Forty-five kilometres. By car, we can easily cover that distance in under an hour. On foot, in the tropical rainforest, however, 45km becomes 100 times longer, and can take days to complete. This is what a group of us experienced during the Heart of Borneo Highlands Eco-challenge in Sarawak last month.
For six days, we retraced the path of early highland settlers who travelled on foot through mountainous terrain, between the villages of Ba’ Kelalan and Bario.
Forum Masyarakat Adat Dataran Tinggi (FORMADAT, a grassroots initiative comprising communities from Bario, Ba’ Kelalan, Long Semadoh and Ulu Padas in Malaysia, as well as Krayan and Krayan Selatan in Kalimantan) thought up the event to promote eco-tourism and an appreciation of their culture and highland environment.
So, aside from experiencing diverse forest landscapes – we trekked through dipterocarp, riparian, heath and montane forests – we also got to relish the bucolic life in remote highland villages, taste jungle fare and see historical sites of the Lun Bawang and Kelabit people.
A few lichen and moss species photographed in the forest.
Wild rhododendron blooms and the orchids you can eat (far right).
Our journey started in Miri, where we boarded a MasWing twin otter for the 45-minute flight to Lawas. Then, the five of us – two journalists, a Malaysian Nature Society member, a World Wide Fund for Nature communications officer (the NGO sponsored the trip) and a team leader from tour company Borneo Planet – squeezed into a four-wheel drive for the bumpy, five-hour ride to Ba’ Kelalan, the starting point of our trek.
Though long, the drive passed quickly as we took in passing views of forested mountains and villages nestled in valleys.
Lush rice fields fringed by rolling highlands make for the charming settlement of Ba’ Kelalan, home to some 1,000 people from the Lun Bawang tribe.
Beyond the mountains lies Kalimantan. As we took a stroll, friendly villagers greeted us and stopped for a chat. Sitting at 970m above sea level, days here are pleasant and nights, cool. It is no wonder visitors find their way back here, again and again.
Day 1: Ba’ Kelalan to Pa’ Rebata shelter
After a speech and a prayer by the village head, we set off on our journey. The trail is one used by villagers for hunting trips and winds through secondary forest which also supplies them with wood. Our local guide, Kading Sultan, pointed out various plants used by villagers to cure ailments. One species of moss is used to make hunting dogs more aggressive, to do their job better.
“The forest is our supermarket and bank,” he says.
While we were walking, hornbill calls rang through the forest, but the thick canopy prevented us from sighting the majestic birds. After trudging for some six hours, we reached our jungle shelter beside the Rebata river (Pa’ means river in the Lun Bawang dialect).
The group’s guide, porters and cooks.
Our five porters had arrived earlier on their motorbikes. Yes, you can get there on the logging road, but because this is an eco-challenge, we walked. A fire was lit in the hearth and there was soon hot coffee to soothe tired limbs.
For dinner, in addition to canned sardines and cabbage, we had stir-fried orchids and shoots. The blooms, plucked by our porters along the way, were slightly bitter but fragrant.
Day 2: Pa’ Rebata to Lepo Bunga
The day’s walk was a steep climb on an old logging road. The cool morning slowly became scorching but thankfully, three hours later, we reached Lepo Bunga shelter (the original building was used for flower and orchid research some 30 years ago).
We slept in the newest shelter, completed in 2011 as a research and visitor centre by the Forestry Department. There are no rivers here so we bathed with rainwater collected in a huge drum. For dinner, we feasted on fried orchids again and grilled banana flower which Kading harvested during our trek.
It got chilly as the sun set, as we were now 1,600m above sea level. Still, we braved the cold to marvel at the star-studded sky, a sight obscured by light pollution in cities.
Day 3: Lepo Bunga to Church Camp
Lepo Bunga is the trailhead for the climb to Mount Murud, Sarawak’s highest peak. But for this trek, we skipped the summit and headed only to Church Camp due to concerns that the trail will be inaccessible should there be heavy rains.
Mount Murud is deemed a holy site by the locals after they witnessed some miracles in the 1980s. Once a year, pilgrims trek up to Church Camp for prayers.
While the past two days took us through secondary forest and logging road with little interesting flora, today we entered the virgin forest of Pulong Tau National Park. The trail climbed mercilessly. Fortunately, tree roots provided footholds.
The vegetation changed with the elevation. The big, soaring trees of dipterocarp forests gave way to the smaller stands of heath and montane vegetation. Moss and lichen draped tree trunks and roots. Orchid and rhododendron blooms stopped us in our tracks and pitcher plants drew gasps of delight.
Two hours into the walk, we reached a resting point which is also the start of a plankwalk, built in the 1990s to ease the pilgrims’ trek to Church Camp as the trail is wet and muddy. The structure had collapsed, however. Recently, a new metal walkway was installed, but this covers only a short part of the route.
Having a rest on the metal walkway to Church Camp.
Church Camp is inhabited once a year by Christian pilgrims. The holy site of Mount Murud is close.
From here, the trail became an obstacle course; we had to watch where we placed our foot to avoid sinking into the muddy trail. It is perpetually wet here as this forest holds the headwaters of major rivers in north-east Sarawak.
After trekking for six hours, Church Camp came into view. It should be called Church Village as it is virtually a wholekampung – there are some 80 huts built closely together, and a church big enough to house 1,500 people. The huts, owned by families in Ba Kelalan and Bario, are occupied only during the annual pilgrimage.
It is mind-boggling to think how all the construction materials were hauled up the mountain. All the homes have piped water sourced from a dug pond but one wonders where all the wastewater goes. We slept in a common longhouse with rooms. We were now at 2,135m, so it was freezing at night.
Day 4: Church Camp to Long Belaban
We awoke to a cold, misty morning. Descending Church Camp, we retraced the muddy trail of the day before, for about two hours. After that, it was a less tiring walk along mountain ridges before we reached Jurassic Park, named such because of the ancient feel of the montane forest.
Plush layers of soft moss cloaked the ground and trees, creating an ethereal fairyland forest. Tall trees with wide canopies marked the transition back to hill dipterocarp forest again and we had to slowly inch our way down steep slopes.
Along the way, we startled a troop of maroon langurs which quickly jumped from tree to tree. We eventually reached flat terrain, but other challenges await – the trail was muddy and leech-infested. Then it started to rain. We walked a gruelling eight hours before reaching our campsite for the night, beside a river.
Different kinds of monkey cup.
A fascinating moss-covered log.
Day 5: Long Belaban to Pa’ Lungan
Today, we made our way back to civilisation – but not before traversing more tough terrain. At times, the trail skirts steep hillsides; we clung to tree trunks, roots and rocks, to prevent a long fall down. When the trail flattened out, the ground was mushy and full of blood-suckers – there’s no winning either way.
Noting our tiredness, Kading stopped at a bamboo grove and gave us a treat. He chopped a stick of bamboo and out flowed fresh-tasting bamboo water. The drink rejuvenated us.
On a ridge, aptly called Hill of Coffins, Kading pointed out depressions in the ground where burial jars were placed. Just when we felt like we could not walk any further, we caught sight of rooftops. Finally, we had reached Pa’ Lungan, after an exhausting nine hours’ walk.
This is an idyllic village of just 300 people – a postcard-perfect kind of place with a scattering of wooden houses amongst padi fields and pasture, framed by rolling mountain ranges.
That night, we feasted on bamboo shoots, wild ferns, wild ginger flower omelette, grilled wild boar, wild boar stew, grilled chicken, steamed fish and chicken soup, all prepared by the homestay owner. And we slept soundly on soft mattresses.
Day 6: Pa’ Lungan to Bario
Megalithic monuments are scattered all over the mountains of Bario and Ba Kelalan. Before leaving Pa’ Lungan, we stopped at the 2m-high Batu Ritong, a huge stone slab supported by three standing slabs.
It is one of the few dolmen structures which remain upright in the Bario highlands. According to local lore, it is the secondary burial site of the aristocrat, Ritong. If you dig hard enough, locals say, you can still find bone fragments, pottery shards and beads in the ground.
The last leg of our trek alternated between a dirt road and a jungle trail. As we neared Bario, we stopped at another megalith, a huge boulder bearing carvings of a hornbill, stylised figures and a series of notches, each one symbolising one head beheaded.
After two-and-a-half hours, we reached Pa Ukat village and from there, a cement road leads to Bario. We walked for four hours that day and reached Bario in time for the annual Pesta Nukenen (Food Festival).
Stalls line the main village street, selling local produce such as the famous Bario rice (also called Adan rice) and salt (made from highland mineral springs) as well as local delicacies such as mashed tapioca leaves, pineapple curry, ferns, grilled wild boar meat and stewed deer meat.
Bario delicacies being sold at Pesta Nukenen.
Now that the trip is over, the tough parts of the trek are all but forgotten and only the good memories remain: sipping hot coffee beside the fireplace in a jungle shelter, the plush carpet of moss cushioning my steps, being lulled to sleep by the sound of the rain at Long Belaban, relishing second helpings of fragrant Adan rice and the indescribable fresh, green scent of the forest.
One statement by Kading will forever be etched in my mind: “It doesn’t matter to us which party becomes the government … just don’t touch our forests, our rivers.”
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