Day 3 – Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Dear Rotarians, Rotaractors, Interactors, Families and Friends of Rotary,
Greetings from the Trans-Sabah Walk N Climb Team. As promised, here is the continuation of our daily reports. We apologise for the delay, which is mainly due to the unavailability of Internet access with the required speed to send photos.
When writing this report on on 09 November, we were in Telupid, a small but closely nit community between Sandakan and Ranau.
The JS Resort was quite a disappointment. It is very run-down. Nothing gets fixed or repaired: Showers are not working properly, toilets are broken, there was not even a chair in some rooms! But when you are tired you can sleep anywhere. Fortunately, all air-conditioners were working properly. So, we cannot recommend this place for your next family holiday!
Day 3 – Tuesday, 8 November 2011:
The next place with comfortable accommodation is 75 km away, too far to make in a single day. Therefore, we will stop midway and our support vehicles will drive us to the next village.
Our two drivers had arranged for breakfast at 1:30 and transferred us to the main road where we had lunch the day before. We started the 2nd leg of our walk at 2:30.
All ready to go! From left to right:
PP Tay Wai Lien – RC of Singapore West
PP Leong Chee Woh – RC of Johor Bahru
Mervyn Voo Vui Ying – Former Rotaractor from Kota Kinabalu
PP Sylvester Fong – RC of Kuching Central
Rtn. Robin Tay Lian Kiat – RC of Pudu, Kuala Lumpur
and our “Panjang”, Rtn. Charles Johnson – RC of Kuching Jaya
Taking photograph:
AG Erich Schneider – RC of Queenstown, Singapore
3:30: Walking in pitch darkness. Only reflective signboards remind us what lies ahead of us.
06:00: After sunrise:
Mist covers the oil palm estates in the background.
6:10: Along the route.
A new family home under construction.
06:15: Time for a rest.
One of the rare landscaped gardens, in front of a Palm-Oil Estate.
6:45: It’s getting warmer.
Keep walking.
07:40: The rest of the day’s scenery.
All straight and flat.
8:00: By now, walking has become a routine.
Step-by-step forward………
……….. along the line.
No problem for Chee Woh. Or does something bother him?
“Only” 259 km to Kota Kinabalu!
08:45: A reminder of the Prisoners of War who took the same route.
Luckily, we are still strong and have ample supply to keep us going.
09:45: The rest is exhausting.
It is is 36 degree Celsius! The only wind is from passing traffic. It doesn’t help to cool us down. But the noise of the lorries keep us awake.
11:15: Arrival of the “pack” at the end-point of of the day, which is mile-stone 39km at the entrance road to an oil palm estate. Rtn. Charles Johnson arrived 1 1/2 hours earlier and was found sleeping in the shade of an oil palm. In one step, he covers 1 1/2 times the distance of the rest of us!
Distance covered: 38 km. Total time taken by most walkers, including rests: 8 hour 55 minutes. Our support vehicles drove us forward to the City Hotel in Telupid.