5th Day: To the Peak!
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Last night slept at about 8pm, even is very early, the tiredness just pawned us.
Our bed is double deck bed, I slept upper deck, while Bobby slept lower deck. Each person has a wool blanket, comfort. I thought it will be very cold at night, so I wore gloves and thick jacket that I will use to hike tomorrow. Very soon, I am in dream.
About 12am, I woke up, caused by nightmare. Actually the room quite warm, maybe is because the blanket is thick, so I removed my jacket and gloves, basically, top less. It’s getting so hard to fall asleep, because the air is quite thin and low oxygen. I notice my breathing rate getting so fast, even myself is not moving!
After rolled for 2 more hours, I get off the bed for early breakfast.
Our guide told us, if it rains, and too dangerous, we got to turn back… No~~ Please don’t rain~ But see the below clear sky, there is no cloud~ wahaha. We are lucky.
This is the star view in the morning, thanks to Nana’s super DSLR camera. I had never see this star cloud in my life before… so beautiful…
So we start the hike. Plants are getting short, like the one below.
In the first part of journey, the floor is quite slippery due to some stream water. My knee joints were pain, like the kind of rainy day pain, aka 风湿. Some terrain are manmade stair cases, thanks for making our life easier~
Until some point, there is no more stair case, and plants left grass only. The terrain is granite stone like you see above, with ropes to support us go up.
This is the way they locate the ropes into the stone, by screwing in.
The last part of the journey is not easy. I feel, the hardest part is not because your muscle pain, but is the thin air. I hardly walk more than 100 steps without taking a rest, and got to keep remind myself to breath faster and deeper.
The only motivation for me to keep going is to reach the peak on time, and see the clearest sunrise ever~ Was together with Bobby, but after hike for a while, Bobby is gone! Left me with some strangers…
Must keep moving.
At 5:56am, I reached Low’s Peak~ Sunlight has appear a little by that time.
Another side of the view.
Yea, finally~ While hiking, I not yet feel the coldness, maybe is the heat in my body; but when stop at the peak, I can feel the coldness on my lips and face, cold! My wool gloves are not working…
Around 6:10am, Bobby Reached. See his face, cold till numb.
Awesome view!
The sun rise is so beautiful. In our normal routine, we can never have chance to see sunrise at 10am (the time I wake up usually), that moment I feel a kind of “finally..!”. Maybe is after so much hard work, the beautifulness make me wanna cry~
Sooner, Nana and Kelvin arrived too. It’s time to go down, it’s cold!
Mini lake.
The famous peak of Mount Kinabalu.
Above the cloud~
This is the rope that guided us along the journey.
Nana hiking down slowly with his DSLR behind.
Coming down is making me dizzy. Maybe is because body lack of mineral, or water, or anything. While hiking in dark with only 1 head gear, we can’t see how steep the terrain is; when the sunrise, the terrain is scary… Going downward is quite dangerous. We saw Laban Rata from far, but no matter how long we hike, it’s still that far… And finally~
After breakfast, is time to check out from Laban Rata, there is still another 4 hours journey to the park entrance at Timpohon, damn.
Going downward is killing most of us, it hurts toes and knees.
Along the downward journey, we noticed porter carried supplies from bottom to above.
Check this, empty gas tank. Even the full one is also carry in the same way with legs! Bobby got stunned.
This 2 kakak is carrying food supply to Laban Rata. I asked them:
Me: Kak, ini berat tak?
Kakak: Berat.
Me: Berapa kilo ar?
Kakak: Saya punye 27kg, yang itu orang 30kg lebih.
Me: hebat…
Respect.
Squirrels are everywhere on the mountain. They appear at the places with human, like resting stop, hoping human give them some food. They are attracted by the left over food in rubbish bin too.
Forest~ This is so big different with the peak.
On our way down, it rained. Luckily we brought raincoat. The atmosphere is misty.
Carson Fall, a mini waterfall. This is near to the exit ~
Reached the exit at about 2:56pm. Finally, I had did something I feel satisfied in my life.
The food at Kinabalu Park is awesome. Maybe we are too hungry. Never feel so delicious before~
Certificate for reaching the peak.
Certificate for hiking from Mesilau Gate, wahaha.
This is one cool great experience for us. I not sure if this will be the last time I hike, or there will be another in the future.
For this journey, we used 7 hours from Mesilau Gate to Laban Rata; 3 hours to the peak; going down to Laban Rata for anothe 3 hours, and from Laban Rata to Timpohon Gate is another 3 and half hours.
Total up of 16 and half hours. Never exercise so long before! But everything is worth the price. I need to have something significant in my life, as proof that I live before~
**FYI, Mount Kinabalu still far away from Top 100 Tallest Peak in the world.
