Tanjung Datu Mountain Range Exploration | Mount Melano | Mount Batu Datu | Lighthouse at tip of Borneo | Coastal Line Trail

Where is Tanjung Datu National Park?

Situated at the far end of the Borneo island (left), its the smallest and the most beautiful national park in Sarawak. I visited this national park on year 2015, you can read the story here.  

I was being invited to join a group of hiking friends to hike along the mountain range start from Park HQ - Belian Trail - Mt Melano summit - Mt Batu Datu summit - Lighthouse of Sarawak & Indonesia - Tip of Borneo - Pasir Beruput Beach - Follow the coastal line - Pasir Antu Laut trail - Telok Labuan Gadong - back to Park HQ, total distance its about 20km, 17 hours to complete one big loop.

Day 1

My packing list for this trip

• A thirst for adventure
• 35 litter hiking backpack
• Hammock
• Rain coat
• 2 sets of long clothes
• 1 set of long pant
• 1 Undergarment
• 1 big micro fiber towel
• 1 pair of socks
• 1 addidas climacool shoes
• 3 litters Water bladder
• 1 small micro fiber towel
• Headlight
• Camping light
• Water filter
• Flexible water bottle
• Cooking stove
• Gas
• Cooking pot & spoon
• 5 packs of instant noodles
• First aid
• DJI Mavic Pro drone
• Olympus TG-5 digital camera
• 10,000 mah power bank

We depart from Sematan long jetty at about 6am, our boatman is waiting for us there early morning. Very reliable and punctual guy.

Along the way we saw Mount Santubong from far away, the Berumput/Pueh Mountain range, and Mount Gading (Gunung Gading National Park).

It takes about 40 mins of boat ride to reach the HQ of Tanjung Datu national park. Our speedboat have duo engines, it cruises very fast.

The entrance fees for the park is RM10 per-person. What I like about Tanjung Datu it has less visitors, so the place is still clean. Not much litter in the park, and if lucky one can even witness the sea turtle lay eggs on shore.

The starting point is at the Belian Trail, as this trail will lead us all the way up to Mount Melano (542m ASL). 

There is a wide and flat space near the peak, suspect this might be a resting point for the park ranger. 

Border stones can be found along the mountain range to indicate that we are at the border. 

Reached the peak of Mount Melano, and one big border stone there. 

So far I'm quite satisfy with this trail, it has clear trail marking, and well maintain. Not much falling branch blocking the way. And every now and then, we are welcome with stunning scenic view by our neighboring country, Kalimantan, Indonesia. 

There is a wide open trail on Kalimatan side, it looks very easy to trek on, so we decided to go over and use that trail. 

This is the road used by the soliders of Kalimantan for patrolling the border. 

I estimate its about 1km long, how I wsh it will lead strait to the lighthouse, but no. Eventually, we still need route our course back to the jungle trail. 

There are two peaks within the mountain range, which is Mount Melano (567m ASL) and Mount Batu Datu (540m ASL), follow by a slow descending slope going all the way to the tip of Borneo. So the trail is relaxing and fun to hike. 

Also there are many of these huge rocks along the range, some of them stacks together, and form a shelter in between. Its a good place to camp, the downside is no water source available. 

And I counted there are around 15 border stone along the range. Saw one of this signboard with some wording on it. Not so sure what it means, but when you see this, you are very close to the lighthouse of both Sarawak, and Indonesia.

We visited both Sarawak and Kalimatan lighthouse, the lighthohuse at Sarawak is smaller and no lighthouse keeper. Where at Kalimantan side, the lighthouse its big and there are 3 lighthouse keepers. They are very friendly, invited us to take a rest there, offer us drink, and let us visit the lighthouse.

This is the lighthouse for Sarawak. 

A birdeyes view of the lighthouse for Sarawak and Kalimatan, the tall one belongs to Kalimantan, where the short one belongs to Sarawak. And the mountain range that we had trek so far, all the way from the park HQ.

We continue with our journey to the tip of Borneo. No proper trail after the lighthouse, dense vegetation, better watch out here because there are many plants with thorns.

We finally made it to the very tip of Borneo, check out the bird eyes view bellow. The stone with border marking on it (white box)

Can you recognize which rock it is with the border marking on it?

The tip of Borneo (refer to the first image in this post)

One interesting its this rock, I believe its must have been very long time here, and that its been carve by nature, and turn into a smooth round ball shape rock. 

The sunset view on the tip of Borneo

Day 2

We camp at a small beach called pantai Pasir Berumput, that beach are made up by broken shells mix with rough sand. There is a small creek just beside our campsite, we use the water for drink, cook, and bath.

There is this triangle platform, my friend told me that this is use as a machine gun platform. The machine gun will be lock by bolt and nut to make it stable. 

8am, of we go on our journey back to the park HQ, our boatman will come pick us at 5pm.

My bagpack is a bit heavy for me, mainly because of my drone, hammock and water. Its a  challenging for me to jump from one rock to another, when land on the rock, my knee can feel the pressure. I will try my best not to injured myself.

I found it very difficult for me to go on the coastal, navigating between rocks with a heavy backpack. My movement is being slow down by the weight I carry, I then told my team leader that I will use the jungle trail to get to park HQ. So I started my own journey back, at first the trail was still smooth, but the vegetation get dense, very dense. 

Until I'm not sure on how to move forward, just look at the picture here, so I check on my GPS, and decide to route to the coastal again. I slowly move to the coastal, and saw my friends are there, slowly moving from rock to rock. I called them up, and re-group with the team again. 

Unfortunately one of my friend accidentally twisted her leg, her leg starts to get swollen, and unable to move forward. So she and one team member volunteer to stay back to wait for the boat to pick them after 5pm later. For the rest of us, continue on. 

Most of us had finish our drinking water, and no place for us to refill. Can I eat this fruit to stay hydrate?

The scene are beautiful, but challenging to navigate is tough.

Plastic waste being wash on shore. 

We almost reach pasir Antu Laut beach, just a few meter away. But then encountered a problem, there was a beehive in front of us, and two friends got stung by bees. I was at the back with 4 more person, we plan to cross by going to the sea, but its too deep. In the end, I told my friends that lets just go for it, just let the bees stunk us. So 1, 2, 3.... off we go, and a ouch that hurts. 

After all the jumping from rock to rock, finally reach this place the beautiful pasir Antu Laut, water are crystal clear. We continue our hike back to HQ, its a smooth trail which nicely maintain by park ranger for us to trek back to the park HQ.

Reached the park HQ at about 4pm, and we still have an hour to rest and cleanup before the boat pickup.

After the boat pickup at 5pm, not to forget to pickup my friend who injured her leg, and another team member who volunteer to stay back and company her. 

Day 1 - 8am - 5pm, easy route, with scenic view and beautiful rocks formation along the trail.

Day 2 - 8am - 4pm, very painful to navigate from rock to rock with heavy backpack. Need to wear shoes with good grip. 

A panoramic view of the Tanjung Datu moutain range

Hose Mountain - Pancur Gelanggang Waterfall Exploration Ulu Kapit - Part 2 of 2

好山行记 - 加帛内陆，高三百米的GELANGGANG 瀑布 - 下篇

I get to know about Hose Mountain when I was searching in YouTube on the mountain expedition in Borneo, and saw one of the search results are "Hose Mountain Expedition" it was a documentary by Mr Stewart McPherson, he has his own expedition company called Redfern Natural History Productions. I actually follow his work few year ago on the pitcher plant of Borneo. He had travel to many parts of Sarawak, Sabah, Borneo than any other local does. 

It trigger my curiosity to search where is this mountain located, so I start to dig deeper, and later found out that it was in Kapit, Sarawak. 

The town of Kapit is currently difficult to access by land, and the only easy way in is by boat. I start to collect information on how to get there, where to stay, and who to contact. It took me quite sometime to collect all the information, I'm very lucky that I get to know a few people who been there before, and manage to collect some valuable information from them.

Read on my Part 1 of my Hose Moutain Exploration Post here. (click to read) 

为什么会知道好山这个地方？话说有一天我在优管找着婆罗洲登山探险，其中一个找寻结果是来自这位“斯图尔特”先生的探险纪录片“好山远征考查记”他与他的团队不远千里的来到了砂拉越的加帛内陆，到了好山进行考查一些罕有的猪笼草。之后他们还去了很多个内陆地方，很多都是本地人都不曾经到过的地方。

就是这样点燃了我的好奇心，开始收集资料。要怎样去？正确地点在那里？要联系谁？交通如何安排？住宿如何安排？食物又如何解决？

我通过很多管道问了很多人，收集了很多资料。很幸运，知道有几位朋友曾经到过，便与他们打听一些联系。

好山行记 - 从古晋到诗巫到加帛到内陆的 TUNOH MABONG - 上篇（点击阅读）

I continue on trying to collect more information about this area, and notice that there is a waterfall, a tall one!!! They called it The Pancur Gelanggang Waterfall. 

Fast forward today, I'm finally on my way to the waterfall. Our journey starts at about 8am in the morning, where we wait for a guide to bring us there.

We need to use a 4WD to get there, its about 14 km away form the village I stayed, and took us about 36 mins to reach the trail head.

当我更进一步找资料后，我们要去的地方是好山的南部。那里有一条很高，很漂亮的扇形瀑布，当地名字叫 GELANGGANG 瀑布。

经过九九八十一难，我们终于在路上了。早上八点，我们和向导老伯一起出发。我们必须用四轮驱动车，到哪儿十四公里，三十五分钟，的车程。到达通往瀑布的起点。

As I remember my host Mr Killau told me that no one had been there few years ago, and the nature had claim back their places, and he was right. After we start to trek, some of the grass are taller than us. And my poor guide clearing the way for us with his parang knife. 

我记得我们的房东老伯说瀑布哪儿已经有几年没人去过，他预测肯定杂草丛生。唉😔房东老伯，你猜的对，那里的杂草有些高过人啊。而那个可怜的向导老伯得慢慢的用他的巴朗刀开路。

This is an abandon logging trail, many years back, it was a wide open logging road which lead all the way close to the base of the waterfall.

During our hike, its was drizzling, and it gets heavier over time. I was thinking to myself, there goes my chance to fly my drone over the waterfall. 

The guide lead the way, follow by Loong, Me, my little hiking buddy Mr Anson. At the back we have my team leader Sui Chin, his wife, our driver, and our guide's wife also joined on this fun trip. 😊

这是一条废弃的木山路，很多年前，这条木山路是可以一路通往到瀑布的底层。现在就不行了，大自然已经慢慢的把空旷的道路给索取回来。

当天还下了小雨，然后再从小雨转换成大雨。我心里想完了，这次本来还打算在瀑布旁边飞无人机，那雨这么一来，真是人算不如天算。

向导老伯走在前面，跟着是阿龙哥，然后是我，接着是杨小弟。而后面跟来的有队长水清，队长夫人，向导老伯的夫人，然后最后一位是我们的司机。这次的探险有老有少，很好玩，很开心。一路有说有笑，这样就是我要的旅程。

Just as we reached to a wide open space, our guide point to the front with his parang and told us the waterfall is just in front 😮 He told me that there are still a few waterfall at that area, and he ever climbed to an even higher waterfall, that time he did not bring any rope, so he used the rattan as rope, and slowly climb to the very top of that waterfall. Its very danger, but worth the climb. 

There is a basin area where multiple fall combine into one 😄 this gets me very exited to explore more and to get to that place he told me.

当我们徒步到一个开阔的地方时，老伯用他的巴朗刀高举前面，对我们说那座瀑布就在前面而已。

老向导和我分享他的经历说，那里还有比这个更高的瀑布，而他曾经登上瀑布最高处。当时他没有带绳子，然后他就用藤来当绳子用，攀登上去。是很危险，但是那里很漂亮。

而且另外一带还有五条瀑布从四处流往同一个方向，中间就像一个大水盆装着那些水。他叫我如果有机会，一点要去。我的妈呀，让他那么一讲，就像在给我注射毒针，这是会上瘾的！常常要来咯。

As the fog slowly fade away, I quickly took a picture of the Gelanggang waterfall. As told by my host Mr Killau that we only need 1 hour to reach the waterfall 😓 from my experience with all the guides, first, they seldom keep track of their time while hiking, their form of keeping a record of time is alwaya "agak agak" and second, the pace of their one hour are maybe a few time faster than ours pace. 

Up until this point, we have already hike for almost 2 1/2 hours, and we are yet to reach our destination. This concern me, as we still need to get back to our homestay, and then get back to Kapit using the 4WD. And the road its not safe at all if drive at night. Should I call off my exploration? But I've always want to reach that waterfall...

在我眼前的山脉，那些雾散了一部分，我隐约的再次看到瀑布。赶紧用我的相机拍照！来到这里，我看了时间，看了我的导航记录，我们徒步了两个小时多。而我想起房东老伯告诉我说 “很近的~ 一个小时就可以到了” 根据我以往与这些当地向导的经验，第一，他们很少会记录自己徒步的时间，他们记录的时间都是靠感觉。第二，他们的步行速度，像我们这些城市来的根本都跟不上。他们的一小时，可能是我们的一两倍的时间。

走了不久后，我再次的查看导航记录。走了两个半小时多了，而我们还没到达目的地。这让我开始担心我们的时间，因为待会还得回到老房东的家收拾行李，然后还得开几个小时的木山路回到加帛镇。在木山路，晚上乌漆嘛黑的开车，应该是蛮危险的...

我在想，到底要结束我们的探险吗?但是如果结束的话，很可惜，这么远来到这里，我很想到瀑布....怎么办？

Art of Nature

The vegetation are getting ticker and we only manage to move 2 - 3 meter after a 20 mins of clearing by our guide. 

老伯陆陆续续开路，时间过了廿分钟，我们只是前进了两三米。太慢了，这样不行。

3 hours had passed, and we are still yet to reach. From this point, I was thinking which one are more important, getting lots of nice image to share on social media to earn likes, or the safety of my driver and team. After much consideration, I suggesting to turn back to my team and they all agree. I am worry that we will not have enough time to go back to our homestay and then continue to Kapit town again, as the logging road are very danger and dark to drive at night, and its a long long way to Kapit. 

时间过了三个小时，我们还没有到。好吧，当时我就在想...是一定要到哪儿拍照，然后可以在社交网炫耀来的重要呢？还是团队，司机的安全来的重要？我，选择第二，也与队友们商量了，然后大伙们都同意结束探险，下次再来。

So while turning back, its time for my Mavic to do his job. I boot up my drone, and fly towards the waterfall direction.

在回头的同时，雨停了。雾散了。我赶紧把无人机拿出来，然后飞到瀑布的方向去。

Unfortunately the top part of the waterfall are covered by fog, after my drone reached the waterfall. The distance reading in my drone controller its about 1.8 km, which means we still have about 2km to go until we reach the Gelanggang fall. 

Without further ado, lets enjoy this breath taking waterfall in still image.  

THE PANCUR GELANGGANG WATERFALL in the SOUTHERN HOSE MOUNTAIN, ULU KAPIT

很可惜瀑布的最高处还是被大雾笼罩着，只有下半段看得到。我查看了无人机遥控器，共飞了1.8公里的距离。就是说，如果继续徒步，很可能会要两公里多才能到瀑布。

好了，话不多说，就来看看这雄伟的扇形瀑布吧。

From the reading of my drone controller, the height of my drone that time was about 400 meter from ground, and my drone are yet reached the top of the waterfall 😲 I am really amaze by the height of this waterfall. Its different from the Julan Waterfall, as Julan Fall is a single drop, where this Gelanggang is like a fan shapr, drizzling down its water from above. Amazing and beautiful!!!

This is the treasure of Sarawak, Borneo, its not gold, its not silver, but its the nature, the flora and fauna. 

在我的遥控器里显示的目前高度是接近四百米高，而我的无人机竟然还未飞到瀑布的最高点。我被这瀑布的高度震惊了。这就与祖兰瀑布有好比较，不一样的是祖兰瀑布是单一的往下流，而这是像扇子的形式，慢慢的往下流。各有千秋。

And this is the joy of an exploration its with a team that shares the same interest, and care for each other. Till we meet again my dear Gelanggang waterfall, you will be miss 😘 our next trip here, we will be more prepare. 

但是不管怎样，这就是探险。探险对我来说，目的地不比旅程来到重要。能够和一般志同道合的战友们一起探险，内陆旅游，这是最快乐的事。GELANGGANG瀑布，我们下次再见了！

A big thanks to our driver Charles Killau (the son of my host Mr Killau) for driving us here. We've enjoy the trip very much, and our guide and his wife (at the back of the 4WD) for guide us to this wonderful place. 

右边蓝衣的是我们的司机大哥查尔斯（老房东是他的父亲），而在车后面的是老向导和他的夫人。谢谢感恩他们的用心，我们下次再会。

READ THE COMPLETE STORY HERE
Hose Mountain - Kuching Sibu Kapit Tunoh Mabong (Post 1 of 2)
Hose Mountain - Pancur Gelanggang Waterfall (Post 2 of 2)