D-Day.
It’s 5.45am. Shower, shave and breakfast.
Nervous but determined to complete this challenge today and tomorrow. Will take it quite literally one step at a time!!
Pick up and drive for an hour. US couple chatting. Jamie and Emily. Naturists that are based on Guam. Interesting couple who will likely be looking at all the fauna and animals along the way. There was also a Malaysian guy called Elvin who we later spent the afternoon with who was lovely. Lives in Singapore so gave us a couple of ideas for our trip
We got to the Kinabalu Park to collect things, leave our luggage and meet the guide who was called Jeanus. Loads of people there. Mostly Malaysian it seemed, although I think a fair number of Japanese too.
Another minibus further up the mountain and we arrived at Sipohon Gate which was the starting point. My worries about holding people up were unfounded in the end because it was just me, Tash and Jeanus. It was explained to us the hike today and the various stopping points along the way and then we set off. We had 6km to get through and there were distance markers every half a kilometre.
We did stop at the various stations along they way and quickly got to recognise the same people. We were not being overtaken or overtaking people. So we had our pace just right it seemed.
There was no view to speak of other that clouds and mist.
It was enjoyable going at my pace, and I felt good (ish) in that the treks we have been doing really helped as I was stronger and able to continue for longer or recover quicker. It was well worth all that effort the last fortnight.
We stopped at 4km for the packed lunch with was fine for half an hour to acclimatise and then off again. This next 2km was tough. And then it started pissing down with rain, it was pouring and I was shocked through. Probably worse than Penang Hill. But it got steeper and harder. We were walking through a stream bed for a while and with the rain it was flowing.
Onwards we continued and eventually reached the hostel we were to stay in for the night.
We had arrived at 2.00pm and had set off from Sipihon Gate at 9.00am so we were bang on the average time it takes.
We checked in and Jeanus said to meet him at 2.30am and left us to our own devices. We were allocated a dorm that had two bunk beds so we were with another couple but we were first.
We stripped off the wet clothes and dried and it was lovely to have fresh (dry) clothing on and did some prep for tomorrow and then went down to the common room/restaurant area and got a coffee and joined Elvin. Nice to chat etc and we just sat watching people rolling in.
The Irish couple that just married came over and sat with us because we’d spoken to them a few times at the stops on the way up and it felt quite communal. We all wondered what happened to Jerry and Emily and they came in about 5.30pm and sure enough had taken the time on the walk to photograph everything.
We had dinner which was nice and loads of coffee and chatted. Every now and then the cloud cover would go and the view was stunning. We were high about the clouds and it was like taking photos from a plane. But it changed so quickly you had to be quick.
Another couple walked past that the Irish couple had spoken to and she was chatty, Jean and Ewan, I clocked her room key and by coincidence they were out dorm buddies!! It was lovely being part of a group of people all with a common goal of the hope that we’d be able to clim to the summit in the morning.
As I type in bed the rain is still hammering it down so I really do hope it goes ahead. Anyway, talking of which we came up to the dorm at 6.30pm and our roomies were in embed so we crept about as quietly as possible and then I finished this diary entry after setting the alarm for 1.00am.
God knows how much sleep I’ll get.
I do feel I’ve already accomplished something today and it hasn’t put me off doing something like this again the in future. It was amusing as Tash said it would be good to take Vinnie to Snowden and do it. I just turned my phone over to her to show her I’d made that exact note for when we go home to the UK.
Forgot to mention, the whole place feels like you’re at a ski resort. Wooden floors, walking piles, thermals. It’s great and brings back those sort of memories making want to go skiing again.
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