Land down under part 2 - Uluru, Kata Tjuta, Kings Canyon

Alice Springs, Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon

We flew up to Alice Springs from Adelaide which was the cheapest way to get there (and which was still not cheap). We had a night in a hostel in Alice Springs which was more like a mobile home, and we spent a bit of time walking round Alice. There is quite a large indigenous population and sadly homelessness and drinking appeared to be a widespread problem there for the aboriginal community; many of whom are living in poverty as a result of displacement. Alice Springs is a strange little town; basic and functional with nothing that really stands out part from the beautiful surrounding desert landscapes and the River Todd which is pretty much always dry. 

Todd river - Alice Springs

The river, which is actually underground, has been known to flood, so the bridges are there just in case. Every year the town puts on a ‘regatta’ (called Henley-on-Todd!) where competitors race in boats and bath tubs by running along the dry river. 

Aussies have been standing on their heads too long

We were up and awake very early the morning after arriving in Alice as we were being picked up to go on a 3-day, 2-night tour of Uluru, Kata Tjuta (or The Olgas) and the Kings Canyon. It’s always been a dream of mine to go to Uluru, since reading a book called ‘Walkabout’ when I was younger; a story set around Uluru, of a girl that gets lost in the bush and is found by a young Aboriginal boy on his walkabout, which is when young Aboriginal men are sent out alone into the bush for up to 6 months to survive on their own and become a man.

Sunrise on way to Uluru

Our guide was actually Canadian and had been working out of Alice Springs for only a couple of years. He was one of the best guides we’ve had though – What he didn’t know about Uluru and the surrounding area you could write on the back of a fag packet. 

Prawn Cocktail!

On the way to Uluru from Alice Springs we stopped for some coffee at a restaurant where they also keep emus. Our guide said that although the day trippers would be there to get breakfast which was included in their fee, we didn’t have it included in ours, so we had to pay for anything we wanted ourselves. Baby D and I started queuing in front of the buffet with the day trippers, and he got a full fry-up and I got a bacon sandwich for free. Don’t judge us, we’re pretty skint and Australia is ridiculously expensive. 

Further along the road we spotted what we thought was Uluru before being told by our guide that it was actually ‘foolaru’, or Mount Conner, another huge rock around 150km from Uluru. We stopped off at our camp to make some lunch and then bellies full, off we went to the rock.

Uluru

Once we got to Uluru, we were given the options of either trekking 10km around the base of the rock, climbing it or going to the cultural centre to learn about Aboriginal culture and the rock. We would have preferred to do the base trek and the cultural centre but there wasn’t enough time to do both, so we did the 10km walk. We later saw that a lot of people had bikes and were cycling round it. If we’d known this was a choice we might have done that so we could have gone to the cultural centre as well, but never mind. 

Uluru

The climb wasn’t open when we arrived although it did open later, but climbing is very disrespectful to Aboriginals who see the rock as a sacred place. That didn’t stop a lot of people and we watched as visitors of all shapes, sizes and ages took on the challenge – many of whom bottled it halfway and crawled back down. The climb is unassisted, and there are no harnesses or straps, hence the reason why over 35 people have died doing it. 

The rock is owned by the Aboriginal community having been returned to them by the Australian government. Aboriginal law states that climbing is not allowed, but Aussie law doesn’t, so that means you can climb it. Makes total sense to me. The walk around the base was not difficult and it was amazing to see this iconic monolith up close and personal. We saw cave drawings, areas where the Aboriginals hold ‘council’ meetings, spots where they would cook, and round the base there were several traditional stories. Uluru is not as symmetrical as you would first think, it is more complex when you’re right next to it.

We left Uluru about an hour before sunset and got taken to a great vantage point to have a glass of bubbles and some snacks and watch the sun go down, casting beautiful light onto the rock and turning it orange. 

Uluru sunset

That night we headed over to camp and our guide got the fire going. We got our swags ready by the fire and some of our fellow campers opted for the cabins. (A swag is a big canvas sleeping bag with a built-in bed roll to lie on. You put your normal sleeping bag inside and it protects you from the elements and gives extra warmth). After taking a stroll to look at the millions of visible stars, we headed back to camp to get our heads down.

Although we were in the middle of the desert and it was about 26 degrees in the daytime, it got a bit nippy at night and after the fire had gone out I woke up shivering around 3am and couldn’t get back to sleep. There was frost on the swags and we later found out that it had got down to -2 degrees. No way was I sleeping outside on the next night. 

Kata Tjuta, or The Olgas

Up early the next morning, we got ready to go to Kata Tjuta which is about 50km from Uluru. This is also known as The Olgas and is another massive rock formation, but is a series of rocks rather than one big one. Each of the large rocks has a name given by the Aboriginals, and this rock formation is another sacred Aboriginal site. It is not as well known as Uluru and there were fewer visitors there, but in some ways, it is more magnificent and beautiful than Uluru. 

Olgas

Our guide told us that the Aboriginal people had almost given up on Uluru and passed it to the tourists, on the proviso that they kept Kata Tjuta. This may be true – not much is advertised about this site. We decided to do the full trek through the rocks, which was around 7.5km but which was slightly harder going than Uluru as we had a bit of rock scrambling and climbing to do. The scenery and the views were gorgeous – we could see why it was kept a secret. 

Olgas

We had a long drive to our next camp which was close to Kings Canyon, about 200km from Kata Tjuta. This camp was as basic as the first one, if not more so, but that’s what it’s all about. As long as the beds are semi-comfortable and the fire is hot, that’s all that counts. 

Kings Canyon

We had an Aussie barbecue that night, complete with kangaroo steaks and a damper, which is a loaf of bush bread made by our guide, consisting of flour, water and some salt and garlic powder. Ours was a bit jazzy as the guide threw in a bit of the prosecco. Some pretty good tucker. 

We were invited to next door’s camp for a fireworks display which lasted all of 2 minutes, and after a glass of wine, we were ready for bed. We were in a cabin this time, although some people swagged it. I wangled an extra sleeping bag and a bedroll offered by our new German pal Michael (who’d stayed in the same Alice Springs hostel as us, and had his wallet nicked out of his room), so I was super comfortable. 

Kings Canyon

The final day, we headed off to King’s Canyon. This is another fantastic place where we had a bit of a walk. The first 500m was climbing steps but the rest of it was fairly easy going. We were warned to stay 3m from the edge as the cliff had been known to crumble. The canyon was amazing, we learned how the sea had formed it millions of years before, and we were able to see the wave marks on the rocks, and were shown the one fossil of a shell that had been found. We stopped at a place called the Garden of Eden, a serene spot next to a pool of water. 

Selfie time

All too soon our trip was over and we were headed back to Alice, to stay another night at our slummy hostel (pure luxury in comparison with camping though), before heading down to Adelaide for a night, then onto Melbourne.

 #uluru #kingscanyon #theolgas #katatjuta #ayersrock

Land down under part 1 - Western Australia and Adelaide

Perth and West Coast

We arrived in the land down under to gorgeous bright sunshine and not a cloud in the sky which was a nice surprise, seeing as it was the middle of winter. It didn’t last and by that afternoon it was cold, wet and windy in Perth. We were staying in the cheaper, Northbridge area of the city but were immediately struck by how much more expensive everything was in comparison with home and especially with Asia, when we were looking for somewhere for lunch as we headed to the hostel.

That night we met a colleague of mine for a meeting and he took us over to Subiaco, another cool part of the city for a curry and a drink. My first decent glass of wine for months, and the first curry since leaving India.

Perth

We went to Kings Park to see the city lights and the whispering wall, where you can stand at one end of the wall and whisper to someone at the other end… and yes, it worked. Great acoustics.

The next day we took the bus to Fremantle, a lovely harbour town about 40 minutes from the city, to get a boat across to Rottnest Island. We didn’t have very long in Fremantle before we had to get the ferry to the island so we grabbed a coffee and bought our tickets. $158 AUD for 2 of us return, we nearly choked on our coffee. The ferry ride was horrendous; when we weren’t panicking about drowning or being thrown overboard, we were trying not to vomit everywhere. I have never been on a choppier journey in my life.

Rottnest

Rottnest was discovered by the Dutch explorers in the 1600s and was called Rat’s nest, (Rottnest) because of the huge rats living there. These rats are actually quokkas, small, friendly marsupials that live on the island.

Quokka

When we arrived, we hired a bike and spent 3 hours cycling round the beautiful island and taking pics of the quokkas and the bright, exotic birds there. The weather didn’t improve until we had to leave and luckily the ferry was 3 times the size of the one we had come over on, so it was much smoother going back to ‘Freo’. We took the train back to the city as it was much quicker, and decided to go back to Fremantle on another day to explore it properly.

The next day we were up and out early as we were hiring a car and driving 2200 miles down to the most south-westerly point of Australia to a place called Augusta. This is where two oceans meet – the Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean. After stopping for some amazing fish and chips (they had to be good, we paid $50 for 2 portions and a pot of tea!) we visited the lighthouse at Cape Leeuwin.

Augusta

The lighthouse was opened in 1895 and has seen a lot of sea-faring activity, much of it tragic. It was probably not the best time to visit as the weather was dreadful, but up we went and saw some great views of the wild oceans from the top.

Both of us thought it might have been the lighthouse from ‘Round the Twist’ (remember that kids of the 80s/90s?!) but our guide told us that was over in Victoria.

Cape Leeuwin lighthouse

We drove through Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park, visiting the calcified waterwheel which was used to pump water to the lighthouse, and stopping at some ocean viewpoints to look for whales.

At sunset we decided to drive round town to spot some kangaroos. This was Baby D’s first trip to Oz and my third, although the previous 2 times were for work, so neither of us had seen a wild kangaroo. After driving in circles for an hour we finally found some kangaroos but by then it was too dark to see them properly, until 3 jumped out in the road in front of us causing us to make an emergency stop.

We decided to get up at sunrise to see them properly, and to set off early to Margaret River where we had booked to do a wineries tour with wine, cheese and chocolate tasting.

The next morning we soon found plenty of kangaroos including 2 huge guys boxing. These strange animals are actually real and are not made up by Australians just to get tourists to visit.

Fake animal

On the way up to Margaret River we saw a kangaroo lying in the road and at first we thought he was just chilling there, until we saw the bone sticking out of the back of his leg. He managed to drag himself closer to the side of the road and after we got over our histrionics and horror, we drove on a little way until we got phone signal and called the local wildlife rescue. Poor thing, I hope they found it, but I doubt they could do more than put it out of its misery. They would have come out if only to check for a joey in the pouch.

We soon found our accommodation in Margaret River but it was too early to check in so we went to get some breakfast and buy some food for dinner. We headed back to the hostel to wait for the tour bus to pick us up. 30 minutes after the arranged time and we still hadn’t been collected (we’d even seen the bus drive past our hostel), so we called the office, who informed us that our names weren’t on the list for the tour that day. The lady in the office actually came out to pick us up and dropped us at the winery where we met up with the rest of our group. We got a $40 discount and 3 bottles of wine for our trouble so it wasn’t all bad and we didn’t miss anything.

First winery on the tour

We visited 4 different wineries and sampled about 6 wines at each one, so we probably averaged a bottle of wine each throughout the course of the day. We also tried cheese, chocolate and nougat, along with some nougat liqueurs. We ended up at a brewery trying the beers and after that, our group headed to the pub where we stayed until about 1am.

We drove back to Perth the following day with heavy heads, via one of the caves on the eponymous Caves Road.

There are between 150 and 350 caves in this area, including the Jewel Cave, the Lake Cave and the Mammoth Cave. We had neither the time, energy or the money to do more than one - it was $22 for entry to one cave, although the price got cheaper if you wanted to see more of them.

Mammoth Cave

The Mammoth Cave was impressive, and interestingly (and the reason we wanted to see this one in particular), it was found to contain numerous animal bones of mega-fauna; huge creatures such as giant wombats, giant kangaroos, Australian lions and other weird and wonderful animals, many of which are long-extinct.

On the way to Perth we stopped at the Busselton Jetty, a 2km long wooden pier (the longest in the world apparently) which has an underwater observatory at the end, which is accessible on foot or by train. The observatory was closed, possibly due to poor visibility. This was probably a blessing in disguise as the entrance fee was $34 each.

Train along Busselton Jetty

On our last full day in Western Australia, we decided to visit Fremantle properly, so we booked a cruise along the Swan River, learning from the captain about the Swan Valley and stopping to see dolphins and pelicans in the river. The cruise reached Fremantle about an hour and a quarter later and we stopped to get some lunch before strolling over to the Round House.

Busselton Jetty

This building, the oldest in Western Australia, was originally a prison before the notorious Fremantle Prison was opened, and then a home for the police chief. Entrance was by donation. We then walked next door to the Shipwrecks Museum, a magnificent exhibition of shipwrecks and recovered items from the wrecks, stories of the tragedies at sea, and the history of the explorers and settlers. Entrance for this museum was also by donation, so another bargain.

Fremantle prison

 We walked through the town and finally reached the infamous Fremantle Prison. This was originally established for convicts from the Mother Land, shipped over from the British Isles to colonise the country. Punishments were harsh at first, and convicts were whipped with the cat-o-nine-tails frequently.

 Many convicts were sent to Australia for misdemeanours such as pig stealing, and although they may have eventually received a pardon or a ticket of leave, so they could work and marry, they were never able to return to their homeland. The convictions grew more serious over time, and the punishment more severe before new governors were put in charge who sought to reform the prisoners through art and education. The prison is now closed except as a museum and gallery of inmates’ work. It was also free to enter the courtyard and surrounding areas, but tours of the actual prison started from $21.

Our time in Western Australia was all too short and we are already planning to return to this stunning part of the world to dive at Ningaloo with the whale sharks, and to explore the Kimberley, a beautiful wild region in the north of Western Australia. On to Adelaide for a couple of days.

Adelaide arcade

Adelaide

As we were heading up to Uluru, (or Ayers Rock) via Alice Springs, we had to fly in and out of Adelaide so we took the opportunity to see the city of Adelaide and for me to have a meeting.

We didn’t have much time in the end, so we walked around the city centre and the botanic gardens. So nice to be able to afford a room with a private bathroom!




#perth #WA #rottnest #quokka #capeleeuwin #augusta #margaretriver #winetour #adelaide #freo #fremantle #cavesroad #busselton

In at the deep end in Indonesia

Lombok 

Not knowing a great deal about Lombok, we flew into Kuta and stayed there for a couple of nights. Kuta is in the south of the island and is apparently a mecca for surfers. 

View from Kuta Lombok beach

One of the livelier towns in Lombok, it was still very quiet but had several restaurants along the main road, all of which seemed to close around 10pm, but that may have been because it was still Ramadan. We hired a scooter and spent the day visiting some of the island’s waterfalls which were about an hour and a half away near a place called Praya. The journey was pretty painful (numb bum time) but very scenic. Lombok is much more untouched than its neighbour Bali, and tourism is still fairly low in comparison.

Waterfall in Lombok

When we got to the waterfalls, we paid to see all 5 that were open (I think there are 7 there but 2 were dry at the time). We had a local guide and we had to trek up and down through some jungle to get to all of them which we didn’t expect because as usual we had done very little research. We were able to swim/shower in all of the waterfalls if we wanted to but one was a 10m jump and we bottled it.

The next day we drove up to Senggigiin the East, to spend a night there, then to get a boat across to Gili Air, a small island off the coast of Lombok. Senggigi is another of the busier towns and I wouldn’t hurry back. It was convenient for the harbour to take the boat but every time I stepped foot outside of the hotel I was harassed and followed by persistent locals wanting to sell something. Baby D didn’t bother leaving the hotel until we left to take the boat, and maybe if he had been with me it wouldn’t have been so bad.

Loverly Lombok

 We had heard horror stories about people being ripped off when buying shuttle bus and boat tickets to the nearby Gili islands, and then being conned at the harbour by people taking their tickets and making them buy new ones, or guys snatching tourists’ luggage and demanding money for carrying it. We ended up paying 60,000 Rupiah each (£3) for a 45 minute shuttle bus and the boat to Gili Air and we had no hassle at the harbour. Maybe we look unapproachable. The boat ride was uneventful, it was a local boat full of vegetables, a few tourists and several local people, and the journey was about 25 minutes.

Boat from Lombok to Gili Air

I’ve made Lombok sound not too great, but it was nice, the scenery was beautiful and we liked the sleepy laidback vibe there. I wish we’d had a bit longer to get a better feel for the place.

Gili Air

Ah Gili Air, I miss you. What started as a 3 night booking soon turned into 7. Gili Air is one of a chain of three small islands off the coast of Lombok; the other two being Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan. Gili Meno is the quiet, honeymoon island, Trawangan is the party island and Air is somewhere in between. None of the islands has cars or scooters except e-scooters, and the usual way to travel is on foot, on a bicycle, or on a horse and cart. Gili Air is probably not much more than a kilometre long and about the same wide so we trudged up to our hotel with backpacks on rather than pay the extortionate £5 horse and cart fare. 

Gorgeous Gili Air at sunrise

There were loads of restaurants and bars along the way but we didn’t pass too many tourists. Our hotel was lovely, with the friendliest staff who even shared their iftar with me one night (their dinner to break their day’s Ramadan fasting) and we were a couple of minutes’ walk from the beach. 

Gili Air

We caught up with our pal Marina whom we’d met in Vietnam, then again in Kuala Lumpur. She’d been on the island for a few days doing a yoga retreat and she talked us into doing some yoga classes with her. I ended up doing 5 including a meditation class, and Baby D did 4, taking the opportunity to spend some ‘he’ time one morning, getting pissed on large Bintangs while we were at yoga. Our week on Gili mainly consisted of beach, swimming in the hotel pool, yoga, eating and drinking and watching sunsets and a couple of sunrises. Oh, and a bit of work chucked in for me. 

Gili Air beach

After off-loading a few kilos of our (my) crap onto Marina who I’m sure was regretting offering to take some stuff back to the UK for us, we said bon voyage to her, and Baby D and I went across to Gili Meno for the day to see what we were missing. We took the boat there and back for 70 Rupiah (£3.50) and the journey was around 20 minutes. When we got there, we headed straight down the beach to the turtle sanctuary where turtle eggs are collected and the babies are kept for a while until they are big enough to fend for themselves and released back into the wild. 

Baby turtles on Gili Meno

After that we walked to the lagoon in the centre of the island. We walked round the whole island (getting lost in the jungle for a while) before stopping for coffee which cost about £15 for 2. We spent the afternoon snorkelling and relaxing on the beach and looking for somewhere cheap for lunch. 

When we first arrived on Gili Meno we were a bit annoyed with ourselves for not spending a night or 2 there as it was beautiful. By the time we had walked the whole way round the island and seen the prices of food, we were glad we had stayed put on Gili Air. Food was much more expensive on Meno, probably because there was less choice, so less competition. 

Gili Meno beach

Reluctantly we had to say farewell to Gili Air as we were off to Amed in East Bali where I had signed up to do the PADI Open Water Divers’ course.

Bali, Amed

Amed is a well-known diving spot on the East coast of Bali and is actually a string of fishing villages. I had talked myself into doing the scuba diving course there and after some thought, Baby D decided not to do it with me. When we arrived at the dive centre Bali Diversity, the day before the 3 day programme started, to meet my instructor Mel and go over final details, Baby D changed his mind, deciding to do the course, and we were both nervous and excited about what was to come. 

Mel talked us into starting the course there and then, so we sat for 4 hours watching the video which went over all of the knowledge we needed to have for our final exam. The Open Water course is normally over 3 days, and ours included 4 dives and one session in the pool. We had to successfully carry out several practical exercises and on the final day we needed to take a 50 question multiple choice test.

Me and Baby D learning to dive

As soon as we arrived the following morning, we kitted up in wetsuits and we were off to the beach for the first dive. In at the deep end quite literally. We thought we’d be in the pool first, but no, that’s not how Mel does it and after instruction from her we were soon 5m down in the ocean. We swam around for 20 minutes or so finding our feet…or fins, and getting more at ease with being underwater and breathing through a regulator. 

We were both getting the hang of it fairly well until I inflated my BCD to go up a tiny bit (buoyancy control device which is like a waistcoat that you can inflate/deflate to adjust buoyancy), the button got stuck and I shot straight up to the surface. That was a bit scary on my first dive in 9 years, because we had already talked about the dangers of decompression sickness (the bends) when not going up slowly enough. Luckily we weren’t too deep and decompression sickness is not really an issue at that depth. Trust me to get the dodgy gear! (NB this was not because of poor quality kit, this could have happened to anyone and I have since spoken to a few divers who've had it happen to them!) Not part of the course, but after that, Mel made sure we knew exactly what to do in the unlikely event it happened again.

Undeterred, we headed off to the pool to practise removing and putting back our gear in case we got entangled under the sea; taking off and putting on our weight belts safely; and the tasks that every novice diver hates - emptying a mask full of water, and the ‘no-mask’ swim. Baby D had the water-filled mask down pat, but on my first attempt and missing the point completely, I tried to drown myself. I soon mastered it after that. 

The no-mask swim was a case of mind over matter. We had to sit underwater and slowly remove and then replace our masks, which would obviously be full of water by then, so we had to get rid of the water too. Once we had got that sorted, we did it all again but with a maskless swim chucked in the middle. Baby D, who had earlier easily removed his mask underwater without being told to, struggled a bit under pressure, but we were soon quite comfortable with it.

Amed sunset

We did 4 amazing dives (not counting the aborted dive when I broke the air nozzle), including the Liberty shipwreck, and the Coral Garden where there is a statue of a reclining Buddha. The day before the test we did a mock exam, and it was obvious we needed more revision, but we sailed through the test and that was it, we were qualified to dive together (and even without an instructor if we wanted to), to a depth of 18m. It was an amazing experience and we can’t wait for the next dive. 

Legian

Legian surf

Onto Legian for our last 2 nights in Bali, and in fact our last 2 nights in Asia. We’d been to Legian, a lively beach area near to the airport before, and it was an easy couple of days. We spent a couple of hours on the beach on our last day, I got another tattoo and my hair cut and we were soon off to the airport to fly to Perth in Western Australia. Both of us were sad to say goodbye to Asia as it was our home for 7 months, but new adventures await on a new continent. 

#indonesia #lombok #kutalombok #diving #padiopenwater #balidiversity #amed #libertyshipwreck #coralgardenbali #legian #giliair #h2oyoga

 #gilimenoturtlesanctuary

Beautiful Borneo

Borneo
 

We left HK and took a 3 hour flight straight to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo where we settled into our hotel. The next day we had a think about what we wanted to do there. We don’t tend to plan too far in advance as quite often plans change when a better idea/excursion comes up, or the opposite happens and we don’t like somewhere, plus we are going to so many different places, it would be too much to plan too far in advance. We had organised to go to Sepilok on the other side of Borneo to do a 2 night camping trip in the jungle, but apart from that we were fairly flexible. 

On our first full day in Borneo, we walked around the city of Kota Kinabalu, had some lunch by the harbourfront and sorted out a tour for the following day to a couple of the islands off the coast. Baby D had his hair cut and we headed back to the hotel so that I could do some work. 

Sapi

Early the next morning we headed down to Jesselton Point where the boats to the islands leave from. We had booked to go to the island of Sapi to do some snorkelling, and then later to Manukan to relax on the beach in the afternoon. We had hired a lifejacket, a mask and a snorkel and after faffing around trying to find where to pick them up because our place was closed, we were off in a speedboat. The boat ride took around 20 minutes to get to Sapi and we were soon merrily snorkelling round the island. We spent a couple of hours there and the snorkelling was fantastic. We were then picked up and transferred over to Manukan, about 15 minutes’ away where we snorkelled a bit more and lazed around on the beach for a couple of hours. 

Snorkelling in Sapi

The day after, we woke up early and went down to Padang Merdeka, which is the main square to take a bus to other parts of Borneo. We were heading to Kinabalu Park, famous for the 4095m mountain, Mt Kinabalu. We found a mini-van to take us, along with 7 or 8 other people. We got the last 2 seats on the bus and we left as soon as our bags were put onboard. The bus cost us 25 Ringgit, about £5 and the journey was approx. 2 hours. The bus only goes once it’s full, and some of the other passengers had been waiting about an hour to leave so we were lucky to go straight away.

A lot of people go to the Park to climb the mountain, but you have to go on an organised tour which is fairly expensive (200 Ringgit) and you need to be there before 10am to join the tour. We found out that the first bus goes before 7am so it is definitely possible to get there before 10 to start the trek on the same day – depending on how full the buses are of course. We decided to walk round the park on our own as we knew there were several trails you could take. Once we’d arrived, we found our hotel which was about 1.5km from the Park’s entrance and once we arrived at the Park we asked for some advice on the best trails. We set off on what we were told was the most popular trail. After about 500m the path was blocked and there was a sign saying that the trail was closed. So we turned back along the path towards a spot where the path split and where it was possible to take a different trail. After another 500m mostly uphill, this path was also blocked, by some fallen trees this time, so back we went again. 

Trail in Kinabalu Park

The route through the park were beautiful; we were in the jungle, tramping through mud, avoiding big puddles and spotting plants and wildlife, not that we saw many animals apart from butterflies and other insects. As well as falling over and spraining my ankle, it was frustrating to have to keep turning back when the trails were closed and we could hear the road from most of the trails. We got onto our final trail which was about 3km long and the most difficult one we’d experienced as we were trekking through a cloud and it was fairly steep.

Another trail in Kinabalu Park

Just when we thought we were lost, we found the road and assumed we were almost at the end of the last trail. Until we saw a sign saying that the rest of it was closed. By this stage there was no way we were going back on ourselves so we walked round the sign and carried on the hike. 5 minutes later we could see the road; about 5metres below us with no access to it. We realised then why the trail was closed, it just stopped suddenly and there was a drop down to the road with several trees and bushes in the way. I thought it was impassable and we would have to traipse 3km back in the other direction through the cloud on a sprained ankle, but Baby D aka Indiana Jones managed to shimmy down a tree and I followed him, both of us landing on the road just as a police car drove past. 

Back at the hotel we met a couple of girls from the Philippines and they told me that they were heading to Kota Kinabalu on the following day and had planned to go to Sapi, the small island where we’d gone snorkelling the day before. They asked us if we had done the zipline to Gaya, another island nearby. We obviously hadn’t because it was the first we’d heard of it and how gutted were we! So if anyone reading this ever goes to Borneo, check it out! I hear the zipline is nearly 300m long.

The next day we were back to Kota Kinabalu and once we arrived in the centre we went straight to the airport from Padang Merdeka, which cost us just 5 Ringgit each (£1 each). We had a flight to Sandakan, on the east side of the island where stayed one night in the town before heading to Sepilok as we were doing a 3 day, 2 night jungle adventure and our tour company’s ‘ops base’ was there. 

Mt Kinabalu

Sepilok is a town around 26km from Sandakan, where there is an orangutan rehabilitation centre and a sun bear centre. We were dropped off at Uncle Tan’s ops base which is actually a B&B and once we’d left our bags there, we jumped in their mini-van to go to the 2 animal sanctuaries. We spent a couple of hours in each, and both were amazing experiences. We saw about 6 orangutans playing in the nursery and at 10am we went across to the feeding platform where we saw one orangutan eating, and loads of baboons nicking the food. After we headed away from the feeding area along one of the walkways, we were greeted by the same orangutan that had been eating. He was about 3 feet in front of us and one of the rangers told us to wait until he was ahead of us, and then we followed him for about 100m. That was a really special experience because it’s quite unusual to get that close to them. 

Orangutan in the sanctuary

In fact there is a sign up that said it’s not always possible to see any there, although I think it’s really rare and bad luck not to see any. The numbers of orangutan in Borneo have been vastly depleted over the past 40 years, mainly due to the deforestation of the land to make way for palm trees, grown for their cheap palm oil which goes into virtually everything these days. It was sad to see the countryside being changed and the huge numbers of palm trees everywhere. The orangutan rehab centre helps sick or injured animals get back to health and they are released back into the wild. It also helps orphaned orangutans and looks after them until they are big enough to fend for themselves.

Just across the road was the sun bear centre where they look after sick and injured bears and we spotted several roaming around from the viewing deck. As we were leaving, we spotted a woman that I recognised from somewhere, and when I mentioned it to Baby D he immediately told me she looked like Dragons’ Den’s Sarah Willingham but he was sure it wasn’t actually her. When she walked past us with her family, Baby D asked her if she was who I thought she was, and she confirmed it. It was a bit random to see a dragon in the jungle but we chatted to her for about 20 minutes about our travels (she’d been travelling the world for a year with 4 kids in tow) and she was a lovely lady.

Sun bear in the sanctuary

We headed back to the orangutan centre to watch a video about the work done there, then we got picked up by our tour company and dropped back at ops base for lunch. Along with a fellow tourist, Matt from Australia, we waited a while for a family of 5 that was also booked on the tour. They never materialised, so just the 3 of us jumped in a mini-van to go to the camp along Kinabatangan River.

The journey took about an hour and a half, and we stopped beside the river and got on a small motor boat to go to the camp. The boat ride was over an hour, with a couple of stops along the way to spot wildlife in the jungle along the river. Our guide Otto pointed out several species of bird, including egrets, eagles and kingfishers, along with the jungle mafia – baboons and long tailed macaques. The real jewel in the crown though was the wild orangutan and her baby. I can’t describe how amazing it was to see that sight.

Our cabin at Uncle Tan's

When we got to camp we were greeted by the other staff, and there were about 10 guys working there, for 3 tourists. We found out that the river had flooded the camp the week before and that water levels were still very high. Our cabin was the first one we saw in a row of about 15, and only one of two that wasn’t surrounded by water. The cabin was very basic, which we had expected. There were no doors or windows and the beds were a couple of thin, dirty mattresses on the floor with a mosquito nest. Opposite the cabin was the restaurant and this was guarded by a friendly cat who we later discovered was a vicious killing machine.

Our bedroom

Once we had settled in, we were told about the activities we were going to do over the next few days. We had a couple of hours of free time before we went out on the first activity which was a night boat tour to spot wildlife. We were impressed with our guide Otto who was able to navigate the boat and spot animals, and we saw some sleeping proboscis monkeys and some owls. We joined the staff for a singalong while we had dinner and they shared their rice wine with us. 

The camp’s generator was usually switched on between 6pm and midnight but because of the high water levels, for security reasons they kept it on until 3.30am. That meant no sleep for me as my bed faced the restaurant and the lights were full blast all night. I finally dozed off and about 5 minutes later we had our 5.45am wake up call to go for the morning boat ride.

Kinabatangan River

We saw plenty of wildlife on that boat ride, including more of the jungle mafia, a variety of different birds and another couple of orangutans in the trees, again a fantastic sight.

In the afternoon, Otto took us for a jungle hike, pointing out different plants and their uses, including which ones were edible, especially if we ever got lost in the jungle. The hike wasn’t much fun at first because of the number of mosquitoes and the amount of mud and mini lakes we had to wade through, but once I stopped whining like a little girl, it was interesting.

After lunch, we were joined by 5 other tourists and we went out on another night tour with their guide. We missed out on the night jungle walk because of the weather, which I was secretly a bit glad about. Baby D stayed behind to get drunk on rice wine with the staff because that’s the point of a jungle tour obviously. 

Because we didn’t get great pictures on the previous night cruise, I didn’t bother taking a camera. What a wally. This different guide, Em, went right up to the shore and drove the boat right through the trees. We got up close and personal with a kingfisher and a photo would have come out brilliantly. If I’d had a camera. We saw tiny frogs floating past on logs and several owls too. Back at camp we rejoined the rest of the staff and a drunk Baby D for our nightly singalong and rice wine. I had moved my bed to darker part of the cabin and I slept much better apart from Baby D’s drunken snores.

Footy

We were up at 6am for our last cruise, spying more birds, proboscis monkeys and the usual suspects; the jungle mafia. The new tourists still hadn’t seen a wild orangutan so I hoped they did after we left. After breakfast, the boys had a game of football to sweat off the previous night’s rice wine against the staff (who had 3 subs) and after the girls finally stopped the clock once the tourists were in the lead, we got ready to go back to reality.

Back in Sandakan, Baby D bad I had just enough energy to go the launderette and grab some food, then it was an early night for us before our 9+ hour journey down to Lombok in Indonesia – country number 10.

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