Mt Santubong

Merdeka Day (Independence Day) long weekend arrived in Kuching, so a trip was in order. This time, in preparation for the climb of Mt Kinabalu (scheduled for a month’s time) I organised a trip with a group of students to climb Mt Santubong, the highest mountain in Sarawak.

Twelve of us in total took the trip, so a mini-bus was organised as transport. Being my third jungle trek since coming to Malaysia I was feeling quite enthusiastic at first - that was until the mountain came into sight. It looked big, very steep, and very difficult to climb. It was all of the above.

The ascent took about 3-4 hrs. It mainly consisted of walking through a jungle track. At some points you need to use ropes and climb ladders to get up the mountain, at other points tree roots and rocks act as natural ladders to help you up. Reaching the summit was somewhat disappointing. There was no view at all, completely blocked out by clouds. The only highlight was the sighting of a slightly cheeky monkey at the top while we took our short lunch break.

Instead of coming straight back down the mountain, we went the long way down, in search of a waterfall. The long way down proved to be a very long way down. In total we spent about 8 hrs walking. But the waterfall we found was quite nice. Cold, fresh water, good enough to jump into for a quick swim. There were lots of creatures around the waterfall area too, including a few frogs which looked dangerous.

Finally, after many hours of walking through jungle and feeling very exhausted we made it down the mountain, and continued on a short walk to Damai beach to cool off.

Although being extremely tired I headed into the city area later that night to watch the Merdka Day fireworks… they were more disappointing than the view from the top of Santubong.