Journey to the fire mountain of Borneo (Mulu Trip)

**kuching** · 18th Jun 2009, 07:47

Nepenthes faizaliana is an endemic species of pitcher plant only found in limestone forest of Gunung Mulu National Park of Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo.

Nepenthes faizaliana in situ.

The pitcher is big & beautiful!!!

**kuching** · 18th Jun 2009, 07:48

The habitat (altitude is above 3000 feet):

Nepenthes tentaculata also can be found here....

**kuching** · 11th Jul 2009, 09:10

The jungle trail near Camp 5

There are some leeches on the wet forest floor, but not many because it's near to limestone mountain.

**kuching** · 11th Jul 2009, 09:14

Bamboo forest

Beautiful trail

First time for me to see a blackwater stream running pass the limestone outcrop!

The misty jungle

The famous Begonia conipilia from Mulu.

**kuching** · 11th Jul 2009, 09:18

There are so many species of Begonia in Mulu....there are a few more species which I never seen before in the mountain which I didn't photograph due to the rain.

**kuching** · 11th Jul 2009, 09:23

Begonia sp.

Ixora sp.

Globba sp. (wild ginger)

unidentified species

Aroid

Nepenthes ampullaria

**kuching** · 11th Jul 2009, 09:37

Fruits of a fig tree (Ficus sp.)

Unidentified species

Orchid

Aeschynanthus sp.

Boesenbergia variegata (wild ginger)

Clerodendrum sp.

**kuching** · 11th Jul 2009, 09:43

Praying manthis

Shield bug

A species of fly

damselfly

red millipede

Bug

**kuching** · 11th Jul 2009, 09:54

Millipede (Pseudodesmus sp.)

Grasshopper

Green cicada

On the third day, we went to climb one of the toughest mountains to climb in Borneo: a peak of fire mountain (Gunung Api) to see the spetacular pinnacles!

It was very cloudy that day....

They said climbing fire mountain is harder than climbing Gunung Kinabalu because it is a limestone mountain....

**kuching** · 11th Jul 2009, 10:01

Without this staircase, it'll very very tough to climb this limestone wall.....If you failed to reach this staircase by 11am, you have to turn back.

The pinnacles

It's one of the toughest mountain climbing trips for me.......some shots taken by my friend:

**kuching** · 11th Jul 2009, 10:19

I couldn't believe that I took 3 hours to reach the peak to see the pinnacles....

**kuching** · 11th Jul 2009, 10:33

The bad weather moving in by noon, we needed to descend as soon as possible. Some people didn't manage to reach the peak by 1pm was asked to turn back for safety reason. A tourist was fainted during the descend but after resting for a while, she woke up and walked slowly back to Camp 5......

Raining!!!

It is called "fire mountain" because the summit is very dry & the dry peat soil & vegetation may easily set on fire by lightning or the sparks caused by falling limestone rocks.

Gunung Mulu....our next challenge to conquer it in year 2010. (23km one way to the peak from foothill !!!)

....to be continued.