Well! What a hike mt Kinabalu turned out to be.

After much ummming & arrrring we finally decided to put our names down to climb Mt Kinabalu. At this point we didnt realise we would be climbing half the height of Everest, in terretial jungle rain!

The morning of 17.09.08 we headed to Kota Kinabalu long distance bus station and caught out bus to Mount Kinabalu national park, 2 1/2 hrs north east of Kota Kinabalau. We arrived, signed our life away payed the fees, met our guide called Gutin and set off with a couple from Sweden and a couple from Norway that we met in the bus on the way. The weather was awful. I have never seen so much rain. We set off through, what I will later describe as " Hells Gates", to the foot of the mountain and embarked on out 4100 mtr climb to the summit.

Walking up steep slopes and lots of irregular steps against what I can only descibe as a waterfall, we made our way to the half way point and where we would sleep for the night at Laban Rata, a building on the side of the mountain open to the elements and howelling with wind and rain. The climb is uphill all the way and unrelentingly steep with seemingly endless steps (2500 to be exact!) On the way up we stopped at the various rest points to catch our breath grab something to eat from our backpacks (to which the local mountain squirrals loved to nik the cores from you). 6 hrs laters we finally reached Laban Rata very wet and very tired. We immidiately got showered and changed and went for dinner. We met 4 lovely ladies from Kuala Lumper here and shared stories of our journey to this half way point. Monitar, one of the ladies, told us how she went the long way up and really wished she hadnt.

We headed to bed around 9pm, in good time for our early doors wake up at 1:30am ready to start on the next leg of our trek and to make it to the summit of this enormous mountain. After breakfast we set off around 2am, it was each man for themselves up there and Rach powered on ahead to reach the summit. I was a few minutes behind but when your knackered and aching a few minutes seems like a life time to make up.

The second part of this journey is definatly the most intense. The trail becomes a whole lot tougher and ever steeper. After and hour of clambering up steep steps you eventually hit near vertical slopes of slippery granite/slate which simply has a rope going up the side of it. So you just have to grab hold of the rope and pull your already tired body up and hope for the best. In the dark I had no idea on what lies beyond the darkness of this slate wall and through sheer fear of not knowing if there is a 2000ft drop to either my left or right I hauled my way up to the more a level plateau. It was at this point I realised I didnt have very long to go until the summit. The sun was just started to peek over the horizon and I with this little bit of litle I realised how high up I was having seen all the clouds below me. I stopped to take a few pictures before I headed off to do the last stretch to the summit. I was starting to wonder where Rach was, and knew that she must already be at the summit by now and this was when I heard a very femilier giggle and "Oh right!" I looked up and saw Rach trudging back down towards me, I shouted over to her and all I heard back was "DARLY!!!" she ran over (as fast as you can when youve been trekking for a good few hours) we had a few pictures taken and no sooner had this finished she said " Rid, I feel everso faint" and with that she had to sit down. The little guide who had been helping her to the summit quickly whipped out a chocolate bar and force fed it to her and within second she was A.OK again. Again we parted company and I carried on in my pursute of the summit, I finally made it about half an hour later and the views by this point where amazing but rapidly disaperaing amoungst a think blanket or fog and cloud. Due to how cold it was at the summit I quickly took a few more pictures and made my way back down to Laban Rata. On the way back down You can fully appriciate what you had previously climbed up and take in some of the breathtaking views.

After having a very quick breakfast at Laban Rata we made our way back down to National Park and what I like to call "Hells Gates". This took a further 6 hours and this part of the journey was the least fun, although it had stopped raing and the weather was nice it was by far the hardest part, Not only are you tired from the previous 12 hrs trekking but me and Rachel awere also suffering fairly badly with horrific knee and ankle pain from the steps and climbing. We arrived back to the National Park at around 5:30pm. I tipped my guide a fairly substantial amount (for a Malay anyway) as I would not have made it had it not been for his patience, chocolate bars and him carrying my bag some of the way for me. Gutin truely was my knight in shining armour through the whole experiance and without him my climb to the summit would have not been possible.

We jumped in the nearest taxi and headed back to Kota Kinabalu to a hostel called The Akinabalu Youth Hostel where we fell into bed with aching bones and muscles but happy we conquared the tallest mountain in South East Asia with memories and views that we will never forget.

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