H O O N P A G E

Dear friends at my blog

Well it finally came to past that we eventually managed to climb to the top of Mt. Kinabalu on Wed 4th July 2007. It came after nearly 6 months from the day after our failed attempt in early February 2007.

On that trip, one of our members had a very bad cramped thigh. He turned around and decided to call it a day. With time not on our side and our determination diminishing, the rest of our team decided to go back with him.

For our 2nd hike, only those who had done a fair share of the training were allowed to join the team. Altogether we would have been training for almost 8 months since the  beginning of the lst trip. We have seen a few wild life including the clouded moniter lizard, the sun Skink, the squirrel, many monkeys and birds. The fellowship with the fellow colleagues had been very sweet.

About the 2nd hike, I almost did not make it as I had a bad knee pain just on the first day of the trip. The pain came suddenly on that Monday morning. It was an the old injury on my right knee. I hobbled around wondering if I could make it to the summit. In fact I even entertained the thought that I would remain in the Parks HQ to have a time of  etreat while the other two team-mates go ahead with their climb. But I was glad that I persisted and finally went with some intermediate goals in my mind. My aim was to target first for Laying -Layang (4 km). If I could reach there, I would then aim for Laban Rata ( the launch point for the summit). If I was still alright, then I would climb to the summit. I believe this to be a good plan to encourage myself to press on. Inspite of the knee pain, I pressed on against all odds and reached the summit on 4th July  Wednesday). What glorious day when I saw the sunrise on this bright beautiful day.

So much about the climb. A few lessons remain: first, at 51, I am encouraged that I can still do arduous climb. My mindset has been changed and I think I can do whatever I put my heart to do.The second lesson is to have a plan. I was planning to do 6 difficult things in the next 10 years. I made the list on my 50th birthday. I am glad that I can now put a check on the first of the 6 things. I have also planned to have a few check points for the intermediate goals.

Finally, our team and I have decided to keep up with our physical fitness and who knows sometime in 2008, we may attempt something else or we may start a movement for the motivated among our colleagues.

Three cheers for the three musketeers! Glory to God!