So this will likely be one of the shorter blogs I have ever done. I woke up at 3:30 a.m. this morning for my one hourish (more or less) drive to Tamparuli (the same place I visited yesterday for the blah markets) for the hike up St. Veronica’s “Hill” (note the quotation marks) to see the sun rise over Mt. Kinabalu.
So right at 4:00 a.m., Tommy, my guide for the hike, arrived and off we set. Now there was zero traffic at this time of the morning so we were at the starting point for the hike at 4:45 a.m. Sunrise is not until 6:18 so I figured we had lots of time. Uh … think again.
Now the hike started off rough and went downhill (or rather UPHILL) from there. From the parking lot, we had to hike up a very steep paved pathway that veered up, up, up, BEFORE we started the actual hike. By the time we got the to entrance, I was out of breath and already sweating. I thought this was a hill????
Now fortunately, it was dark still and I could not see the extent of the climb in front of me (my headlamp can only illuminate so much). Anyway, Tommy and I set off up the stairs and I soon discovered that (1) this was not a “hill” and (2) a masochist designed this hike. The stairs were straight up and when I say straight up, I mean straight up, unrelenting, ginormous stairs. The pitch on the stairs would never pass inspection in North America and the step ups for each stair were huge. At one point, I was almost on my hands and knees crawling up the stairs. “Hill” my ass.
I kept asking Tommy, aka my cheerleader (bless his heart), are we close? Not even half way into the hike my shirt was soaked. It was as if I had been rained on. And the killer was that the staircase had no railings, nothing. At times, I was grabbing at bamboo trees to help me on my hike up the never-ending staircase.
After almost one hour of this brutal, soul sucking, inhumane, sadistic, and physically exhausting hike, Tommy pointed to a light in the distance and said that was the top. We finally reached the peak at 5:43 a.m. YAYYYYYYY!! I immediately made a beeline for a stool some kind sole had left at the top as Tommy gave me a high five and told me that he has accompanied a lot of folks on the hike who quit after the first ten minutes. I told Tommy that I have never quit anything and was not going to quit this hike.
Anyway, a little bit about St. Veronica’s Hill. The “hill” is 278 meters high, although the climb is 800 meters (about 2,675 feet) and gets is name from the Catholic community which made the trail I had just hiked up. The trail features a total of 14 crosses with pictures and writings depicting Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion and is known as Station of the Cross (or Way of Sorrows). Now, quite frankly, I was so exhausted on the hike up, I did not stop to look at any of the crosses or info. And interesting factoid, the hill is also known as “Bukit Perahu” or boat hill because of a nearby unique rock formation shaped like a stranded boat.
So once at the top, Tommy and I watched the sky as it turned from black to brilliant shades of pink and red and orange and yellow and blue against the backdrop of Mt. Kinabalu. Eventually, we could see the mist surrounding the mountain as it became lighter. The view was stunning and all the pain melted away as I watched the beautiful sunrise in front of me.
And on the opposite side of the viewpoint to Mt. Kinabalu was a view to Tamparuli and damn we were high up. I could see the lights wayyyy down below and as we stood there, the early morning call to prayer began for the faithful. Ultimately, we spent about 45 minutes at the top and thank God for the bit of wind which really helped to cool me down.
Once the sky became light, clouds started to role in around the mountain, which seems to be pretty standard so we made our way over to the trail and hiked back down. Now the hike down, while faster and less taxing on my breathing, was still brutal on the legs and knees. The space between the stairs was so huge that at times I was almost jumping down stairs. In addition, I could now see the extent of the hike, including the surrounding hanging bamboo trees and miscellaneous downed branches of trees, which I had apparently dodged as well as leaves all over the pathway. Yes, it is a good thing it had been dark on the way up.
And ridiculous fact. The locals run this staircase. Seriously! While we were hiking down, locals were running up the staircase FOR FUN!! What the heck? Who are these crazy people who wake up and think “hey, today is a good day to go run that staircase at St. Veronica’s Hill?” And it wasn’t one or two people, there were at least ten we passed on the way up. Gesh!
Anyway, we finally made it back down around 7:30 a.m. and soon headed into the little town for a Chinese breakfast of noodles, pork balls, chicken in sweet and sour sauce and tea. (Rather different than breakfast at home, but I was starving and would have eaten just about anything!!)
By 7:50 a.m., we were back in the van and headed to Kota Kinabalu. Unfortunately, we ran into rush our traffic so our 45 minute jaunt to Tamparuli in the early morning hours turned into an hour and a half journey back to the city. No matter, I was just thankful I had made it to the top of St. Veronica’s Hill/Mountain and was now able to sit on my keester and enjoy the ride. I planned to spend the rest of the day by the pool and in the spa. I think I earned it. Tomorrow I am off to Sandakan where I start my orangutan adventure.
