One of the things we had on our to-do list for Borneo was to climb Mount Kinabalu.
We are not mountain climbers, but as you do not need to be in order to attempt this one we decided to give it a go – when else are we going to have the opportunity to climb a mountain this high?
To be honest, as much as I had agreed to do the climb, I hadn’t realised exactly what I had let myself in for until I saw it.
My first view of Mount Kinabalu was from the aeroplane on our first day when we were travelling from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan.
Out the window of the plane I could see the mountain and I swear it looked almost as high as the plane!
At 4095m above sea-level, Mount Kinabalu is the highest peak in South-East Asia.
Although some people do the climb in a single day, the most common approach is to split it over two.
We had decided to spend the night before our climb staying within the National Park.
The Park HQ is at just under 1800m so seemed like a good way for us to start acclimatising.
It was a few hours drive from Kota Kinabalu to Park HQ, with the mountain gradually looking bigger and more daunting the closer we got.
We didn’t know what kind of accommodation we were getting for the evening as there was quite a variety within the park.
I was amazed when we were shown to our room to find that we had a small suite – downstairs we had a living area and balcony, and upstairs was the bedroom. I had been expecting a dorm so this far exceeded my expectations!
Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Malaysian Borneo – Kinabalu National Park
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