The Break ~ Mulu National Park

Finally I managed to take a much needed break at Mulu National Park. Didn't think my boss was too happy about that but ... how else to clear my accumulated 43 days of leave if I don't start clearing 1, 2 and 3 now? Besides, I don't think I was all that effective at work with all the "issues" hovering in my mind.

I digress. Back to Mulu National Park. The last time I went to Mulu was in 1994. Goodness! That sounds like a whole century ago ... :P I was supposed to climb the Pinnacles Trail then but alas! we were prevented from doing so by the forest ranger then due to heavy downpour at the mountains the night before.

This time round, I did not hold out much hope that I could climb the Pinnacles Trail. In fact, it was not in my original itinerary to Mulu as I had planned to do the show caves plus some adventure caving. Besides, I was wholly unfit due to my workload and I had more than a few trepidations about making the climb. After all, I am more than a decade older (although not a century :P). I had yet to recover from a knee injury sustained a couple of months back and my fear of heights resurfaced at the thought of doing vertical climbs on steel/aluminium ladders.

But my friends seemed to have more confidence in my fitness level than I. After a few feeble attempts to convince Val to do the caves only, I gave in. Truth be told, despite worry over my knee, it was also a matter of pride and challenge to complete the trail.

And boy! was I glad we did it, although I would never do it again!

As this was a budget trip, I figured that we could latch on to other individual travellers to hire a guide and share the boat fees. Thus, with day packs on our backs (we left our larger backpacks at the Mulu Headquarters), we set out for the 3 days Pinnacles Trail. Well, the trail to Pinnacles itself does not take 3 days.

Day 1 we took an hour's boat ride to the beginning of the trail to Camp 5. (Three hours if the water level is low and if we end up pushing the boat.)

Boat ride to Camp 5



From there, we made another 3-hour trek on flat land to Camp 5. Needless to say, we were feeling the toll of carrying our own backpack as the hours dragged on, especially with my weak knee and the muddy ground. Val swore that she will not carry her own backpack again! "Luxury trekking trip!" I could almost visualise the chant inside her head. :p We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at Camp 5 because it was not just a campsite but a nice wooden building equipped with a very basic kitchen and clean public bathrooms for "he" and "she". Accomodations were also basic but decent and clean. Located next to a stream and amidst the tropical jungle and mountains, the surrounding area was really pretty.

Our humble accomodations @ Camp 5


But alas! by 3+pm, the sky suddenly opened up its heavens and started raining cats and dogs. My heart plummeted. Not again! I thought I'd never get to climb the Pinnacles Trail at this rate. It was still raining when we went to bed.

The morning dawned bright and dry on Day 2. What a surprise! Again, I was filled with trepidation at the thought of climbing vertical, steel ladders. The incline sloped immediately once we started on the trail. The first two half hours were tough. There was no "give" in the climb. We were trekking up at 60-70 deg incline for the first 2000 m. And it was up, up, up and up! Every time I thought I had overcome the toughest parts, I was proven wrong again. The trail just got tougher and tougher. At some point, I looked down the steep incline and wondered how I would manage the descent. But one barrier at a time, I thought. First, focus on the climb, then worry about the descent.

After the 2000 m mark, the trail flattened and I thought, "Gosh! Finally ... time to catch my breath and ease my wobbly legs." But not a few metres away, I came upon what looked like the end of the trail. By then, I had lost sight of the Belgian and Scandinavian folks who were slightly ahead of me earlier. And I could not see Val, our guide or any of the Singaporean and Canadian trekkers who were behind me.

Now what? Then I noticed the "red & white" paint (which marked the trail) on the rock surface beside me, and lo & behold! I caught sight of the vertical steel ladder indicating the start of the 400 m vertical climb. And beside the ladder, there was a signboard warning climbers not to climb that part of the trail after 11am as they might end up reaching ground level at nightfall on very treacherous trails.

Val and our guide arrived while I was still building up my courage to climb the blardy ladder. After coming so far, there was no way I would call it quits. Height phobia be damned! "What the mind can conceive, the mind can achieve." Blah blah blah .... "Alrighty! Time to move my butt instead of staring at the ladder," I thought.

From then onwards, it was kind of a blur for me. The vertical climb continued for the rest of the way. Sometimes, I could not even see where the trail led. Soon I lost sight of Val and the guide again. But I continued to climb. When I hit a snag or seemed to have lost my way, I looked for the "red & white" marks again. And always, it would lead on to more treacherous steel ladders or planks or crevices on rock surfaces or steel rings or ropes. It was endless. I did not allow myself time to stop for long and contemplate, as I feared I might lose my nerve once reality sank in.

After climbing almost an hour with no end in sight, I finally paused for a longer rest. Reality did sink in then. I had long ago lost sight and sound of any human. The eerie silence of the mountains began to seep in and suddenly it sank on me that I was totally alone in the mountains. Anything could have happened while I was climbing. Feeling lost and alone, doubts asailed me. I started calling out to Val, "On! On!" (that was our code in the jungle) but to no avail.

Suddenly I heard rustling above me. A caucasian head jutted out from above the huge mountain rock and one Hungarian appeared. They had set off much earlier that morning and reached the peak ahead of our group.

"Hello there!" The mat salleh called out.

"How far more to go?" I asked.

"Not far. You're very close ~ about five minutes away," was his reply. Then one by one his group (the Hungarians) clambered down from the rock.

Just when I thought everyone had descended, Bjorn ~ our new Scandanavian friend ~ called out to me from above, "Hey you! Not very far to go!"

I looked up and saw Bjorn making his way down, followed by June (his girlfriend) and Derrick (the fireman from Belgium) who were all part of our group.

"You guys on the way down so soon?" I asked.

"Yup. Nothing much there. Half hour is enough. We want to get down for a dip in the river," was his reply.

"What time did you guys reach?"

"About 5 past 10."

A look at my watch indicated that it was 10.30 am then. Hmmm ... not too bad. We were not that far behind.

Then I heard Val's voice from the back. Yay!! My troop was finally here. Hehehe ...

After everyone clambered down, we made our way up quickly with renewed energy. In a few short minutes, we arrived at the peak ~ tired and drenched with sweat, but very elated!

WE DID IT!!! And we were the first Asians to reach the peak that day! Woo Hoo!

At the peak and looking at the Pinnacles


And yet another look at the Pinnacles and the ladies who managed to reach the top! :D


OK. So it didn't look as impressive as we expected. But heck! this was still quite amazing. (That's what we kept telling ourselves.)

We did not linger though and started the descent at 11 am. The vertical downward climb was tough at first but we got the hang of it soon enough. Progress was slow but much easier (in hindsight) compared to the descent after the vertical part.

We "collected" Ing (one of the Singaporean ladies) at the last steel ladder (she did not make it to the top due to her weak knees) and continued our downward journey. The second phase of the descent was so much tougher. Walking down 60-70 deg incline was much worse than climbing down 80-90 deg incline!

I slipped and fell so many times that I lost count. Once again, I lost sight of Val, Ing and the guide. But I could not stop. I worried that if I do stop, I might not walk another step forward! By then, my legs were trembling so badly. Every step was pure agony. I was very careful in deciding which part of the ground to step on to prevent further slips.

However, I had collected numerous bruises by then. After one exceptionally nasty fall, I just sat on the ground and contemplated what idiocy had made me do this climb! :P

Despite the knee guard, my injured right knee felt bad. My good left knee started throbbing. I was placing way too much pressure on that leg. Goodness, I was physically falling apart! Drama a bit la! hehehe ...

In any case, it was an incredibly tough descent. But I wanted to get it over and done with fast! My aim was to reach camp and shelter before 3pm to avoid the downpour which had occured for 2 consecutive days at around those times. Lucky for all climbers, the dry weather held. I managed to arrive at 2.50 pm. It had taken me 3 hours 50 mins to descent.

Back at camp, I quickly gulped down cupfuls of water. Most of us were almost dehydrated as we tried to take minimal water up the climb to lighten our load. It seemed that poor Bjorn vomitted on the way down as he was very close to dehydration. Thank god for June who helped him along the way. Next on the agenda was food! Once I satisfied these basic needs, it was time to jump into the stream to cool off. Gosh! That was heavenly. By late eve, all the climbers had returned to the campsite. We were all vying for equal share of voice to talk about our experiences and to compare bruises.

Day 3 dawned and despite aching limbs, we had to make the three hour trek back to the river. Strangely enough, despite our tiredness and injuries, the trek back was much faster. We made it in 2 and the half hours. And it took us another hour by boat to reach camp.

Woo Hoo! Back to civilisation!

Despite the original plan of going adventure caving, our injured legs couldn't take in more abuse. Thus, we decided to rest and enjoy the Park going to show caves instead. Even so, the trails on wooden platform were quite a challenge. By then, I had also contracted allergy to something. I was scratching and scratching and scratching. As usual, hypochondriac Val also felt like scratching after watching me! Thank god for my ever ready supply of "minyak angin".

We took it real easy the next few days. We went to visit the Lang and Deer Caves. I love both caves as they were more interesting than the Wind and the Clearwater Caves (which we visited earlier on the way to the Pinnacles Trail). Lang Cave was the smallest but it was real pretty. Deer Cave was huge, smelly and different. But the sight of water falling amidst the dark interior, illuminated by streaks of sunlight at the mouth of the cave was incredible and beyond words. At the end of the walk, a most incredible sight greeted us. The sight was aptly called Garden of Eden.

We also went for the longest Canopy Walk (480m) which cost us 30 bucks. It was really not worth the money though. Our final morning, we went to Moonmilk Cave on our own. Although there was no entrance fee, it was really not worth the walk either ~ which included a climb of 425 steps (or so it said in the brochure).

What was worth waiting for was the swarm of bats hunting for food in the eve. We took the 3.8km walk to the Bat Observation area for two days in a row to catch this incredible natural phenomenon. The first eve was a disaster. No bats were in sight and we got caught in the downpour on our return trip.

On the second eve, we all waited in anticipation. 5pm came and went. Then 5.30pm and then it was almost 6pm. We thought it would be another "no show" eve. Suddenly, we noted activity at the mouth of the cave high above ground.

And then .... the most amazing sight! I have never seen anything like this before apart from the "whirlwind" barracudas at the Sipadan dive site.

Bats out on a hunt for food


Another look at the bats during dusk


For a photo travelogue of this trip, check out this link.

And there you have it! A wonderful break away. Granted, my troubles did not go away. But for those few days, different things took priorities in life other than work.

Mulu ~ I'll always treasure thee!