Story of my climb up mount kinabalu (pics)

[wezx]

[PS- I made this into a story like thing to make it more interresting

(and because im bored) ]

"Finally! We reached!" I bounced out of Our four wheel drive. The cold made me shiver in excitement
Ive always like the cold as i come from HOT singapore, i kept on saying "Free Air-con!"

You could see everything from up there..... You could see....... Mount Kinabalu .........hiding in the clouds.......

"Tommorow I'll conquere you, Mount kinabalu, Tommorow you'll reveal your treasures(Neps) to me!" MUhahahha (sorry couldn't resist)

That night....... i slept deeply for the tiring climb by the fire....... The warmth kept me from the cold of the night.....

The next morning i woke up refreshed.... more than ready for the climb.

The starting point, the bridge, My brother and i, crossed it quickly and excitedly, "Bring on the challenge!" i thought

Some wonderful gems greeted me, i was delighted to see them

along with some amazing wildlife, A HUGE BEETLE!


Plus some manificant orchids

The first one and a half kilometer was flat land and the fog surrounding me kept me cool...It was easy as ABC

I kepted an eye for the treasures (interresting wildlife and pitchers), my eye catched a jewel at the 2km mark rest stop. I was [EDIT] really happy [Edit]

!

First, i asked them to pose for some pictures, they willingly agreed,
'they're trying to tell me something' i thought and thought, "Ahhh, i got it" "there better treasures ahead, the rocky path"

I looked straight ahead, the light blinded me for seconds.

i Hurried several steps and saw.....

Now things got worse.... steep, bumpy, rocky paths, OH NO

 

[wezx]

Now A meter seemed much longer than a meter, i was panting so heavily, i looked at my watch, time was running out. 'Will i ever make it'?


'Will i??'


Gold and silver (Orchid flowers) pushed me on

I stopped every 3 mintues to rest for 10 seconds, 'Im running out of time!' 'Will i ever make it to the treasures?'

again, the famous kinabalu tulip pushed me on, i pushed and i pushed, just a little bit more!.......

"a little bit more"




"almost There!!!"



"4km mark here i come!"




3.7...3.8km....3.9...




"4KM!!! WOOT!"

The tresures meets me right at the 4km mark!

The real treasure was achieving my goal, which was reaching the 4km mark, no thought we could hike to that high in such short time (2 1/2 hours)

after lots of joy and excitement, my brother and i headed down. I hopped down4 more km, and end our climb at the evelation of 0.
Once again, i walked on flat ground, feeling proud and satisfied!

I muttered 'ill get to the top when im older, just wait.....'

END OF STORY


i hiked for a total distance of 8km, (4 up and 4 down)
and reached half-way of the summit of mount kinabalu
which took 4 1/2 hours

!!!!

not bad for a 13 year old guy

Thanks for reading! hope you enjoyed it!

 

[Clint]

amazing.. tha Villosa is absolutely stunning.. and the orchids are killer!

 

[Clint]

woah! 13!!! your SO lucky!

 

[droseradude]

nice pics

 

[PlantAKiss]

Wow! Nice story and great photos! What a wonderful experience. Thanks for sharing it and the pics. That must have been really something.

Now...can anyone ID the neps in the photos? (I love the orchid photos too!) Its really great to see them in their native environment.

 

[wezx]

oh i forgot to add this


HUGE beetle

 

[Clint]

well the last few are villosa.. dunno about the others lol

those pitchers are fabulous

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

Magnificent! That is the largest N. villosa I've ever seen. I had no idea they reached such large dimensions. That's pushing a medium-large N. truncata pitcher!!!!! I probably would have keeled over when I saw that big pitcher.

EDIT: the other two previous neps are N. tentaculata.

 

[schloaty]

DOH! Those are HUGE pitchers...Great pics! Man, you a one lucky young person to go on such a hike.

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

Thanks for taking me along. Now those are SOME Nepenthes!

 

[rattler]

i wonder how old some of those are.

Rattler

 

[Kirkscoastalcarnivores]

wow! where is that?

 

[superimposedhope]

Absolutely amazing. Actually i liked the pic of the foggy forest too, that was pretty cool looking. Someday I will make it to a tropical rainforest.

Joe

 

[wezx]

Quote[/b] ]wow! where is that?

that's in mount kinabalu, actually i was looking for the biggest pitcher in the world which is somewhere in mount kinabalu or sabah, you know the huge
(1 meter?) long nep rajah?

i couldn't find it, i asked my trekking guide and he didn't know what i was talking about

another thing good about that trip is that i got really cheap rates for being a malaysian!

 

[swords]

You are very lucky man!
More than twice your age and my trip up Mt. Kinabalu still remains a faraway dream that I hope to make happen someday. Thanks so much for showing the trip!

 

[chesara]

WOW
You sure are lucky,that Villosa is a monster,and as for that beetle oohhhh wouldnt want a love bite off it.
The picture of the fog was cool,you can see why its so damp and humid,maybe one day(dreaming now).

 Bye for now  Julian

 

[Jason Wong]

Quote[/b] ]I probably would have keeled over when I saw that big pitcher.

We did! We were so excited, took photos for like, what, 10 minutes? The guide was getting a rest after dashing up the mountain with us...really a reward though. Although the biggest ree-ward probably was knowing that we climbed halfway to the summit, or to a point called layang-layang. The view was spectacular, as you can see, and the cold foggy wheather so refreshing...really a once in a lifetime experience.

One of the villosa was flowering, that could give you an indication of how old they are.

Jason

I have more photos, but I think this topic covers the majority. Plus I can't come up with another crazy story like my brother's...

 

[Starman]

Wow, lovely!! I love the neps! And the beatle is cute!

 

[elgecko]

Now that's a hike I would really enjoy.
Thanks for sharing.