Jenny Mullier, one of the Expedition Planning Manager has just arrived in Miri (Sarawak, Borneo) for 6 weeks. She will be spending 3 weeks in Sarawak & 3 weeks in Sabah.
She will be providing extra support for the teams and do recces for new treks and projects for future expeditions, and therefore will be moving around to different areas quite a lot instead of staying in one location for the whole time.
Check out the blog to follow how she is getting on! Find out more about Borneo expeditions.
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Well Borneo is defiantly tropical, I have been here a number of times before and it doesn’t get any cooler. Today is hot and humid (as per usual) after a thunderstorm and heavy rain last night.
Since arriving into Miri on Monday I have met up with 4 different World Challenge teams and there is another one flying in tonight! Two of the teams come from World Challenge Schools in Australia and they are just coming to the end of their time in Borneo, flying down to Kuching for some well earned rest and relaxation. One of the girls had her birthday yesterday and the team organised a cake with the biggest candles I have ever seen (they looked more like small fire works)!
The group was telling me all about their trek and the 5 metre long dead python they came across, the guide slit open it’s belly and there was a whole mouse deer inside (cocker spaniel size), that is one big snake!
I am off to Kuching on Saturday to go and see some possible new projects for World Challenge teams coming to Borneo in 2011 and to visit a national park before heading up the coast by bus stopping in at a few towns along the way. I will let you know how it goes….
Jen
Hi again, I thought it was about time for a catch up on what I have been up to.
My time in Kuching was great, it’s a really vibrant fun city. I joined one of our Australian teams at the Kuching weekend market for their final night in Borneo before it’s back to Australia and back to school. I have to say Kuching has some of the wackiest roundabouts I have ever seen, the best was the one that had a family of giant concrete cats on! I managed to squeeze in a visit to Semenggoah National Park to see the orangutans before travel back up towards Miri by bus and boat.
On the way up to Miri I stopped in at a National Park to recce some new trekking routes. It’s a really cool coastal park so you get both jungle and sandy beaches. I was lucky enough to see some long tail macaques, a snake and lots of giant butterflies. It will be a great national park for us to use next year, if groups are lucky they may even get to see dolphins off the coast!
I’m back up in Miri now and have been checking in with the teams as they have been finishing their acclimatisation and heading off to projects and main treks. Kings School has just finished their community project which the team really enjoyed. As part of their project they organised a homework club for the village children, it was so popular they had most of the village children there and they had to make them all go home at 9pm every night so the team could get some sleep!
All the groups are doing really well and adapting to life in Borneo. I will be heading out to see some of the groups on their project sites soon, I’ll let you know how they are all getting on in my next update
Jen
Well it’s been a little while since my last post so I better fill you in on what I have been up to…
At the start of last week I headed up to Kota Kinabalu to join the Individuals team for their climb of Mt Kinabalu. Starting off at 8am we were soon walking through the cloud, a few hours and 2500 + steps later the full team made it to Laban Rata hut at over 3000m. Early nights were followed by an even earlier morning, 2am to be precise! After a bit of early breakfast the team made their summit attempt. More and ¾ of the group made it to the summit and everyone should be really proud of what they achieved – well done team!
Heading back to Miri I met up with a village chief who’s village we may be doing some project work in next year. A couple of express boats and a 4x4 ride along a very bumpy track brought us into the village. I was shown around the village and visited the primary school which is really excited to have World Challenge groups. That night I went with the chief and a prominent group from the village, via a Penan Longhouse, to their community run conservation area to check it out for jungle trekking. The village is great and it will be exciting to work with them next year.
I am now up in Kota Kinabalu where all the teams are. A couple of days ago I managed to get to see 5 different teams in one afternoon! Two teams left for home yesterday and one left this morning and I definitely heard more than one person say that they didn’t want to go home yet…
Today I went to visit a new area for acclimatisation trekking, there are some big old trees there (and a fair amount of mosquitos too!). The teams are now climbing Mt Kinabalu, visiting the orangutans at Sepilok and enjoying some rest and relaxation before it’s time to head home.
I'll post again soon.
Jen
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