Misty Mountain Hop

29-31 July
Mount Kinabalu National Park is Malaysia’s first World Heritage site and is known for its high plant diversity. The misty cloud forests of this mountainous region high in the state of Sabah are a reprieve from the sweltering heat of the lowland jungle. The main attraction here is Mount Kinabalu itself, a granitic giant towering 4095 meters high over the island of Borneo. Most come to climb the mountain – a feat that takes somewhere between 2 hours and 40 minutes if you were the winner of this year’s “great race” to the top of the mountain or two days if you prefer a more reasonable pace.

Nick and I came here for the plants, not the mountain. We spent two days exploring its mossy trails searching for miniature blooming orchids and still elusive pitcher plants. We waxed botanical and dreamed up cross-breeds of the begonias we encountered. This botanical paradise was only interrupted by steep climbs, the threat of a torrential downpour, and a leech or two. We were awestruck to happen across the fuzziest caterpillars we have ever seen and a black centipede outlined in red (check out the photo!) We were especially happy to finally recognize a few genera and were very pleased to find a number of plants in full bloom!

Tomorrow we continue our tour of Borneo’s national parks and move on to Gunung Mulu National Park. There we will fulfill a Planet Earth driven desire to watch as millions of bats depart from the parks many caves! We can only hope that it is as inspiring without Sigourney Weaver to narrate!