I must say it was absolutely freezing at the top. Since it still was pitch black the wind tore trough the clothes I was wearing but the only thing to do was to wait.
Forty minutes later and the horizon started turning yellow and the temperature slowly turned. The sight was beyond belief. It was such a weird almost surreal landscape that was revealed in front of me and for a moment I had a hard time believing that I actually climbed the beast.
Stay on the top and enjoyed my achievement for another thirty minutes and then started walking down.
To be honest I must say that the walk down was harder than the way up. Don’t know if this was because I had to use muscles that I normally don’t or because I was tired from the walk the previous day but going down hill for seven hours with huge big steps certainly took its toll on me.
Once back down I jumped into a cab with some other people from my hostel and instantly fell asleep, woke up two hours later arriving at the hostel and had a quick shower before heading out with the other ones for a well deserved drink and food.
The next two days I could hardly walk, the infamous “Kinanbalo wobble” had possessed my legs so it was just facing up to it and endure it.
A lifetime experience though.