Sayonara Gunung Kinabalu...

Assalamualaykum,


I was afraid at first, there was an evil thought whispering to my ears that I may not be able to make it to the top of the great mountain. Al-maklumlah, I'm just an average fit person and I hadn't done any intensive training after all. All I did was running around Proton Lake with By before flatten out after the second round. Pancit owlredi...

It was a 16 km walking distance altogether from the bottom to the peak. The journey was hard, absorbing all my energy and once in a while there would be rocky stairs to be climbed and that was the trickiest part. We would think that those stairs were supposed to help us out, to make the climb easier but they were lying there just to make me look silly. I was crawling during the first kilometer, and it was not just a figure of speech. I was actually used both hands and feet stepping slowly on the dirt. Oh, the shame....

But that didn't carry on for the next kilometer. Hehehe..no, no....
After some moral supports from By and a bottle of Kacip Fatimah, I sprinted, leaving those who passed me before..even By had to take a breath before running after me. Kehkeh, okey la.. I exaggerated a bit. But alhamdulillah, By and I were among the first batch arrived at the peak; breathed the cool breeze, adapted the chilled air, amused by the breathtaking scenery.

We arrived at Low's Peak at 5:15 am, when it was already Fajr. By and I performed our Subh at the highest ground point ever in our lives. Indeed, that was truly mesmerizing. We waited for the sun to come out and let our faces shimmered with its orange, beautiful glow. After many pictures taken, after all our lips were blacken by the coldness of the air, we mounted down the mountain back to Laban Rata.

Climbing down was another story.
When we were climbing up the day before, we met a bunch of hikers going down from the mountain and leaved us with a somewhat perplexing advice; "That (climbing up) is fun. Enjoy it while you can,"
And not after the next 10 minutes of going down have I realized how very very very true their statement was. There were so many methods of climbing down can be seen, as people just couldn't bear of walking down the mountain in a normal way. Some walked like crabs, side-ways. Some walked backwards. Some used sticks.
I, used all of them. :p

By the time we were waiting for our flight back to KL on Sunday evening, the majority of our group members were walking like a bunch of penguins. By and I looked like an old couple, with sticks in our hands, walking slowly with terkengkang-terkengkang feet. Oh, again..the shame...

By and I came to work on Monday but both of us decided to take a leave on Tuesday since we were still walking like crabs, or penguins.....well, pick one.

The pain is still there, but it is all worth it.
The trip to Gunung Kinabalu was a magnificent memory, and I wouldn't even think of trading it for anything. :)

p/s: By has already talked about climbing another mountains. Gunung Nuang sounds interesting. Gunung Tahan needs a lot of training, which I lack of right now, so that's out of the question. Man, I need to get fit.

posted by Hana' at 7/12/2006 08:06:00 PM |