To Mount Kinabalu

Tuesday September 21
Early this morning we set out towards the highest mountain in Malaysia. Mt Kinabalu rises 4095 metres. To reach the foothills we crossed the ridges of the Crocker Range. On the sloping hillsides farmers cut terraces into the hills and plant all kinds of vegetables such as cabbages, pumpkins, beans and cauliflower. These vegetables are sold in roadside market stalls and to shops and markets in the towns and cities of Sabah. The area around the mountain is a State park and has a world famous botanic gardens containing hundreds of different species of orchid.

Carnivorous pitcher plants grow here. Pitcher plants have leaves that hold a liquid that attracts insects and small animals that become trapped when they fall into the funnel-like opening in the leaf. They are then eaten by the plant!

You can see the vine on which the Raffelesia keithii grows
and the bud of a new flower about to open.
photo copyright www.kidcyber.com.au

Another plant that flowers here is the world's largest: the Raffelesia. The flowers can grow to be almost a metre across. We were lucky to find one in bloom! Its a Raffelesia keithii, the species of Raffelesia that grows in Sabah in Borneo.
The flower lasts for just a few days and then rots into slime.
You can read about another species of Raffelesia that grows in Indonesia, here on kidcyber

We saw some lizards on the trunks of the tall trees in the rainforest as well as many butterflies.

It was a long way from the city to the mountain, more than 40 kilometres along winding mountain roads. On the way back we were caught in rush hour traffic as the people of Kota Kinabalu left the city after work. A long, slow trip!