Kinabalu Park

Kinabalu Park

Kinabalu Park – not National Park, or even Mount Kinabalu Park – is a slightly underwhelming title for this spectacular of Malaysia’s Sabah State in northwestern Borneo. Apparently, it’s officially a geo-park – whatever that is – but Kinabalu Park to us conjures up visions of a lawn and fish pond surrounded by pigeons and joggers in downtown Kota Kinabalu.

Anyway, the Park, has appeared on UNESCO’s World Heritage Site list since 2000 with its central feature being the spectacular, 4,000 metre plus, eponymously named, Mount Kinabalu, said to be the highest peak between the Himalayas and New Guinea.

As a whole, the national park covers a modest 750 square kilometres in total but manages to fit in a range of ecological zones including lowland evergreen forest, montane evergreen, cloud forest and sub-alpine habitats. Flora and fauna are correspondingly diverse and include numerous, endemic bird, insect and mammal species along with a multitude of unique orchid and fern species. (One of our favourite endemics is the Kinabalu giant leech which can apparently grow up to a foot long although, you’ll be pleased to hear, it is strictly vegetarian!)

One of the Park’s most famous draws is, of course, the 2-day, 1-night ascent of Mount Kinabalu itself. While the climb is walkable and no full-on mountaineering as such is involved, it’s still a tough trek. The mountain is a ‘stand alone’ feature, so to speak, rather than being one peak in a range and while it’s bordered by hills, the western side descends relatively abruptly to sea level. Park headquarters are situated to the southeast, at some 1600 metres, while the official starting point for the ascent, Timpohon Gate, lies at 1800 so that leaves some 4500 metres of ascent and descent during the course of the 2 days. (We did used to offer the trip as an add-on to our regular Borneo small group tours but since we had about 1 taker in 10 years it clearly didn’t fit our customer base.)

There’s also the time factor in that there’s already a lot to see in just Sabah and Sarawak – the Malaysian part of Borneo – so our itineraries are limited to a morning visit to Kinabalu Park. Our programme however is suitable for anyone regardless of fitness levels and includes a visit to the Park headquarters, a low altitude, forest nature hike to give you some flavour of the flora and fauna plus of course plenty of views of the mountain from the surrounding area.

Some of the best views of the mountain are from the Sabah Tea Plantation located some 25 kilometres to the east in Ranau District since, as mentioned, the intervening hills remain relatively low so you can admire the scenery while sampling an organically grown brew.

Kundasang, at the foot of the mountain, also makes for an interesting, albeit sobering visit, as it houses a memorial to the Allied prisoners who perished during the infamous Sandakan Death March during WW2.

As we said, there’s a lot to see in the area. A visit to the Park, as well as Kundasang and Sabah Tea, feature on our ‘Land Below the Wind‘ tour, Borneo Adventure and West Malaysia and Borneo tour as well as our new, 2 week Borneo Family Tour.