Mt Kinabalu - Mountain Biking - White Water Rafting - Scuba Diving

The next 10 days, 6 of which were activity based and the rest were wholesomely greeted with feet up in hot-springs, and chasing away the agony of the previous amazing sights we had seen.

The team, Shannon Baker a 22yr old Residential Youth Worker and damn good at her chosen career. Selena Rudge a 26yr old Professional women's rugby player and Businesswoman. The Challenge, to climb Mt Kinabalu, cycle the Crocker Range(200km), white water rafting down the river Padas(grade 3's and 4's) and to top it all off a couple of hours Scuba diving across the water by boat to a little island just down the way. All set by "The Children Today Charitable Trust" aiding children with communication equipment and mobilising equipment fitted to their needs.

Can you imagine…………..being surrounded in complete skyline 6am in the morning,to see the most amazing sunrise sitting on the summit of Mt Kinabalu. Yes, the wind is biting at your face your hands, fast cooling down from the torturous accent following in the path of my team-mate who was 1st to the summit, meanwhile ape walking and cramping calves allowed me a good 4th. Especially if you are an individual who insists on holding on to a rope that marks the way to go and no-one tells you that you can stand upright and walk like the apes…..Hssshahahaha I was one of the ones who learnt how to walk upright again. Suffering from a good bout of nausea, not realising it might have something to do with the altitude, soldiering on. Following my team-mate, we attack the descent as we knew we had too. The nightmare begins……………………..knees, knees, knees, knees, knees. Shannon was brilliant encouraging me, I had thrown my toys out somewhere near the summit. She was consistent….then, Laban Rata a hostel 2km from the summit.

Another touch of nausea, sleep and up and off….the 1st 3km down were a jolly, but only as we thought we were nearer the bottom and our beds. We stopped for nothing, except to read one of the marker signs…. You got it 2 and a1/2 hrs later only 3km down it had taken us 3hrs 45mins to get to Laban Rata. We thought we were near. No such luck. Cursing, cussing, and water bottles being thrown about, to the amusement of our newly met friends Sue from Stroud, and Malcolm from Scotland.

Not only is all this happening, the weather decides to have a laugh as well, (let's just drop a load of water on this lot, just to see how they deal with it). There weren't any bottles flying, but if you were a fly on the walls of my mind in that moment you could be forgiven for thinking I have a filthy mouth.
The final leg, I really didn't care by that stage, which I find humouring myself, upon coming to the end result and I wasn't as elated as I 'd hoped to be….."Mt Kinabalu never got the last laugh"!………..I got home to Rose Cabin, massaged Shannon, vice versa, stretched. Had a little sing on the karaoke, and went to bed and slept like a baby, and woke up as stiff as a board. - I got my shoes on determined not to let Mt K get the better of me and went for a 30-40min undulating hill run to rid myself of the lactic acid that had gathered in the sleeping hours, felt great at the time.

Not long after the run we were gathering ourselves on to the bus to make our way to Poring Hot Springs. This little gem of a place was as busy as a small village in Xmas time. We all had perfectly good reasons for sitting in the 2-3 person baths for hours on end, we couldn't get out of them. "Mt Kinabalu was winning". The pain in every individual was immense. I was determined and even played footie with our beloved Liverpudlians, the Scotsmen, Naydene, and myself, against the locals (they were fully kitted out). Didn't understand playing the ball with my feet much less using my head as an object of attack by doing headers, that gives you headaches. After slagging off the ref in true British style, we lost to the much fitter and less verbal team (what a surprise!). Dinner was now the focus, and after dinner it was back the baths where the hot water runs straight off the spring, accompanied by a fresh cold running water spring.

All adjustments made, and we are away. Everyone excited, 30mins into the ride, all excitement replaced by thoughts of what did I think I was going to achieve by doing this….hahahaha laughing now. I really enjoyed the bike ride, the hill climbs were mind breaking, descents were exhilarating. - Just to let you know I drive quite conservatively (how British), riding this bike very quickly downward was brilliant. I would do it all again, just to go down the hills. Fantastic.

Shannon and I started at the back of the pack, and worked our way forward gradually, our fitness levels and natural adaptation to the heat was a bonus. Our new acquaintances found the heat a challenge, (20-30+ years in Britain, the Borneo temperature was over heating a few cockles...) an absolutely brilliant challenge, not easy by any chance of the imagination. 1st day of cycling over it seemed nothing could be worst than that, upon self inspection high levels of pain in areas I didn't think there could be. How do the real competitors do it, day in day out and keep up all the other human luxuries. Power to them, I say.

The hostel was great, a few lizards, cockroaches that's all I saw. If you do as the Romans do, this place was fantastic, Tenom's best. However, add an in-pain British individual who wants a real shower that isn't 2 in 1 with the ablutions (squatty) moan moan moan. Humorous, once you add pain to a human, the comforts of home in a foreign country are very, very far away.

2nd day, the group had sorted itself into the real women and men. Shannon and I were a part of the leading group. There was some great banter going on, more so from the blokes. The rest of the girls were really supportive with Shannon and me... The 1st leg of the journey was to KFC, but first 20km of undulating hills, fairly easy. Again everyone took off, my team mate included, however after KFC, there was a catch. I would say a 45-55 degree gradient upward, one by one I passed them all, even the lead cyclist George, (Scotsman with a tattoo on his bum). This day was supposed to be easier, my gluteus maximus. Up, down, up, up up, down, right down to the last minute it was challenging.

Finally, the last 20-30km (undulating…became a bit of a joke really) lunch over and done with, back on the road again. I changed bikes I had stinky bike, and now ………..SUPER MOUNTAIN BIKE. Ally-girl, bless her cotton socks, 'do it for the girls' she said. Again every one took off in a flurry, one by one, passing each individual with a smile and encouragement, even had a little race with one of the guys. Nothing like a bit of competition to stir the passion of doing the best I could. Riding the flat roads it looks like we are nearly done, hahhahaha, turning the corner and there is another 45-55 degree hill, the only difference from the previous hill climbs is that its tarmac. Strategy, 50 paces, 50 pedal strokes was the only way I was able to get to the top. The last 15meters, I raced Drew for 2nd and gave him a bit of a shock to be pushed at the last minute. He was able to keep 2nd and I took 3rd for playing the advocate. Absolute invigoration, I have never been so grateful to walk, however cowboyish. I did enjoy this challenge; I proved to me I could do it.

The Hotel was at the top of this hill, a drink of juice, and back to the finish line to greet the others on completion of the 2nd challenge. There were some faces, grumpy hot and bothered. Then there's Shannon always a smile on her dial. She too was grateful to dismount, hugs, and commiserations all round. Everyone was exhausted, and exhilarated a bond was starting to develop.

Memories of the bike ride quickly disappeared, a nice hot bath, a bit of telly, and a meal. Our Mr Motivator decided that we should all sit boy, girl, boy, girl so we can get to know each other a bit better, it was a great idea. I sat next to Mr Motivator and when it was time to leave the table for the bar, I knew I had met a person I would like to acquire some of his attributes for business. He was MR MOTIVATOR…….

Off to the bar on the hotel's estate. The home people love Karaoke, it's everywhere. So we sang, many people drank and looked very green in the morning. We made our way to the train station and onto the Rafting site. I was a bit quieter this morning, clippity clap, clippity clap, wafting cigarette smoke. Snap, Snap photos being taken. The scenery was gorgeous, huge black rocks, lumps of coal big enough for the giant in the story of Jack and the beanstalk. All this jungle surrounding us, murky waters of the river Padas. Surreal……….

The train is slowing up now, we must be arriving at our stop. There's a feeling of anxious anticipation in the group, many of whom have only briefly rafted or never before. The guides usher us to the safety equipment and get us moving down to the beginning point, we arrange ourselves into groups and now we are put on the water, once safety feature measures were said.

The river was fantastic, got the adrenalin going, bouncing around the boulders and rapids, a few members of our boat went over. One dragged over, went in okay come out looking like death warmed up (swallowed river water, eewww!). There was one other who went in who was intent on drowning himself and others, (talk about paybacks). John fell out of his boat, and we tried to rendezvous with him to pick him up. What does he do, he goes under our 5-8meter raft while we all have a sudden sense of panic, Shannon jumps in to save him so does one of our guides, we drag him on board. His boat members then forget him for the rest of the journey, that was okay, we told him if he feels unsteady himself, don't pull anyone else in with him he followed exactly that and we extracted him from the water about 3 times thereafter.

Before you knew it, we were very close to the end and lunch. Food, I love to eat, ask anyone who knows me, I graze. After lunch we had a few hours spare, a small group of us went down to the fresh water, waterfall. Sunning ourselves not talking about anything in particular. What we did encounter was a whopping huge water spider that liked to eat the bugs that lived there. I screamed a bit, it gave me a fright more than anything. (What a girl…).

Back on the train again with the locals, tried out the Japanese's sweet food, rice in a 3D pyramid shape with a sweet peanut sauce, lovely. Filled the need, I was starving. Shannon and I were also having an amusing conversation with one of the medics whose English was pretty good, and he had ambitions!

Finally our stop, but it wasn't over yet. Our last few nights were going to be in the best hotel in KotaKinabalu, KK for short. Once the train journey was over, we were packed into a van with English speaking Malaysian dj's, who were very comical, our van was full of laughs. Me two Julies, were on the van as well, 2 mad Scotsmen joined at the hip, nicknamed after Ali G's me two Julies, and the Julies from the programme Bad Girls.
2 hours later, we arrive at our hotel. Luxurious, was not the word. Style, the rooms were lush. You could watch telly from the bath room, you could even turn the volume up in the shower. The food to die for, Indian, Japanese, Malaysian, as many helpings as you like. Desserts, and some ice-cream you have to have acquired taste buds. "Sweet corn, and beef ice-cream", I very near vomited on the Julies while they laughed at my misfortune.

This night there were a few parties 444, and down at the bar. Other than that not much else.

Tomorrow, scuba diving.........

The fish were pretty, many different colours, such a gorgeous personal world.
Everyone had a brilliant time, those hung-over and all. On our way back to the mainland, we were pelted with raindrops no bigger than plum pips, as our captain put his pedal to the metal the plum pips left bruises. Me joolies had a crack or two up their sleeves. On the mainland the rain never let up, I don't think it stopped for a good 24 hours. It was the beginning of the monsoon season. Just another of nature's signs letting us know that we are mere mortals.

Home now, the Hotel Sutera 5 star, absolutely Grande, recommend it to anyone who's in the area.
Shopping today, a day on from the scuba diving, serious serious shopping. Tonight is the night everyone gets dressed up in their stunners' kit, I turned up in a pair of jeans (my fav's) and a tee shirt I liked, 90% of the room had made an effort. YOU have to tell a rugby player to dress up otherwise they could turn up in any attire (which I did). It was okay though, my biceps and I didn't want to make an appearance anyway - hahahahahaha!
The wine flowed, and so did a few other things (no names)…. I exited early I am the professional light weight, cheap date though, likes: Indian, Italian, Japanese.
My roomie stepped out for a boogie and farewells - she was away 2pm that morning and I went to bid her farewell and safe journey…..away she flew (flap, flap, luggage and all…hehehehehe).

Last day flying out late in afternoon, mixed feelings really, yes I want to get home, yes would love to hang a bit…I found a friend that day Ali-guy, another Scotsman, has a huge love for dogs, and his partner.

Our flight home, long and long. I met another friend and now business partner Angela. In my heart a great experience, with many great personalities. I have only mentioned a few, there is still bits and bobs I would like to add, however go and make your own experiences, and opportunities.

Selena

Click "Kite" to find out more about the Overseas Challenge Events!