#pinnicles

[melissakking]

Rock study today. Done from a photo that I took at Pinnacles National Park.

[junkim-memories-blog]

Far east we headed, not only to find recovery from everyday life in Germany but also to explore the beautiful nature of Borneo, more precisely the Mulu National Park, just a half hour flight away from Miri, (Sarawak, Malaysia) a small but welcoming city near the border of the Kingdom of Brunei.

Arriving on an afternoon at the small airport of Mulu, we we’re quite nervous. All the other people arriving were picking up literaly tons of food and stuff but the four of us, willing to do a 3-days-trip to the jungle and mountains of Borneo, didn’t bring anything but tuna paste and instant noodles. Well-prepared haha… survival mode on! The first night we spend at the base camp hostel of Mulu National Park, where we had a chance to see a bat cave a 3 km walk through the jungle, which started right next to the camp. Amazing! We also got to know Edison, a young man from Miri, who should show us around Miri after our Mulu trip. On the next day we had a boat trip to a local people’s market with handcrafted jewelry and accessoires, afterwards we rowed up the river to another caves where we had a chance to take pictures and go swimming on a tiny spring with exotic dragonflies whirring around us. When experiencing so many impressions and inspiration in a short time you start to feel a boundless freedom, happiness and gratefulness. But our first impressions of the beauty of Borneo’s nature should be surpassed even more. Past big colorful spiders hanging down the trees along the river we rowed even deeper into the jungle, where we we’re dropped off a riverside in the middle of nowhere. A 10km walk all through the tangly jungle of the „headhunters trail“, as it’s called by the local people, before reaching camp 5, which should be our start to climb up the 2,7km high Gunung Mulu, a mountain in the mid of the jungle. At this point none of us could even imagine what hell of a challenge we we’re running into the next day. Camping in the jungle on Christmas, getting up on the day after at 6:30 am – totally motivated! – starting our guided walk to the bottom of Gunung Mulu, not too far from camp 5. We were glad there was a porter to bring the more or less needed stuff up that damn mountain. Maybe he’s the strongest man of  whole Borneo J Right at the bottom of Gunung Mulu, the incline went up like 50% and after a hard 1km walk it even grew up to 70%. After around 2 ½ hours we reached the last 900m before reaching the top and all of us were already sweat-soaked from head to toes. The incline felt like 90% when we climbed up improvised ladders and because there wasn’t any protection from falling down we needed another 1 ½ hours because we had to climb really cautious. But as soon as we reached the top, totally exhausted and proud to have done it after all the minutes of frustration because the walk seemed to have no end, we stood there, overhelmed by this breath-taking scenery. We made it, we reached the pinnacles of Gunung Mulu. It’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. After relaxing, taking some pictures and having lunch in the sun for about 45 minutes, we had to leave already because our tourguides expected rain for the afternoon and climbing down a slippery wet mountain would be kinda dangerous – none of us seriously wanted to do this experience. So after another hard 3 hours of climbing down (or like only one hour (!!!) for our porter, strongest man alive), we felt like the most lucky people on earth for having a refreshing bath on the river right next to camp 5. Seriously, this was definitely the most exhausting thing I have ever done! But it was absolutely worth it, every single step up and down that mountain. These days were full of inspiration.