My last visit to mount Singai was on the December 2019, after that the lock down started on year 2020 April and I never had the change to go back to hike mount Singai again. It has been two years, and the mountain entrance from the church is still close from public. I am very curious about how the trial will look like after two years with no human usage, will nature take back what belongs to them? and cover all the trail with vegetation?
My friend told me that one of the local there are from Kampung Daun, and they can guide us to hike mount Singai using the old trail used by their ancestors for hunting and farming.
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Reached the intersection, and here is where it connected back to the existing trail to the summit viewpoint. Normally I will use one hour to hike from the base to the Singai summit.
Now for this one, from Kampung Daun to the intersection here, it took me around one hour.
I was expecting the trail to be covered by nature already, but it seems not what I had expected.
The guide dog that follows us all the way to the summit viewpoint.
A very clear view that day even can see the South China Sea.
That morning, we bid farewell to our campsite, and start the 2nd half of our exploration journey. I like this campsite very much, it meets all my checklist for the perfect campsite.
This took me by surprise, I did not expect to see a big flat rock surface like this. My first encounter on a riverbed with such a big area of flat rock.
I am in front of the group, chasing after a bird that I heard it sings along my hike (see my video below for the bird), I get to see a glimpse of that bird. But my camera is not good enough to capture it.
Hike until this point, I enjoyed that exploration very much. The view is really spectacular, the water flows gracefully side by side with me, the morning sunshine gently so is not that hot. What welcomes me in front is nothing but the art of nature.
My camera fell into the water, and the lens was covered with water. I don't have dry clothes with me at that time, and my shirt is soaking wet with my sweat, can't wipe all the water off my camera lens. But I am glad that it is still working 😰
If you are a geologies, you might know about the Basalt Columns, and this happens because it was created by the cooling and contracting of lava, made of 90% basalt, which causes the ground to crack into long, geometric columns. This process is called columnar jointing.
I have never heard that Borneo has a volcano before, maybe at the Usun Apau plateau, or the Borneo Highland area. So I am surprised to see a similar rock formation. Well, not exactly the same, but at least maybe 5 - 10% similarity, but I am not a geologies, so just take it with a grain of salt ya.
Up to this point, this might be the last waterfall that we will encounter, so we took a break here, and refill our drinking water.
The cracks between all these big boulders also instill a red stripe in between them. So strange, this is the first time I see this.
Reached to a point where the waterfall runs dry, so this might be where the waterfall begins.
This view is on the summit peak of the mountain range. It was a very technical route, as it took us quite some time to get to this point, and when we are up there. One of our team members nearby fell down from the cliff, it was a tense moment. but luckily all of us are safe.
The guide told me that back in the old days, there are illegal logging here, after this area gazed as a national park, only then did the illegal logging stop.
Finally hike back to the place where we started, with the beautiful mountain range at the back.
Disclaimer:
All of my pictures and video are shot by using my Olympus Tough TG-5, which personally I think the image is blurry, color gade very poorly. But it is really a tank, I drop it many times, it is still working, and waterproof also.
Hopefully, I can save enough to get a decent phone with a good camera so that I can capture a better image and video quality.
