It is only 5 minutes walk from the Backpackers street to the minibus stop.
I have been there already at 7.30.
But this is Asia – the timetable does not exist and we were waiting till 8 am to fill up the microbus. Then driver collected money – 20 r pp and took us to the petrol tation.
Finally we started to climb quite good road up the green mountains. An hour later I saw for the first time Mt Kinabalu – 4095 m.
It is worth to catch a seat at the left window for the great views. Go early – at 10.30 today Kinabaly was already covered by clouds! It is hard to say that Kinabalu is a pretty mountain like Fuji or Kilimanjaro. But for sure it is imposing – like a huge granite saw with many summits…
After 2 hours of driving at the National Park gate I recognized that the NP is closed for visitors today, tomorrow and the day after. Why?
They have 28th Climbathon – the candidates for the heroes run from the park gate to the top of the mountain and back. Good luck!
I was dissappointed – I wanted to walk as far as you can go without paying a guide – to Layang-Layang (you know how I like those twin-names!) and they allowed me (after crying 🙂 to walk only to the Carson Fall – easy 5 kms
each way…
I was more lucky proceeding to Ranau and onward to the village of Kokob. Rare rafflesia – the biggest flower on the world was waiting there for me.
It is blossoming only 7 days!
