Trek to Bario, 7D Meligan and Pulong Tau Trek - Pt 2
Sunlight breaks through the mist at Reked Meligan
Day
three started bright and clear, the day of our schedule visit to Batu
Linanit – a look out point with a 360’ view. By the time we got here
after snapping pictures and studying the flora
along the way, the clouds had gathered
but we still had fantastic views of the rainforest and nearby peaks.
Considerable time was spent here and we descended back to camp for a
late lunch. It was chance to discover the camp more and we learnt that
there were houses here build for Korean, Hong Kong, Brunei and other
local church groups. It begun to drizzle and we ran back to our mountain
hut. The drizzle gradually built up
to cold heavy mountain rain.
Shooting at Batu Linanit
Sleep came easy after a huge dinner of hot chicken curry with Ba’Kelalan Adang rice. This gave us respite from the cold. But now the prospect of having to descend the mountain in wet slushy conditions is keeping me awake. The rains also mean that there would be more leeches on the trail. I turned and drifted off to a deep sleep in the cold mountain air without knowing.
The noise of people moving around packing and the smell of the wood burning kitchen woke me. It was still dark but I could make the head torches through the slits in the wooden wall. It had stopped raining and I went outside and the heavens were filled with stars. Magic! We will have good weather for the trek.
The
breakfast was a hearty standard Malaysian staple of Maggi noodles and
eggs. After a quick sweep of our mountain lodge, we pushed off at 6.35
am in the cold and shadow of the mountain with the sun rays lighting the
sky. We turned off the walkway to the trail down to the Belaban river.
The fire place gave warmth in the cold mountain environment.
We
crossed a patch of montane forest named ‘King Kong forest’ by the group.
This was a forest filled with sphagnum moss with variations of orchids,
Nepenthes, rhodendrens, and countless other plants.
Our porter Busu, pointed out the half way point on the descend named ‘Kijang point’. His team had shot and skinned a barking deer here when they made this trail back in 2005. As we continued lower into the mixed dipterocarp forest with huge agathis trees the jungle floor was teeming with leeches of all sizes. Much of our walk was punctuated by plucking the leeches, rolling and flicking them off.
The expedition group in the morning sun
A bunch of gibbons had been calling since we began descending and their noise was getting closer and louder. All the while I had scanned the canopy and saw nothing. Then the ‘wak-wak’ call was so pronounced and close that I stopped once more… and I chance to see between the branches of the canopy a black faced, grey coated Bornean Gibbon (Hylobates muelleri) swinging. This was my second sighting of a gibbon in the wild. cont pt. 3