Trekking to the roof of Sarawak
Text & photo by: Michael Lo (published in Eastern Times newspaper on October 30, 2009; below is my article before edited by editor)
It was past midnight when I woke up suddenly in a wooden hut at the elevation around 2,000 metres above sea level. I opened the door to go outside, the strong and cold wind blowing right into me and I was chilled to the bone. I noticed the steam coming out from my nose while exhaling. Even I was wearing a thick windproof jacket, I still could not stand the cold and windy environment which the temperature was almost 10 degree Celsius! I was standing on the roof of Sarawak, awaiting the sun to rise in order to climb to the highest peak of Gunung Murud.
Gunung Murud is the highest mountain in Sarawak. The summit of this sandstone mountain is 2,423 metres (7,946 feet) above sea level. It is located inside the largest protected national park of Sarawak called Pulong Tau National Park, on the boundary of Limbang and Miri division of north-eastern Sarawak. I was joining an internationally team consisted of 14 members from Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Taiwan to trek to the summit of Gunung Murud on the actual birthday of Malaysia, 16 of September. This trip was organised by Borneo Touch Ecotour Sdn Bhd and our expedition team was leaded by Mr Chua Eng Hin from Limbang. It was my honour to be one of the two members being sponsored by Sarawak Tourism Board to participate in this unforgettable trip to one of the most beautiful places in the land of hornbill.
On 14 of September, our members in two groups arrived at Limbang and Lawas town respectively and spent a night there. On the following day, all the fourteen members together with our four 4-wheel-drive drivers gathered in front of a coffee shop at Lawas in the early morning. After taking our breakfast and uploading our backpacks to our four-wheel-drive vehicles, we headed to the bus station of Lawas around 8am. We were greeted by Datuk Henry Sum Agong of MP P222 Bukit Sari, Lawas at the bus terminal. After taking the group photo and the flag off ceremony, we waved goodbye to Datuk and left the town to Ba’kelalan highland.
Several minutes after leaving Lawas town, our convoy turned into a logging track from the main road of Lawas. Thanks to the fine weather, we arrived at Raven scout camp about 3 hours later. It is a small logging camp located about 109km from Lawas town. We took our lunch in a canteen there and rested for one and half hour; then we continued our journey to Lepo Bunga. Around 2.15pm, we reached Lepo Bunga, which was the trailhead of our trek to Gunung Murud.
Travel on logging track using 4WD vehicle.
At Lepo Bunga, four porters from the nearby Ba’kelalan village approached and helping us to unload our bags, foods and drinks from the vehicles. Each porter carried more than 20kg of our belonging, including foods and drinks up to the church camp from the trailhead. All of the porters are very friendly and helpful Lun Bawang people from Ba’kelalan village. Half an hour later, we left our drivers and the stronger members in our group leaded the team and hike into the lower montane forest. Once we were entering into the jungle from the open area of Lepo Bunga, we felt the air was becoming cooler and humid.
As I am a shutterbug, I stayed at the back of the team so that I could walk slowly and taking pictures along the trail to our next destination; the Church camp at elevation of 2,070m from the sea level.
When I was hiking on the clear path made by local folks, I felt that we were very lucky to be able to reach here easily without spending much time and effort, compared to those explorers in the early days.
The first expedition to this mountain was done by a Swedish zoologist called Dr. Eric Mjoberg in October, 1922. He hired 70 local native people as porters and guides and spent 5 weeks to travel up Baram river to the Kelabit Highland. When his party arrived at a village called Pa Trap, he hired another 7 strong local Kelabits to clear a path for him to the summit. Several weeks later, Dr. Eric finally reached the summit on 2nd November, 1922.
The sandstone twin peaks, Batu Lawi:
After one and half hour of climbing on a gentle slope on the dense lower montane forest, we reached the mountain ridge. We noticed the vegetation there is a bit different from those below the ridge. The trees are shorter and all the tree trunks are covered by mosses and lichens. The forest is known as “mossy forest”. There is a long plank walkway on the ridge which was built by locals for those who come here for pilgrimage. Few kilometers at the end of this walkway is a church called “Gedung Haleluya” where we would stay two nights at a hut next to it. The church was first built in 1990 and later rebuilt again with bigger dimension to accommodate more pilgrims who visited here every two years. At first, I thought that the journey to church camp would be easier by walking on the plank walkway. Unfortunately, 90% of the plank walkway had already been rotten or collapsed due to weathering. In order to avoid from getting injury of stepping on the rotten plank walkway, we had to walk on the soggy ground beside it. Even there was not much rainfall during that period, the ground on the mossy forest always remain wet and muddy. The soils here are mainly black coloured peat soil which is very soft and become soggy when wet. The mosses and the vegetation in the mossy forest are playing very vital role in eco-system. They are just like the “sponge” which absorb and retain the rainwater during the rainy season and release the water slowly to the streams during dry season. If this forest is destroyed, the rainwater will wash down to the river and empty to the sea in very short period of time and all the living things, especially Humans may not have enough water to drink and consume during the dry spill.
Strangely, there was no leech at all along the trail. Only one of our members was attacked by a blood sucking leech. As long as there was no rainfall for the rest of the day, these leeches would not come out to look for prey. Climbing to the church camp was not as hard as I expected. In fact, I had plenty of time to observe and photograph the flora and fauna along the trail before the sunset. The vegetation here is totally different from the lowland forest in which most of the leaves are smaller, tougher and more leathery. Most of the trees are tropical oaks and chestnuts and in higher ground near the summit, tropical conifer trees are more common.
Scenery near summit.
The jungle trail
Around 6pm, the sun began to sink behind the mountains and the temperature dropped slowly to below 16 degree Celcius. We took a 10 minutes rest at a junction to Batu Linanit, the second highest point (2,248m). After wearing the jacket and turned on the headlamp, our leader, Mr. Chua blew the whistle and ordered us to follow him to take the short cut at the junction to church camp. Less than 25 minutes, all of us reached our first destination safely.
We stayed in a wooden hut inside the church camp. Our porters cooked the delicious meals for us using the firewood. There was no electricity, hence we could not take the hot shower and also, we had to dine with the light from headlamp and candles. At first, we felt uncomfortable for staying in this simple hut without any facility. But after a while, we enjoyed this simple and quiet country life experience very much. At 2,070 metres above sea level, the temperature dropped significantly after dark. After chit chatting with fellow teammates in front of fire place inside the hut, I huddle into my sleeping bag good and early.
The following morning, we woke up very early to load food and drink into our daypacks. After taking breakfast, we gathered at the trail head to the summit of Gunung Murud around 7am. The stronger hikers leaded the whole team and the weaker ones trekked slowly at the back together with porters. The morning mist was very thick and the leaf surfaces of the vegetation were all covered by a layer of morning dews. An hour later, the sun rose above the tree canopy and the mist left and we could see our surrounding more clearly. Wild orchids, rhododendrons and pitcher plants are growing abundantly along the trail. There is a species of bizarre looking pitcher plant called Nepenthes lowii which can be found abundantly along the trail. The shape of the pitcher looks a bit like a “toilet bowl”. In fact, Nepenthes lowii is a lavatory for sun bird and tree shrew. The sweet resin produced from the bristles (on the lid) of the pitcher attracts sunbird & tree shrew to consume and sometimes, the animals leaving their droppings or faeces on the pitcher and then it became the fertilizer for the plant.
Flowers of Rhododendron and Orchid can be seen along the trail.
Nepenthes lowii (pitcher plant), a nature lavatory for animals
When we ascending to higher point, the trees were getting much shorter and the mossy forest was getting denser. The landscape here was quite unique. The tree trunks, sandstone boulders and the peaty ground are all covered by different species of mosses and lichens. Few hours later, we left the dense mossy forest and reached an open area littered with sandstone rocks and boulders in different sizes and shapes. This area is called “rock garden” by the locals. The trees here are much more spectacular. Most of them are very short, branches are twisted or crooked and usually they do not exceed 4m in height. The whole area looks like a bonsai garden to me.
While ascending to a ridge from the rock garden, we met two of our Singaporean teammates at a junction. Apparently, they were lost in the rocky place for half an hour before bumping into us. There are a lot of false trails in this rocky area. It is advisable to hike together with experience guide or porter once you are entering this beautiful rock garden. Just as we almost reached the summit, the porters in front of us ordered everybody to stay put and sit on the ground as somebody accidentally stir up the wasp nest hanging on a tree branch near the trail, about 2 meters away from the summit. To avoid being stung by the wasp, we walked away from main trail and built a new path to the summit. The first group reached the summit around 11am while the second team arrived 2 hours later.
Group photo at the summit of Gunung Murud (photo courtesy of Chua Limbang)
rock garden.
rock garden.
As the day we reached the summit was September 16, the birthday of our beloved country, Malaysia; we took out Jalur Gemilang (Malaysia flag) together with Sarawak, Brunei and Singapore flags and waving high on the air and took a group photo on the highest peak of Sarawak. The scenery at the summit was simply breathtaking. As the sky was clear, we could see the beautiful twin peak called Batu Lawi on our west and the unbroken mountain ranges of Kelabit highland and highland of Indonesian Borneo.
After taking our lunch, we descending down to church camp in faster pace as the rain clouds were developing on the south near Bario. All of us reached the church camp safely before dark.
The next day, we woke up early to visit the “Gedung Haleluya” church. Then, we took our breakfast, packing our things into backpacks and left this paradise on earth quietly. Again, we split into two teams. First team and the porters took the short cut and headed down to Lepo Bunga. I joined the second team and headed to Batu Linanit (2,211m), the second highest point in that area. Along the way, the fragrant and the colourful flower of wild orchids attracted our attention to stop by and snap the pictures. When we almost reached Batu Linanit, the mist rolled in and we could not see the panoramic view of the highland. We took a short tea break and shortly, the mist left and all of us quickly went to find the best spot to take a few shots of Gunung Murud, Gunung Mulu and the twin peaks, Batu Lawi.
Posing in front of camera at Batu Linanit. (photo (left one) courtesy of Chua Limbang)
We descended slowly to the ridge below and met our porters at the starting point of plank walkway. Then, all of us trek down together to Lepo Bunga and met the rest of our team mates and our 4WD drivers. After uploading our bags into 4WD vehicles, we said goodbye to our porters and headed back to Raven Scout Camp to take our lunch. After the lunch, we travelled 33km to Merarap hot spring at the valley which cut through by Sungai Trusan. The Merarap Hot Spring Lodge’s manager, Alfred Padan welcomed our arrival and showed us the way to our rooms to rest and take bath. At the same time, our team leader passed the donation to the manager to show our gratitude for allowing us to stay at the Gunung Murud church camp which was built by Lun Bawang community. Some of our animal loving team mates bought a wild caught Pangolin from the native for about RM1,400 during the way down to valley. After discussed with the manager, he encouraged us to release the animal in the protected forest near the lodge. After releasing the Pangolin, we headed back to lodge and jumped into the hot spring pool and enjoying the natural spa. We had a wonderful evening at the resort to dine together, sharing our stories and pictures taken along the trip. Later, it rained heavily and temperature started to drop. After midnight, everyone went back to our rooms to sleep.
On the last day of our trip, our hospitality lodge manager brought us to see a helicopter crash site, about 1 km from the lodge. According to Alfred Padan, the helicopter was belonged to British Royal Air Force. During the confrontation with Indonesia in the 60s, 2 Belvedere helicopters from British Royal Air Force which based in Brunei were used to defend against Indonesian infiltrators in Sarawak. In May 1963, one of these helicopter flying low in Trusan valley suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure and crashed near Long Merarap and killed all nine passengers and crew.
Then, he brought all of us to visit his village called Long Sukang. Upon arrival, villagers stood in a row to shake hands with us. Some even played their traditional music to welcome us. We were deeply touched by the warm welcomed of the friendly Lun Bawang people. During the tea break, our leader, Mr. Chua handed over the money collected from us to the head of the village, Tuan Rumah Balang Asi as donation to their community. Later, we left the village and made a short visit to Long Sebangang Wildlife Station. It is a breeding station of Sambar Deer for conservation purpose. On the way back to Lawas town, we stopped by at Lun Bawang community craft centre to purchase handicraft and souvenir before the end of our journey.
Compared ourselves to the first ascender to Gunung Murud, Dr. Eric Mjoberg who took several weeks to achieve his goal, I felt that we were indeed very lucky to be born in modern day. This is the most relaxing mountain climbing trip I ever experienced. Anyone who has the fit and healthy body can trek to the roof of Sarawak easily within few days. The scene of friendly looking Lun Bawang people, the beautiful and unique looking highland’s flora and fauna and the spectacular view at the mountain top are flashing in my mind from time to time. I found no excuse for not returning back. Truly, this is indeed a wonderland of Sarawak!