I made it up Mount Kinabalu (in the picy!!) It was definately the hardest thing I have done and am now feeling it - my body aches all over!!! BUt I'm so glad I made it to the summit of 4095m :)

We started on Tuesday morning at around 10am , armed with our wooden walking sticks to help us along the way & our backpacks with warm clothes in for the summit. The first section was deceptive, although up hill it was relatively easy to what I had exdpected. There were 11 of us doing ig, and to start with we stayed as a group. Every 30-40minutes there was a 'hut' which consisted of mountain water to fill our waterbottles up with & a squat tilet and benches for a rest. The first sectionwas through forest up steps on a muddy floor, we eventually all split into smaller groups as our paces were different, Lydia and I walked together which was good as we were going at the same speed. It got harder and harder, the steps became wider apart and the landscape changed to large rocks with an almost desert feel with red sandy soil, to then large boulders and rocks which required a lot of concentration to see where u were stepping. It got harder to breath as we went up due to the altitude but Lydia and I eventually made it to Laban Rata REst House (at 3272m) where we were staying for the night at around 3.30pm. We were grreeted by some of the others in our ghroup and then waited for the others to arrive. I wasnt achey at all which was surprising, I was just tired. We had our dinner - looking out above the clouds!! - and then our guides told us we would be leaving at 2.30am to climb to the summit! So we went to bed at 7pm (!) although we didnt get much sleep - the other people staying there were so noisey and our bunkbeds were really creaky!!! I got about an hour sleep to then get up at 2am. We were all freezing and shivering (we're too used to hotter temps!!) so put on lots of layers and then went downstiars to start walking to the summit. We left at 3am in the end because it rained a bit. Our layers came off v quickly as we got so hot walking and the altitude made us out of breath after about 10 steps. To begin with we were walking up steep rock boulders in pitch black, thank goodnes for headtorches! It was really hard, though we had the worst to come. We got to the end of the steps and cakme to almot vertical sheets of granite rock with ropes along them. We had to pull ourselves up the rock face by the rope, luckily it was dark so I couldnt see down!! Steve, Lydia & I were together and were more worried about getting down than getting to the summit!! By this time I felt really sick from the altitude and we were loosing our breath so quickly. We carried on pulling ourselves up n the ropes for another 1Km, not daring to let go incase we fell, we then reached the last hut, only another 1.72km until the summit!!! Still climbing the rope in pitch black we made it to 7.5km and steve said he couldnt go on, so me and lydia carried on, climbing on all 4's in parts to get ourselevs up. we eventually made it to 8kim when we could see the summit and the sun was rising!! WE carried on, steve came up behind us - he decided to carry on in the end, and we had a last climb pulling ourselves with the little energy we had up big rocks to get to the summit at 6.30am! I got there a little before steve and lydia s had a little cheer to myself!!! Got that all important pic with the sign and then sat and took in the awesome views from 4095m high - the highest point of SE Asia!!!! We then made our way back down which i thought would be harder as could see how steep it is going back down the ropes but although it was painful on the kneews with alot of bum shuffling in places we made it back to Laban Rata Rest House at 10am ish. We had some breakfast and then made our way back down to the bottom. It was really though on our knees going down and after hardly any sleep and so much walking our legs were slowly giving up (which made it hard using the squat toilets!!!) I had new found energy at the last 1km and we eventualy made it to the bottom at 3pm ish.

My body is now aching all over and I feel Im walking like an old granny! Im really glad Ive done it, though youd never get me doing it again!!! 10 out of 11 people in our group made it to the top, a few people had some emotional breakdowns on the way up!!! lol.

For the next 9 working days Im based at the Nature Interpretation Centre next to the Rasa Ria (5*) Hotel. There are 3 of us (my group) staying here, in an apartment in a town called Tuaran which is giving us lots more culture!!! Will update later once we have done some work!

love a very aching loretta xxxx