I took on the challenge of cycling to Mount Kinabalu National Park, which is roughly only 20km away from Ranau. Sure if you go by car it's a 40 minute drive, but if you decide to cycle and depending on your fitness it could take you past 2 hours or more. It actually took me 2 hours and 40 minutes because I had to stop many times for a break. The hills are quite steep and so challenging if cycling isn't your passion.
I never consider myself a cyclist. You may scratch your head seeing as I'm travelling with my road bike and I have cycling shoes/clothes, but that doesn't mean I'm a cyclist in my opinion. To me a cyclist is passionate about riding, loves to be on the bike training hard regularly and is excited by getting up steep hills.
I am neither of these things. I cycle for fruit and to commute. Fair enough I love my bike and couldn't imagine life without it but I am not inspired to train on it. I see a hill and I curse. However, sometimes I do set myself challenges like today and I go for it (try to at least).
I tackled some pretty challenging hills in Bali and La Palma, plus Doi Suthep in Thailand, but none of that could prepare me for this! I think it's so important to train on hills regularly so you have the stamina to keep going. I stopped within the first 10 minutes and probably after every 5-10 minutes after that. There are very few plateaus or descents going to the National Park entrance.
My main challenges were my overall stamina, leg and back strength, mental stability and emotional poise. I think my cardiovascular health is fairly good, I was still able to sing and cycle (plus curse and shout at dogs) but this may have been helped with my regular breaks.
I didn't struggle with keeping going, mainly because I didn't want to cycle past the dogs who chased after me again, I figured I had gone so far that I'd be pretty pissed at myself for turning back too soon. So I just kept going.
The dog incident left me in tears. Nothing happened apart from my heart almost bursting out of my body. The dogs just decided to chase me for a long time, one almost got ran over but then got back on to chasing me and the others got so close I thought they'd bite me. I need to get some tips for this because it's a regular occurrence now. If they get too close I may just end up booting them in the face because I'm near breaking point. Animal cruelty only applies to animals who aren't trying to attack you!
As usual I had people beeping at me, waving and shouting "hello". I almost got crushed when a lorry took a corner way too fast and a pick up truck was in our lane coming the opposite way. People please be careful when taking corners. Be aware that there are other road users, not just you!
When I saw civilisation I was so happy! I arrived in Kundasang town and the street was lined with fruit and vegetables. My heaven. Seriously I had the biggest grin on my face. But I didn't stop, I couldn't, I had to achieve my goal to reach the Park. It took me 40 minutes to reach the National Park from Kundasang. It got colder, cloudier and it even started raining lightly.
Once I arrived at the National Park I was ready to leave! It was so cloudy I couldn't see a thing, plus after all that cycling I forgot my normal trainers to walk in and it was freezing but I didn't bring extra clothes either! I don't think I could have walked far anyway. So I took my descent back to Kundasang, I passed an organic farm (didn't stop) on the way. The ride was exhilarating and took about 5 minutes!
When I reached the town I stopped to pee, took some photos, filled up my water bottle and headed to the fruit and veg stalls. Now I dislike how everything was in plastic wrap and polystyrene, but I loved the arrangements. So colourful. If my kitchen could be filled like that everyday I'd be in heaven!
I bought 4kg of rollinia as this is my new favourite fruit, better than cherimoya! It tastes like the filling of a McDonald's apple pie... Sooooo amazing, perhaps cinnamon sprinkled on top would make it exactly like the pie (minus the fried outer and heat!) I wanted to buy more but I thought about the weight of the bike and I didn't want to overload it with too much.
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| Rollinia |
The descent from Kundasang was also exhilarating, I didn't encounter any dogs and at one point I over took a wagon! It felt like I was home instantly. I do love going downhill but it scares me sometimes, especially on the road bike with its thin tyres.
I don't think I'll be cycling back up there again during this trip, but maybe in the future.
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