Just like Monday night, it was raining much of the night. When our alarms went off at 1:40am, we hopped up and got ready, bar a few people who had decided not to do the walk or felt too sick. After a quick 'supper breakfast', we sat down and waited for our porters and guides. Just as we did, it started raining again, very heavily. We waited for a little while but then one of the park rangers came in and said that while they were going to open the gates, it was at our own risk to go head. There was ankle-deep water where we had to climb a rope to get up the rock face, and we would be at high risk of hypothermia and injury if we proceeded. They had a few people go ahead yesterday and had to carry out 2 rescues. Based on that, our guides decided not to go ahead with the summit climb. Very disappointing, but unavoidable for our own safety. We hung around downstairs for a while and then headed back to bed at around 3.
We got up again at 5:30 to watch the sunrise, and luckily the rain stopped just as we went outside
. We had a beautiful view from the helipad of the sun coming up, and some gaps in the clouds showed the lights from some villages and mountains poking through. We were all surprised by how cold it was, our hands were freezing by the time we went inside, even layered up in our summit clothes. Then we sat downstairs to defrost and waited for the kitchen to open for some coffee! When we realised breakfast wasn't until 7:30, we packed up our little bags, checked out of the room and brought our stuff downstairs. Breakfast was another hodge-podge buffet of rice noodles, pancakes, and eggs - and very importantly, strong coffee. We sat around and waited and finally, after a last safety briefing at the helipad, we headed off down the mountain at about 8:35. During our safety briefing, our intrepid leader and mountain guide both mentioned that a few groups had attempted the summit climb in the rain, but by the time they reached the first rest stop, the park rangers had decided to close the gate to the summit. So no one made it up the mountain last night, and the people that had a go would be having a very wet and miserable descent today!
We made the downhill climb in about 3 hours and 35-40 minutes
. It was slippery and wet, but we had some nice weather while we were above the clouds. It was very damp in the clouds but not as rainy as yesterday. Climbing down, we couldn't believe how far up we climbed yesterday! Very shaky legs now, and a few people had some very sore knees- especially a few of the older members of our group (we've got a couple who would probably be in their 60s and a couple in their 40s with a 17 year old son). Once we reached the bottom, we hopped in a shuttle bus which took us back to HQ for lunch. We waited for the others to arrive at the lunch restaurant, and after a thank you speech to our mountain guides and porters, we hopped back in our minibuses to head to Poring Hot Springs.
It took about an hour to get to the hot springs, and we passed some fantastic scenery - going through the mountains, past fields of tropical fruits, farms, roadside markets, and small villages. Lots of palm trees! The further down we went, the hotter it got, which was a relief after the cold of Laban Rata this morning. We arrived at the Poring Hot Springs and were told we'd been upgraded again. The couples got to share their own little private ensuite rooms next door, and the singles/friends got to have a twin room with shared bathrooms in a big chalet type building. The hot springs complex, and the 'hostel' building was set with the jungle in he background, and you could hear the roaring of a small river behind the building. Lauren and I were sharing again, and our twin room was simple but lovely. Comfy beds, looking forward to a good sleep tonight!
Once we'd had a shower (for the first time in around 33 hours, big relief!) and were feeling human again, we got our bathers on and walked around to the hot springs complex. While I was in the shower, I found a massive beetle (photo attached) - further proof of the 'big Borneo critters' we've encountered so far! Our Mt Kinabalu National Park passes gave us entrance into the complex, so we wandered into a surprisingly beautiful tropical jungle area and across a bridge over a torrent of water. The hot springs are open to locals so we'd been warned to cover up if we were going to be bothered by staring. A lot of the local women bathed in their full clothing and hijab, which must be boiling given the temperature of the water. We hesitated initially, and just stuck our legs in the 'legs only soak pool' - which was probably exactly what we needed. When there was an empty hot pool further up the complex we grabbed it though, and did end up hopping in. We had a brief swim (or dipped our toes in, on Amanda and my part) in the cold pool, stuck our legs in the hot pool again, and then packed up our gear and headed back to the rooms. While we were at the hot springs, I went down to the restaurant, where there was supposed to be wifi, but it wasn't working - will have to wait another day! Back in our rooms, we sorted out some laundry, and got ready for dinner.
For dinner, we headed outside the hot springs complex to a local restaurant. The menu was fairly simple, but I had a 'clay pot', with a stew of some description, with rice. Lauren and I also shared some 'Sabah local vegetables', which were mostly ferns, and were nice. Our guide also encouraged us to try a 'kit chai ping', a local drink with sour plums and lime, sweetened with sugar. I can't get over how much sugar they put in all their drinks here! It was refreshing though. After we'd finished dinner, and some people had chosen an ice cream from the freezer, Jeffry brought out some local rice wine to try. He explained that as this was a local brew, you could only find it in this part of Borneo, between the villages and Ranau. We had a few glasses, and it was very nice, much fruitier and sweeter than sake. After that we wandered back to the hot springs complex and fell into bed!
Mt Kinabalu to Poring Hot Springs
Wednesday, April 05, 2017
Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia
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