So on we go into the foothills of Mt Kinabalu, the climate noticeably cooler. Then to the Poring Hot Springs, just past Ranau Town, and down the hill a bit so slightly warmer again. There is a high canopy walk here that Gill remembers from all those years ago, and thinks it was very high, swinging around in the tops of the trees looking a long, long way down to the forest floor. This time, whilst quite high, it didn't seem quite so terrifying, but perhaps that was memory changing or Gill getting braver with the years.... But we discover that a new one has been built on a lower level than before, and a bit like Air Asia whose strap line is "now everyone can fly", the new lower one means "now everyone can canopy walk"......
We exit the wobbly connecting bridges and back down through the humid forest to the hot springs. These are good fun and peopled by locals all enjoying Sunday picnics whilst taking the waters. These hot springs are one of the better results of the Japanese occupation during WW2, when they built lots of little tiled baths in the mountainside that could be filled up with the really hot spring water.
This has also been developed a bit since Gill last visited, the tatty leaf roof coverings have gone to be replaced by smarter (?)
corrugated iron, and park offices, changing rooms, a few small swimming pools and a small waterslide. Am looking forward to digging out the old pictures when I get home to see the difference. The pools were rather slow to fill and Ant took the waters in about two inches of the stuff. Now we know why the locals have to make a day of it....
The guy who was with us in the minibus had said that there was a possibility of us being able to see a Rafflesia flower at some point, but it appeared to be a bit of a secret, bit of a nod and a wink and a few phone calls, felt like a drug deal! It's actually hard to see one of these, they take a year to grow on the forest floor and then bloom only for a few days before rotting down with the smell of decaying flesh... And there aren't too many around. But more nods, more winks and a few more phone calls it looked like we were in luck. We take the mini bus over ground and rivers really more suited to a four wheel drive and narrowly escape being stuck on several occasions, till we come to a lone, tiny settlement in the middle of the forest. Felt like being in some weird fairy tale..... We pay our few ringgits to the land owner, apart from a few fruit trees, showing off their Rafflesia seemed to be their only source of income and it was a poor looking place to live. We are led along the paths through the forest to see this magnificent specimen. It's really well protected, shaded with leaves and a fence around, apparently when they start rotting down the smell is powerfully attractive to animals who will come and trample down the cabbage like buds of any others growing nearby. And just one touch on the bud will turn it black and kill it. No wonder they are so rare. But we saw it. This one was 85cms in diameter, the largest ones grow to just over a metre. Normally they have only five petals, occasionally there is an extra smaller one, but this was a truly rare find in as much as there were six evenly sized ones. We were so lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Such an odd thing, but beautiful. And to add to the excitement, just next to it was a small snake, languidly chewing on the frog it had just caught, again more luck for us, the frog, rather than us, was satisfying its hunger.... Was very proud of Ant, who despite his snake phobia, took it all in his stride. So cool was he, he even took this amazing photo.
And we certainly couldn't begrudge the few ringgits we paid, this Rafflesia will be rotted away in a couple of days and the next bud around, assuming it survives, won't appear for another three months, so not much of an income generating scheme for the landowner. Yet more of the serendipity we are experiencing on this trip.
Back up the mountain to check in at the Kinabalu Pines Resort, the clue on the temperature is in the name.... Shades of Ooty, we are high at 1500 metres and it feels quite a lot chillier, Gill may be sleeping in her clothes again.... A "charming" little place, best described as basic, built like Swiss Chalets into the hill with an amazing (when the rain and cloud clear) view of Mt Kinabalu.
Ant is now faced with the folly of his choice to climb..... it looks a hell of a long way up! But the rooms seem fine and clean if not high on the design stakes. So we tuck into a Chinese lunch, very good but all that is on offer, and of course the bottle of wine, at a tenner, the best price we have come across so far. Later on, we settle in, jackets on downstairs in the gathering gloom on a chilly verandah, the only space the wifi works, with two iPads doing overtime.
Ant on one trying (unfortunately unsuccessfully) to get Glastonbury tickets, and the London Marathon via Slingbox on the other! Aint technology great? Dinner, Chinese again, but it enabled Ant to carb load through rice and of course, more wine..... And then an early night for Ant in preparation for his climb tomorrow and for me to take it extremely easy whilst he does all that hard work.
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