David M. Byrne
Well-Known Member
Hello once again,
If I’m being honest I wasn't really expecting much out of Sabah, the northernmost of the two Malaysian states found on the island of Borneo; it’s the only location I’ve travelled on this trip so far which I wasn't familiar with. Borneo, the third largest island in the world (after Greenland & New Guinea), conjures up images of the unknown; it is synonymous with dense, unexplored jungles & undiscovered wildlife. Sabah has two main attractions, Mount Kinabalu & the Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre, both of which are well known (well known by Borneo standards at least). They didn't disappoint which I guess means Borneo didn't disappoint either. I spent my time here torturing myself on the aforementioned mountain, standing sweating profusely in a jungle pointing my zoom lens at orangutans & skulking around markets. It was fun. Hot & sweaty fun. Here’s a selection of 6 pictures from the last week, covering week 16, days 108-115, of Mave On The Move.
Picture 98, Day 108 – Food Market, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. June 21st 2012
Aside from the one night I spent on Mount Kinabalu & the two nights I spent in Sepilok, the bulk of my time in Sabah was spent in Kota Kinabalu (KK), the Sabah capital. It's a nice enough place - there just isn't all that much to see or do. Oh, and it's hot. Very hot. I took cover most days, sheltering myself from the daytime temperatures so photo opportunities in the city itself were limited. Any pictures I did capture in KK seemed to be in or around markets, especially the evening food market on the KK waterfront. It's a hive of steamy activity & a great place to bring a camera. I paid it a visit on two separate occasions (once with my Tamron lens & again with my 50mm prime) and the above picture was my favourite capture from those two visits.
Picture 99, Day 109 – Sunset Volleyball on Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. June 22nd 2012
Day 110 of the trip saw me standing on the summit of Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak in Borneo. It’s a pretty big lump of rock or, more precisely, a pretty big granite massif, a block of the earth's crust bounded by faults and shifted to form peaks of a mountain range. It's highest point tops out at a 4,095m (13,436ft) which, by mountain standards, isn't all that high (in comparison Everest, the Grand Daddy of them all, tops out at 8,848m (29.029ft)). But try telling the thousands who huff & puff their way to the summit every year that Mount Kinabalu isn't high. The 8.75km climb from the starting point at 1,866m (6,122ft) to the summit is uphill the whole way; it’s unrelentingly steep & you find yourself either walking up steep rock steps (until about the 7k mark) or on bare granite (the last 1.75k), with areas nearing the summit where you need the assistance of ropes to scale granite slops (I can think of better things to be doing in darkness & rain at 4am). As well as myself I, of course, lugged my camera and a few lenses up there when, in hindsight, only one was needed – my wide-angle. The walk up & down Mt. Kinabalu is a well-trodden 17.5km. It’s a 2-day affair (although it could be done in 1 torturous days hiking). The first day sees climbers walk the 6km from the start of the trail up... up... up to an area of huts & rest houses where the majority of climbers halt for the night (& are glad to do so). Having set out at 09:00 on day 1 I reached my accommodation at 12:20 meaning I had the afternoon to take in the scenery &, of course, take a few pictures. At this height (3,273m (10,738ft)) I was well above the cloud line & the sea of clouds spread out over Borneo below was beautiful. I captured this picture of a volleyball game at sunset just outside my rest house. The sunset was a truly wonderful sight & as it turned out was a much better spectacle than sunrise from the summit the following morning.
Picture 100, Day 110 – Reaching the Summit of Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. June 23rd 2012
Picture 100. On day 2 I started walking again - as did, seemingly, the whole world - at 03:00. I reached the summit at 05:20. The walk from the rest house to the summit is only 2.75km but altitude, complete darkness, a narrow trail & a seemingly endless line of fellow climbers means it can take anywhere from 2 to 4+ hours. I reached the summit about 40 minutes before the sun showed up & for those 40 minutes I sat there fighting the cold & taking extended exposure pictures of the scene back along the trail I’d just walked. This is an 8-second exposure, taken at 05:35 from the summit, Low’s Peak, named after Sir Hugh Low, a Brit who was the first man to scale the mountain back in 1851. The picture shows Borneo, stretching out far below, as it wakes to another day & fellow climbers making the last scramble to join me on the summit at 4,095m (13,436ft). I’ve been higher on land (both the La Lung Pass in Tibet (5,050m/16,550ft) & Mouna Kea in Hawaii (4,205m/13,796ft) are higher) but I had never before walked to a higher point on the earth’s surface.
Picture 101, Day 110 – Mount Kinabalu Vista, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. June 23rd 2012
Although it’s hard to appreciate standing on the bare granite that marks the mountains upper reaches, Mount Kinabalu is actually a botanical paradise, designated a Centre of Plant Diversity as well as a UNESCO-listed heritage site, Malaysia’s first. The summit overlooks the mysterious abyss of the mile-deep Low’s Gully. Due to its isolation & difficulty to reach it wasn't explored by man until 1994 & only as recently as 1998 did an expedition return from exploring its depths with several newly discovered species of plants & insects. This is a picture of 2 climbers standing on the granite expanse near the summit of Mount Kinabalu, not too far from the gully. The rays of light breaking through the clouds below (bottom-right of the frame) was a beautiful sight. For the record my total climbing time for the 17.5k trek was 8 hours, 40 minutes: 5 hours & 40 minutes to summit & 3 hours to descend. That’s a good time but is nothing compared to the record of a little under 2 hours, 40 minutes. That’s the current time to beat in what is dubbed the World’s Toughest Mountain Race (1 hour 40 minutes up & 1 hour down). Walking is taxing enough so it’s hard to believe anyone would WANT to run up & down Mount Kinabalu let alone clock a time of sub 3 hours doing so. Kudos indeed… but not much time to enjoy the stunning vistas.
Note: See more pictures of my assault on Mount Kinabalu & a more detailed/verbose write-up as posted to my Mount Kinabalu photography blog entry.
Picture 102, Day 111 – Sunday Market, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. June 24th 2012
The day after returning from my mountain hike was physically taxing; I could barely move (& tried not to)! Every morsel of bone, cartilage & mussel in my battered legs ached. Needless to say I didn't venture too far from the sanctuary of my air-conditioned Kota Kinabalu guesthouse on this day. But I still took photos. Luckily for me the street right outside the guesthouse was turned into a craft market (as it is every Sunday). I sat in the stairwell of the guesthouse pointing my camera out the window taking overhead pictures of market goers weaving in and out of the shadows cast by the market stalls. I found it very photogenic & knew exactly the kind of picture i wanted (& I waited around a long time to get it).
Picture 103, Day 113 – Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. June 26th 2012
When the post-Mount Kinabalu hurt had subsided it was time to drive the 6 hours from Kota Kinabalu to Sepilok on Sabah’s east coast. People come here, to Sepilok’s Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, to look at orangutans... & I was no different. Gentle & shy in nature, sightings of these amazing creatures in the wild are rare. They are, along with gorillas, chimpanzees and baboons, one of the 4 great apes and the only one to live outside Africa - they are found only in the rain forests of Sumatra, Indonesia, and here in Borneo. Their distinctive hair is typically reddish-brown, instead of the brown or black hair typical of chimpanzees and gorillas. They are the most solitary of the great apes, with social bonds occurring primarily between mothers and their dependent offspring, who stay together for the first two years. Of course they are considered 'endangered' with - surprise, surprise - human activities having decimated their numbers. This sanctuary started in 1964 for the rehabilitation of orphaned baby orang-utans and today the 4,500 hectares of virgin jungle designated to the reserve make it the largest of its kind in the world.
Note: See more pictures from my visit to the orangutan sanctuary as posted to my orangutans photography blog entry.
What’s Next?
A return to very familiar pastures. For the next 8 weeks I’ll be putting the trip on hold. I’ll be returning to South Korea to tend to summer work commitments (I have to pay for this somehow). But fear not – I’ll still be photographing and will still be filing Mave On The Move entries for RPF. I may not be movin’ for a few months but I will be photographing.
Until next time.
David M
dMb Travel: Don’t forget you can keep up to date on my present whereabouts by visiting the dedicated Travel page of my photography blog, a page I set up specifically to chronicle my trip.
If I’m being honest I wasn't really expecting much out of Sabah, the northernmost of the two Malaysian states found on the island of Borneo; it’s the only location I’ve travelled on this trip so far which I wasn't familiar with. Borneo, the third largest island in the world (after Greenland & New Guinea), conjures up images of the unknown; it is synonymous with dense, unexplored jungles & undiscovered wildlife. Sabah has two main attractions, Mount Kinabalu & the Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre, both of which are well known (well known by Borneo standards at least). They didn't disappoint which I guess means Borneo didn't disappoint either. I spent my time here torturing myself on the aforementioned mountain, standing sweating profusely in a jungle pointing my zoom lens at orangutans & skulking around markets. It was fun. Hot & sweaty fun. Here’s a selection of 6 pictures from the last week, covering week 16, days 108-115, of Mave On The Move.
Picture 98, Day 108 – Food Market, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. June 21st 2012
Aside from the one night I spent on Mount Kinabalu & the two nights I spent in Sepilok, the bulk of my time in Sabah was spent in Kota Kinabalu (KK), the Sabah capital. It's a nice enough place - there just isn't all that much to see or do. Oh, and it's hot. Very hot. I took cover most days, sheltering myself from the daytime temperatures so photo opportunities in the city itself were limited. Any pictures I did capture in KK seemed to be in or around markets, especially the evening food market on the KK waterfront. It's a hive of steamy activity & a great place to bring a camera. I paid it a visit on two separate occasions (once with my Tamron lens & again with my 50mm prime) and the above picture was my favourite capture from those two visits.
Picture 99, Day 109 – Sunset Volleyball on Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. June 22nd 2012
Day 110 of the trip saw me standing on the summit of Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak in Borneo. It’s a pretty big lump of rock or, more precisely, a pretty big granite massif, a block of the earth's crust bounded by faults and shifted to form peaks of a mountain range. It's highest point tops out at a 4,095m (13,436ft) which, by mountain standards, isn't all that high (in comparison Everest, the Grand Daddy of them all, tops out at 8,848m (29.029ft)). But try telling the thousands who huff & puff their way to the summit every year that Mount Kinabalu isn't high. The 8.75km climb from the starting point at 1,866m (6,122ft) to the summit is uphill the whole way; it’s unrelentingly steep & you find yourself either walking up steep rock steps (until about the 7k mark) or on bare granite (the last 1.75k), with areas nearing the summit where you need the assistance of ropes to scale granite slops (I can think of better things to be doing in darkness & rain at 4am). As well as myself I, of course, lugged my camera and a few lenses up there when, in hindsight, only one was needed – my wide-angle. The walk up & down Mt. Kinabalu is a well-trodden 17.5km. It’s a 2-day affair (although it could be done in 1 torturous days hiking). The first day sees climbers walk the 6km from the start of the trail up... up... up to an area of huts & rest houses where the majority of climbers halt for the night (& are glad to do so). Having set out at 09:00 on day 1 I reached my accommodation at 12:20 meaning I had the afternoon to take in the scenery &, of course, take a few pictures. At this height (3,273m (10,738ft)) I was well above the cloud line & the sea of clouds spread out over Borneo below was beautiful. I captured this picture of a volleyball game at sunset just outside my rest house. The sunset was a truly wonderful sight & as it turned out was a much better spectacle than sunrise from the summit the following morning.
Picture 100, Day 110 – Reaching the Summit of Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. June 23rd 2012
Picture 100. On day 2 I started walking again - as did, seemingly, the whole world - at 03:00. I reached the summit at 05:20. The walk from the rest house to the summit is only 2.75km but altitude, complete darkness, a narrow trail & a seemingly endless line of fellow climbers means it can take anywhere from 2 to 4+ hours. I reached the summit about 40 minutes before the sun showed up & for those 40 minutes I sat there fighting the cold & taking extended exposure pictures of the scene back along the trail I’d just walked. This is an 8-second exposure, taken at 05:35 from the summit, Low’s Peak, named after Sir Hugh Low, a Brit who was the first man to scale the mountain back in 1851. The picture shows Borneo, stretching out far below, as it wakes to another day & fellow climbers making the last scramble to join me on the summit at 4,095m (13,436ft). I’ve been higher on land (both the La Lung Pass in Tibet (5,050m/16,550ft) & Mouna Kea in Hawaii (4,205m/13,796ft) are higher) but I had never before walked to a higher point on the earth’s surface.
Picture 101, Day 110 – Mount Kinabalu Vista, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. June 23rd 2012
Although it’s hard to appreciate standing on the bare granite that marks the mountains upper reaches, Mount Kinabalu is actually a botanical paradise, designated a Centre of Plant Diversity as well as a UNESCO-listed heritage site, Malaysia’s first. The summit overlooks the mysterious abyss of the mile-deep Low’s Gully. Due to its isolation & difficulty to reach it wasn't explored by man until 1994 & only as recently as 1998 did an expedition return from exploring its depths with several newly discovered species of plants & insects. This is a picture of 2 climbers standing on the granite expanse near the summit of Mount Kinabalu, not too far from the gully. The rays of light breaking through the clouds below (bottom-right of the frame) was a beautiful sight. For the record my total climbing time for the 17.5k trek was 8 hours, 40 minutes: 5 hours & 40 minutes to summit & 3 hours to descend. That’s a good time but is nothing compared to the record of a little under 2 hours, 40 minutes. That’s the current time to beat in what is dubbed the World’s Toughest Mountain Race (1 hour 40 minutes up & 1 hour down). Walking is taxing enough so it’s hard to believe anyone would WANT to run up & down Mount Kinabalu let alone clock a time of sub 3 hours doing so. Kudos indeed… but not much time to enjoy the stunning vistas.
Note: See more pictures of my assault on Mount Kinabalu & a more detailed/verbose write-up as posted to my Mount Kinabalu photography blog entry.
Picture 102, Day 111 – Sunday Market, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. June 24th 2012
The day after returning from my mountain hike was physically taxing; I could barely move (& tried not to)! Every morsel of bone, cartilage & mussel in my battered legs ached. Needless to say I didn't venture too far from the sanctuary of my air-conditioned Kota Kinabalu guesthouse on this day. But I still took photos. Luckily for me the street right outside the guesthouse was turned into a craft market (as it is every Sunday). I sat in the stairwell of the guesthouse pointing my camera out the window taking overhead pictures of market goers weaving in and out of the shadows cast by the market stalls. I found it very photogenic & knew exactly the kind of picture i wanted (& I waited around a long time to get it).
Picture 103, Day 113 – Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. June 26th 2012
When the post-Mount Kinabalu hurt had subsided it was time to drive the 6 hours from Kota Kinabalu to Sepilok on Sabah’s east coast. People come here, to Sepilok’s Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, to look at orangutans... & I was no different. Gentle & shy in nature, sightings of these amazing creatures in the wild are rare. They are, along with gorillas, chimpanzees and baboons, one of the 4 great apes and the only one to live outside Africa - they are found only in the rain forests of Sumatra, Indonesia, and here in Borneo. Their distinctive hair is typically reddish-brown, instead of the brown or black hair typical of chimpanzees and gorillas. They are the most solitary of the great apes, with social bonds occurring primarily between mothers and their dependent offspring, who stay together for the first two years. Of course they are considered 'endangered' with - surprise, surprise - human activities having decimated their numbers. This sanctuary started in 1964 for the rehabilitation of orphaned baby orang-utans and today the 4,500 hectares of virgin jungle designated to the reserve make it the largest of its kind in the world.
Note: See more pictures from my visit to the orangutan sanctuary as posted to my orangutans photography blog entry.
What’s Next?
A return to very familiar pastures. For the next 8 weeks I’ll be putting the trip on hold. I’ll be returning to South Korea to tend to summer work commitments (I have to pay for this somehow). But fear not – I’ll still be photographing and will still be filing Mave On The Move entries for RPF. I may not be movin’ for a few months but I will be photographing.
Until next time.
David M
dMb Travel: Don’t forget you can keep up to date on my present whereabouts by visiting the dedicated Travel page of my photography blog, a page I set up specifically to chronicle my trip.
