Borneo – August 2010 - Batu Lawi Trek - Day 4 – Logging hell

With the summit tucked safely in the back pockets of our muddy, hacking trousers, we set off early through the tragically logged area at the base of Batu Lawi before beginning the brutal ascent up through the valley to the logging roads in the searing heat.

Guide Wan and Victorian explorer Captain Bob Davies set a blistering pace at the front with a determined Cat just behind, a more relaxed Theo, Sam and Sarah holding the middle positions while Oz and Rian generally chatted, smoked and took a lot of photos at the back.

Once ‘death valley’- the final ascent back up to the logging road - had been nailed, we set off apace along the logging roads towards the shelter and the edge of the jungle where we had spent the second night. While summiting the mountain however, some cheeky blighter had sneaked in an added three or four extra miles into the logging road (or so it seemed).

Un-phased, the group raced ahead with poor Rian and Oz claiming to take a more leisurely pace, but actually feeling every rock and pebble through the souls of their ‘Kelabit Reeboks’ (essentially rubber plimsolls worn due to their boots disintegrating).

We reached the shelter before lunch and decided that with heavy thunder clouds sweeping in and a confidence in our now established pace, we spent a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon resting, repairing and swapping war stories in the now beloved shelter.

Borneo – August 2010 - Batu Lawi Trek - Day 3 – Beating Batu Lawi

We rose before dawn and were out on the logging roads as the morning mist still lay across the surrounding jungle. The morning was spent yipping along the logging roads – the only benefit of which is that wide views of the jungle can be seen.

We made rapid time and descending into the valley towards base camp before the sun truly hit. The following scorching hour and half saw us up to base camp and by lunch we had made up all lost time and firmly by on track.

Collectively keen to hit our target - the summit – we quickly lunched and basha-ed up, before beginning the 2 hour scramble with Batu Lawi towering above us.

The ascent was like nothing we had seen before. For the first 45 minutes we climbed through pure primary rainforest. Once past the gnarled and knotted roots and ensnaring vines we entered the cloud forest. The ethereal stage was a haze of damp air and moss clad trees. The distinction between the cloud forest from the rainforest was incredible and we pressed on impressed by the variety of terrain experience in the trek.

Once through the cloud forest we reached the sheer rock face of the summits two mega-tors. This was where the best fun began as we hauled ourselves up sheer rock faces, thread bare rope ladders and over huge boulders towards to cloud wrapped summit. Half climbing, half scrambling we paused to pay our respects to the British Liberator Crews (who had operated and perished in the area during WWII) at their honorary plaque before ascending the final stage to the summit.

Presently we were enjoying high-fives, hugs and home brewed whiskey at the other-worldly summit.

Batu Lawi lived up to her reputation as shy by wrapping herself in clouds and with time pressing on we were forced to descend to base camp after just half an hour in order to reach camp before dark.

The return however took just a fraction of the time with a new style of ‘falling with style’ trekking whereby we ran back down the mountain only just getting our feet beneath us and avoiding chewing the untasty jungle floor.

Borneo – August 2010 - Batu Lawi Trek - Day 2 – Hills, hills and more hills.

The tone for trek was set on the second day with a dawn start and setting off a frankly blistering pace. The morning consisted of climbing solidly up boulders and muddy cliffs until we reached the ridge top and made into the fabled ‘Boulder Pass’ – a ravine of huge mossy slippery boulders which threatened ankle and knee injury with every step.

The goat-like gang made our way through unscathed however and were immediately rewarded with some incredible primary rainforest.

Keen to maintain the pace (and avoid any more of Rian’s baffling riddles during the breaks), the fit and fast group ploughed onwards through the incredible jungle into arm-raking fern forests out on to flooded river plains and finally to the logging roads.

Here we saw first-hand the effects of deforestation as the impressive jungle was replaced by ugly rocky roads and sadly felled and rotting trees. Perhaps for the first time, we realised just how valuable and urgent our conservation is saving this unique environment.

We decided save time on upping and downing basha’s and fire lighting by spending the night in a rickety logging cabin by the side of the road. A happy evening was spent drying (and in some cases totally destroying) our clothes over the fire, and despite frequent visits by wood ducks, all were sound asleep by 9pm.

Borneo – August 2010 - Batu Lawi Trek - Day 1 – Stuck in the mud

We departed Bario with bitter sweet goodbyes to the three J’s (Jack, Jenny and Jonny) – who sadly couldn’t join us on trek due respectively to chronic D&V, a saw wound and a early flight home (incidentally Jonny missed his early flight home after over indulging on beer in Miri. We all hope he was more successful with his A level results).

The remaining trek squad loaded up the 4x4 and headed off the trek start line at Pa’ Ukat. Heavy rain in the Bario area however caused the truck to sink deep into the mud half way there and a precious 45 minutes were spent heaving it back out. Soon after, we were off on an epic adventure and soon discovered that a late start and knackered truck were the least of our worries.

A scenic start to the scorching day’s trek began with an hour long trek to and through Pa’ Ukat before we entered the jungle proper. Our beloved guide Rian then unfortunately led us on an hour and a half’s gruelling trek up the wrong (and almost vertical) mountain. Having realised the error at the top of view hill, Rian played the detour off as a nice lunch spot and possible short cut to the summit of Batu Lawi. Our intrepid leader Oz - who has completed the Batu Lawi trek once before - was also keen to follow on this route, with many of us believing he simply wanted to get the entire group lost and enjoy some ‘advanced jungle training’.

A very democratic vote was held however and after enjoying a ‘scenic picnic’ among swarms of hungry sweet bees and sand flies we descended back into the valley to find the main trail. This had been obliterated by a massive dead tree fall and once back on track we gleefully scampered up the gorgeous waterfall and boulder strewn river course for several hours of ‘champagne trekking’.

The difficult first day was called to a halt early due to monsoon rains sweeping down from the mountains above us and we rapidly set up an early camp next to a roaring waterfall. The group remained cheerful however and during that night’s noodles it emerged from the racy banter that we were collectively confident they could make up the time lost that day and be the fastest group to complete the trek.

Borneo – August 2010 – Hornbill Eco-Lodge Project

Preparations for the project phase were only slightly hampered by some impressive hangovers following our post-jungle-training shenanigans and we were soon back in Hornbill Lodge - this time with the intention of pimping it to the max - like a jungle version of Extreme Home Makeover so that eco-tourists, scientists and even future Trekforce volunteers could enjoy the Kelabit Highlands from the comfort of a jungle palace (complete with throne, thanks to Jack and Theo’s tireless work with the shovels on the long drop).

Oz’s fevered brain had produced a list of tasks and we set about trying to forge the jungle to fit the tortured vision of his genius. Between us we shifted, sawed and axed our way through several tonnes of timber (Oz finds loose dead wood very un-aesthetic which can be bit of a problem in the jungle).

At times it seemed we differed from the loggers we were trying to keep out only in terms of our relative inefficiency but we reminded ourselves that by improving the lodge we were increasing the value of the land as jungle rather than as timber. Hoping, as it were, that people won’t see the wood for the trees.

Bridges and pontoons were built, unsightly wood and dangerous deadfall removed and the cabin was souped up so that by the end it seemed nothing less than a 5-star spa resort.

Jonny’s methodical pacing of the basha area as he effectively tried to clear wood out of a wood was a lesson to us all in the staunch, patient and above all unrushed adherence to an appointed, infinite task.

Another more or less constant fixture was Jenny’s titanic struggle with the stump known as Stumpy (though by the third day it had several other, unprintable names). It was hard to tell who came off worse in the end as Stumpy was hacked and chopped from every angle and an increasingly mad Jenny was reduced to a tattered mud monster as she grappled with the stump with which she had formed a bizarre bond of mutual hatred and respect. Rian waited for the third day before casually remarking “Rain will come. It will rot.”

On the same day Tom slightly increased the productivity of the group by returning to his hammock, although he would point out in his defence that he was expending vast amounts of energy each day in maintaining his own height and, of course, in the solution of some of the most intractable puzzles known to man, such as the point of canned food and what exactly it is that a milkman does. Jack’swork on the long-drop was much appreciated, though his creative contribution to the girl’s ‘pee palace’ was less so.

Having sufficiently pimped Hornbill we turned our attention to cutting trails to connect the Lodge to nearby cultural sites. If there’s a list of phrases you don’t want to hear from your jungle guide as you’re cutting new trails in unmarked forest with dusk drawing in and your GPS on low on battery, pretty near the top must be “I’m so tired...” closely followed by “Is this...familiar to you?”.Although the trailblazing had to be abandoned in favour of a swift night trek and Oz repeatedly giving birth to a small community of kittens until he gallantly ventured into the jungle darkness in one boot (the other having perished in the mud) to rescueus. Most of us agreed however that getting lost in the jungle was pretty much what we’d come to Borneo to do and we relished the experience of stumbling through the undergrowth in pitch black while listening to the insects (and Tom shouting and singing with pre-pubescent glee) and firmly ordered Oz to ‘jog on’ when he found us.

The next day’s trail-cutting - as we attempted to cut our way back to the point at which we’d become lost the day before - was just as memorable, though thankfully more for its scenery and wildlife than for any similar drama, despite Jenny’s best attempts to fall over or off every single ledge, cliff and tree root in range.

The next day it was back to Bario in time for tea and medals (or more accurately Skol, moonshine and karaoke) content in the knowledge of a job well done and the hope that our efforts would have and long-term preservative effect on that gorgeous area of rainforest.