FAX - "Flights Are Cancelled"

We materialise from the jungle, and check in at the less than inspiring Lahad Datu airport.

Only to find that, not for the first time, our flight is cancelled (note the hi tech means by which they inform their valuable customers of this unfortunate circumstance...). We've got three flights with two international connections to make, at KK & Singapore, so our patience is tested but...

...is rewarded when our Fokker 50 flight back across Borneo offers a stunning view of Mount Kinabalu, shrouded in mist; it was rare indeed to see the summit from the foothills around the park and this felt like quite a privilege as we said goodbye to this spectacular place.

The Kinabatangan River

Sea Eagle, Kinabatangan River, Sabah
Originally uploaded by .JT

As we travelled upstream, it seemed the wildlife knew to introduce itself one rare species at a time. First a Sea Eagle, then the Proboscis Monkeys, a Rhinoceros Hornbill, an Alligator...

Into the Heart of Borneo - Mulu Caves

Sheets of rain continue to fall and it looks unlikely that any bats will be feeding this evening (3,000,000 of them usually fly out at dusk as regular as clockwork; we seem to have picked the wrong day).

So what a treat when, just as our hopes looked dashed, and the majority of the group shrug shoulders and traipse back through the jungle, the rain stops, and the remaining dozen or so of us look up to see the start of the bats evening feed. Three million of them...

In Sheets of Rain and Mist

We took the easy option and photographed the "Garden of Eden" from inside Deer Cave, otherwise we'd have to take another 2 hour trek through cockroach-infested guano to get to paradise... From where we stood, a hanging waterfall of cool water drenched the lush green tropical life in this magical place. Sunlight refracted through droplets of mineral rich water.

Illuminated webs weaved by giant spiders scatter ever rock face. Streams of water 300 feet high hang from the rocks ahead. The echo of cool, clear refreshing water filling pools at the base of the cave, rivers formed, salt water rich in guano that attracted the deer in prehistoric times. In sheets of rain and mist, limestone mountains rear up outside, framed by forest at the entrance to this spectacular cave.

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Mist covered rainforest

Descents

The descent into Singapore: above the thickest eiderdown of continuous cloud, bright white-tipped in the morning sun; a pristine sky above, of an iridescent blue.

Penetrating the protecting veil, we brake through in the most spectacular way, Singapore the city-country-island-state appears in its globally strategic position. A clean, ambitious, economic miracle bursts forth into the 21st Century from its humble beginnings.

Glimpsing Borneo

This is the way I expected to first glimpse Borneo. As a dark shadow covered by clouds, the odd hint of what was once quite literally shrouded in mystery. A tantalising taste of what might follow.

Mama Betty

Fast boat to Manukan Island with the enigmatic 70 year young Betty, owner of KK Tours. Self-styled ‘Mama Betty’, the most well-connected Tourist agent in Sabah (her past life in the Bornean police special branch no doubt extending her sphere of influence), was to become a recurring motif during our journey around Borneo, usually appearing just in time to thwart chaos and disaster, with a beaming smile and infectious positivity.

Stirring half-century old memories of Mudeford

Having read the Distant dreams, childhood places piece, I'm pleased to say it stirred fond memories for Dad, who reflected on these so I could add them to this blog.

"My wife and I enjoying a breezy weekend in Lilliput, Poole, last autumn decided to visit nearby Mudeford thereby breaking my taboo of some fifteen summers...

We were relieved & excited to see the so familiar sand spit again, lucky to get the Land Rover lift, no 'Noddy' running.

The beach was virtually deserted save a couple of chippies demolishing a life expired hut to be replaced by a spanking new unit for a city businessman.

We dodged the squalls & sheltered for a while in the lea of the black house, dryish from the horizontal sheets of stinging rain driven on a stiff south-westerly.

The 'run' that evocative stretch of moody water stirred half century memories of Jim, the celebrated blue clad, tobacco tanned fisherman who took my family so many times over that mere 25 yard stretch of sometime torrent, sometime flat calm gateway to the channel.

We lingered a while then made our way to the empty bright & trendy cafe to enjoy a coffee. Refreshed we made our way back the mile or so to the car soaked to the skin we nevertheless loved the walk through the ancient woods, past the 'canyon' where as children we collected spent bullets & scaled then, to the huge cliffs. Many memories flooded back.

Awakenings

Returning to Stanford Dingley as the sun set across the Pang Valley, we cherished that extra hour of daylight as British Summer Time arrived. Fields glowed gold in the crisp afternoon and birdsong filled the air. You can breath, feel, see, touch and hear the changing seasons as the cycle of life rolls on. Arriving home, an inquisitive blue tit found herself the perfect place to nest in our little country garden.

CO2 - They call if life, what do you call it?

This incredible piece of propaganda featured on the excellent "God is Green" Channel 4 documentary tonight. The look of the presenter when the clip had finished said it all.

The Channel 4 programme itself was insightful, with the presenter interviewing spokespeople for the Roman Catholic Church (no clue about climate change), Evangelicals (looking forward to it because it implies the end of the world and the second coming!), Hinduism (what will be will be, it’s karma) and Islam (the Koran is very green… and so are we, and we’ll blame climate change on the imperialist west).

The presenter did not (or was unable to / or chose not to show) interview a representative for the 376 million buddhists on this planet. This was disappointing, especially when you consider that the Dalai Lama’s Nobel prize in 1989 was, in part, awarded for his declaration that Tibet should be 'transformed into the world's largest natural park or biosphere.'

Embrace life's imperfections

Are you a perfectionist? Never satisfeid? What did you feel when you noticed that typo?

Since reading "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" many years ago, I've tried to take this mantra to heart: 'embrace life's imperfections'. If you're mathematically-minded, think of the following formula:
stress = the difference between expectation and reality.

We only ever progress when we learn to fall down and pick ourselves up again. I'd never considered that my brother would end up writing a book of his experiences of 'falling down', but he's just received his first reviews on Amazon, and I can't describe how proud I am.

Congratulations, Mark, on a fantastic new book, not forgetting your website to help share the wonder and magic of life with the world!

Virtual travel

How can technology enrich this journey we're all on? I'm pretty new to all this Web 2.0 stuff, so I'm going to experiment:

Step 1: This is a straightforward test to try publishing to my blog by email. (It works! - Ed)

Step 2: Set up Skype (easy!) so I can talk to Stair in Seattle (time zones mean I can talk to you on a Friday after work, just as you're facing yet another day in the office Stair! Heh heh).

Step 3: Add 'Snap' preview functionality to Blog (cool - but what's the benefit? Hmmm, need to think a bit about this).

Step 4: Set up Flickr Pro so I can archive public and private photo albums and share different ones with different sets of people.

Mad about the Mekong

"A breathtaking account of one of the greatest ever feats of exploration..." - Literary Review

Ever been entranced by the magic and mystery of the Mekong? It's been a month since we returned from our trip to Indochina, yet reading this fascinating book by John Keay has kept that magic alive.

John retraces the nightmare journey of one of the nineteenth century's most ambitious feats of exploration. In 1866, the Mekong Exporation Commission disappeared into the unknown for two years, covering a greater distance than the length of Africa. This book finally tells the incredible story of Garnier et al that should stand proudly alongside the exploits of Livingstone and Stanley.