Fern

Up in the mountains it’s cool enough that yesterday evening I had to get a jumper out of the bottom of my backpack for the first time in more than 2 months. It poured with rain overnight. Perhaps it sounded heavier than it was because of the metal roof but it was so loud I started thinking about landslides and the hostel being washed away! The morning was sunny, at least it was looking from my balcony down to the valley. Looking the other way, up to the mountain, was cloudy. Climbing the mountain isn’t in my plan – you have to climb through the night in order to be at the top for sunrise and get down again before the weather closes in. It’s a tough climb and is very expensive as you have to hire a guide and stay overnight halfway up the mountain. I don’t think anyone who was at the summit this morning saw very much.

My plan was to get to the national park early and hike the trails around the base of the mountain and hope the rain held off until the afternoon. I got there just after 8am and the rain started about 11.15am. All the trails interlink so I started out on one and walked a loop via three others. At the top of a hill a gap in the forest gave a bit of a view. But I’ve taken a lot of forest photos and they all look the same so I spent the rest of the walk looking for details that would make a more interesting photo. Ferns are everywhere. There’s several hundred species of ferns in Borneo.

The rain came on suddenly and was immediately very heavy. I had a rain jacket this time but by the time I put it on and put my camera case into a plastic bag in my daypack, I was soaked. I walked back to one of the Park buildings and sheltered there for a while. After 20 minutes I was cold and although the rain was lighter, it hadn’t stopped, so I went back to the hostel. By the time I got there, the sun had come out – but only for about half an hour. I had a hot shower and some lunch and was thinking about going back to the national park when the rain started again. And it rained for the rest of the afternoon. So I drank tea and read my book, watching the valley come and go between the clouds.