Fahrenheit minus 459 ( absolute zero): July 2006

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Just Browsing..... and all i have is my Nokia phone

ALL images taken with

my Nokia Mobile's 1.3 Megapixel Camera lightly toasted in PS.

Laban Rata - with yellow Lowii's Buttercup in the foreground on the right.

Mt Kinabalu peaks - and my 'only' image of a (partial) tree fern. We were having breakfast at the Park's HQ restaurant prior to the departure to the Timpohon Gate
KK's International airport is situated near the coast line. ( see the offshore islands off KK)

Instead of heading back into the Singapore nature trails, I spent two weekends visiting libraries & browsing books and magazine in local bookstores.

I found this...

A good book on creating your photo-blog to showcase your masterpiece [ Thomson's Popular Book store ]

THEN

In this volume there is a page on the same species of root parasite I found in Mount Kinabalu ( see my earlier posting on Mt K's plants) . [ Kinokuniya, Taka and Wdlands Public Library]

Note the inflorescenes growing out of the buds. The resultant flowers are even more striking... only if i can locate the image sources again.

Then I stumbled into this heavy volume (above) in Kino - A good intro text on botany - plenty of color photographs and comprehensive coverage but at S$100+. Time to make good use of my $50 vouchers.

The first weekend after the climb its Sony SLR - Alpha launch 2nd day - 7/19.

Interesting camera, stiff metallic turning knobs

but I have owned just too many cameras

already. Still clinging to my Canons..

I have canon printer,

canon old slr AV-1, AE-1, T70s,

Eos-film, Eos Dslr... the latest being the light-weight S3... which I brought to KK.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Mount Kinabalu Part III - Along the way

Examples of the types of trails in your [4-6 hrs] trekking to Laban Rata (3272m) from Timpohon Gate (1866 m)

A typical 'pondok' or hut- rest stop along the trail

Translated to " Dont sit on the [electric] cable!

Drinking water along the way ( untreated) - cold and refreshing

Tandas - Toilet

Upper Montane Forest - at the clouds levels leading to plant 'stress' with over water feed and interfered photosynthesis and reduced transpiration

Monday, July 17, 2006

Mount Kinabalu Part II - Simply Rock

Mt Kinabalu - even before we set foot on KK. It was just outside the window!!
While our Boeing plane is approaching landing, I fished out my Canon S3 and shot the distant Mountain Kinabalu.. yes we are coming to you soon.

View from the National Park HQ on a clear sky.

Close-up of the South Peak (3921.5m), often mistaken to be the Low's peak which is not visible from HQ.

South Peak was featured in the Malaysian $1 Note see above.

Donkey Ears (4054m) - note the lizard-like rock debris hanging on the left wall. See close-up below.

This one look like a map of Australia. ...
and note a pair of lower legs structure on the left.

Close-up showing the skull with front teeth, single eye.
The 'lower-legs' structure on top. Use the lone climber for size comparison.

On the left is the South Peak(3921.5m) and St John's Peak(4090.7m) on the Right.
The smooth incline was caused by glacial movement 100,000 years ago.

The rope will lead you to the Low's Peak 4095.2 Metre

How far can you see on top of Low's Peak?
Using radius of earth as 6378Km and height of Low's peak of 4.095 Km, the tangential path d is found to be around 228 Km or 200+Km.
( ignoring the effect of atmospheric refraction) . So Tim , when we were at Kuching - those peaks CANNOT be the 'donkey ears' of Mt Kinabalu. ( distance of KK to Kuching is 804 Km!).

Strange landscape

Line of climbers on wide expanse of granite slope - sticking close to the guide rope

Stay close to the rope. I star gazed a bit while on my way up. Note the granite slabs left behind
Glacial period a long time ago

Walking back..

Sayat-Sayat Hut (3668.1m) (see map below).

Laban Rata Rest House (3,272 m). Most climbers retired to bed earlier after dinner - the ascent is usually around 2:30am!

Mount Kinabalu , Sabah Jul 14-17 '06 (Part I)

July 16, 2006 I reached the summit (Mt Kinabalu, 4095.2 metre) slightly before 6:00am- just in time to catch the first ray of sunlight to hit Borneo. Clouds created streaks on each side of the red golden sun.
Just a short while ago I was at the gentle great sloping granite slabs. During rest time I stole a look at the hazy sky. At zenith a halo was seen circling the moon. Orion had risen, instinctly I followed the 'belt' upwards and arrived at the misty patch of Pleaides with Aldebaran nearby. Venus was up shinning brightly - the whole starry scene painted with the 'donkey ears' and 'ugly sister' as backdrop 3,500 metres up! In the distance zig-zag line of headlamps marked the line of climbers towards Low's Peak. The air was crisp and refreshing( I had my inner, middle and outer layer). On reflection this might be a good place to star-gaze. It was so serene and out-of-the world.

While the main objective was to reach the summit but I kept a camera ready and eyes peeled looking out for plants. I took them on my trekking towards Laban Rata (3353 metre).