Birdwatching at Lepo Bunga shelter.– Photo by WWF-Malaysia (Alicia Ng).
THE inaugural Heart of Borneo Eco Challenge is now open for registration.
It’s time to cross the following items off your bucket list — broaden horizons, leave the comfort of urbanity to explore, trek and hike in Borneo, walk the pilgrimage trail of the Lun Bawangs and the Kelabits, bird watching in the highlands, gain indigenous knowledge of the forests.
The Eco Challenge, typically lasting eight days and seven nights (July 24 to 31) from Ba Kelalan to Bario, will set adventure seekers and nature lovers on a trail, stretching over 100km through various terrains and weather conditions, ranging from 25 degrees Celsius in the day to below 10 degrees Celsius at night.
To keep all belongings dry, a backpack with raincover is highly recommended. For the safety and health of porters, participants are reminded to backpack the maximum 15kg each, and carry a daypack with their basic necessities such as medication, drinking water, mosquito repellent throughout their hike.
Getting to Ba Kelalan from Miri takes just one hour 35 minutes in a MasWings 19-seater Twin Otter. If you have never been in this plane before or have always wanted to be in one, you can cross this off your bucket list as well. The Twin Otter offers a very casual flight experience as the first thing you will notice is the free seating.
In Ba Kelalan, passengers are escorted off the tarmac into the quaint airport to collect their baggage and settle in. Ba Kelalan is a settlement comprising nine villages 910m above sea level. The largest village, and the village where the airport is located, is called Buduk Nur. Most of villagers are Lun Bawangs.
On the second day, hike from Buduk Nur to Pa’ Rebata shelter. Pa’ in Lun Ba-wang means river and the Pa’ Rebata shelter indicates it is next to the Rebata River. The journey takes about seven hours through heath forest, hills and logging tracks.
The start of the trail is fairly easy — through rolling hills and into the forest. As the trail steepens, participants will pass several historical sites – Natad Agong, a spot dedicated to Agong Bangau, the man who holds the record of felling the farthest tree (meranti) from the village for construction in the 80’s. Paths carved by his buffalo hauling a tree are still very much visible and the stump of the tree remains as a marker.
The sole surviving yoke for this purpose belongs to a family in Pa’ Lungan, Bario.
Gurkha landings
Natad Gurkha is a rest area, commemorating Gurkha landings in Ba Kelalan during Operation Claret (1964-66) at the time of Indonesia’s Confrontation (1963-1966).
It is said the actual landing site by the Gurkhas is further up the trail at what used to a helicopter landing area. A signage called Natad Belaban Atas was erected at the existing site. Natad means resting spot in Lun Bawang and Belaban refers to the type of trees once found in the area.
The big tree named after Natad Gurkha is visible from Buduk Nur and Ba Kelalan airport. It is highly significant for the locals who set up barricades against a logging conglomerate in 1992 to protect this particular tree and the remaining trees below as well as their water catchment area.
On the logging tracks, footprints of small mammals are highly visible. A participant from the initial recce team had a brief encounter with a barking deer. Sweat bees along the tracks are common but it is no cause for panic as they are harmless.
Upon reaching the shelter, a refreshing swim and cooling dip awaits at Pa’ Rebata.
On the third day, participants will begin their five-hour ascent on the logging tracks to Lepo Bunga shelter — or the Shelter of Flowers in Lun Bawang after the original one was used for flower and orchid research some 30 years ago.
They can take comfort in the new infrastructure being equipped with a kitchen, toilets and water tanks. At an elevation of about 1,600m above sea level, it gets pretty chilly. When the recce team were at Lepo Bunga, they spotted a hornbill and various endemic birds in the evening.
Lepo Bunga marks the end of the logging tracks.
Boy and his buffalo in Pa’ Lungan village. — Photo by WWF-Malaysia (Cynthia Chin)
Onwards and upwards
On the fourth day, the hike becomes steeper as the destination is Church Camp, 2,100m above sea level. Orchids and nepenthes are spotted along the paths and one will have to climb roots and cross belian planks, installed by villagers, before reaching the plank walk. It is along this trail you become attuned to the markings made on roots and trees and learn to read the signs and markers to follow in the right direction.
The plank walk was built by the community in the 90’s to make the journey to Church Camp easier. Its condition has deteriorated — and the only way to Church Camp is around the plank walk — or some areas on the newly placed metal plank walk provided by Forest Department Sarawak.
Participants will pass the junction to Bario, making their way to the end of the plank walk to a fork in the trail. Turn left to descend to Church Camp or climb Batu Linanit just in front and then descend to Church Camp.
The calm and isolation of Church Camp is hauntingly beautiful. Mist will thicken and dissipate just as quickly, and the temperature is about 17 degrees Celsius during the day.
By nightfall, the temperature drops and can get to 11 degrees Celsius. Headlamps are especially useful in Church Camp as the toilets are situated in a designated area from the houses.
To experience a most breathtaking view of the night sky, walk towards the Church, turn off your headlamps and torchlights, be enveloped in darkness and look up. When the sky is clear, it’s just you and the stars-filled sky. Your naked eyes are all you need to view the constellations and the Milky Way.
Descending Church Camp to Long Belaban in Bario takes place on day five. The initial journey retraces steps along the plank walk to the Bario junction. From there, it will be a leisurely walk along the ridge and a gradual descent through different forests — montane, moss, heath and riverine.
Moving from forest to forest, this trail feeds your senses as you take in the sights, scents, sounds, tastes and touch. An example of the sensory feed at the moss forest is a particular scent that is fresh, deep and mildly bitter com-pared to the scent of freshly cut grass.
The ground under your feet feels hollow and soft — like walking on thick, luxurious carpet. The trees surrounding the area are covered with moss, some completely blanketed and are soft and wet to the touch, and roots woven into the intricate forest, make it all very ethereal.
The route to Long Belaban passes through patches of forest fruit trees. When in season, the sweet scent of ripened forest fruits fills the air, tinged with hints of bamboo. As Long Belaban does not have a shelter, participants will sleep in temporary camping-style tents under the stars.
Long Belaban is next to the river where participants can cool off and refresh themselves. A carved stone (Batu Narit) sits about 20 minutes walk to the shelter.
An Agatis tree circumvented by participants from the recce team.–Photo by WWF-Malaysia (Alicia Ng).
Bario Bound
On the sixth day, and over the 900m steep Hill of Coffins, participants will descend into civilisation at Pa’ Lungan settlement where they will spend a night at a homestay and get to enjoy the feast, prepared by their host, which sometimes includes the exquisitely tarty Bario pineapples.
As mentioned earlier, Pa’ Lungan is the settlement which has the only known surviving yoke used for hauling felled trees. Participants will be able to see the yoke as it lies in a yard along the path to the homestay.
The journey for the following (seventh) day will be short, and on flatter terrains. Participants can also take a short walk to Batu Ritung, a megalithic tomb, excavated in 1962 by then Curator of the Sarawak Museum, Tom Harrison.
On the final day (July 31), the journey starts with a walk through a buffalo- trodden path towards Bario.
Weather permitting, there is an option to go on a one-hour boat ride to Pa’ Umor jetty and then walk down the open road to Bario town. If the river water is too low, participants will take the other trail past the jetty towards Bario. Sunscreen and hat are highly recommended.
July 30 also marks the start of the 10th Bario Slow Food and Cultural Festival. Slow cooked, wholesome traditional food awaits and it is also a time to party with the locals and visit the longhouses for quality handicrafts. A must-have to bring back is Bario pineapples.
FORMADAT has appointed Planet Borneo Tours and Travel Services as their partner to market the event to local and international participants.
Planet Borneo Tours and Travel Services has been operating since 1987 and has a collective experience of over 80 years in the tour industry.
“It’s a test of endurance, bearing in mind the challenges posed by the different terrains and altitudes,” enthused Gracie Geikei, principal consultant for Planet Borneo Group of Companies.
“A golden opportunity to experience nature – its sounds, sights and smells — for outdoors enthusiasts who are inclined to sleeping in sleeping bags or tents in the jungle, do not mind drinking boiled rain or river water, or even enjoy refreshing bamboo tapped water and are looking for an unforgettable ex-perience in Borneo away from their familiar urban spoils and be a participant in the natural world,” she said.
A word of advice from FORMADAT chairman, Sarawak, Penghulu George Sigar Sultan: “As this is an eco-challenge organised to promote our pilgrimage trail, I hope everyone will enjoy what nature has to offer responsibly and take nothing but photos and leave nothing but footprints.
“It’s crucial for all participants to understand their trash should be carried out of the forests to be disposed at the nearest town.”
To learn more about the Heart of Borneo Eco-Challenge, follow facebook.com/hobecochallenge, or contact Planet Borneo Tours at 085-414 300 (Miri), 082-241 300 (Kuching) and by email at [email protected] .
For further information, contact Alicia Ng, Senior Community Engagement & Education Officer, WWF-Malaysia (tel: +60 82 247 420; email: [email protected]),Zora Chan, Senior Communications Officer, WWF-Malaysia (tel: +60 82 247 420; email: [email protected]) and Rumaizah Mohammad Abu Bakar, Head of Communications, WWF-Malaysia (tel: +603 7450 3773; email: [email protected]).
A hornbill captured on camera by a recce team member. — Photo by WWF-Malaysia (Paula Chang).
The inaugural Heart of Borneo Highlands Eco Challenge will be held from July 24 to 31 from Ba’ Kelalan to the Church Camp on Gunung Murud and onwards to Bario.
Organised by Forum Masyarakat Adat Dataran Tinggi (FORMADAT) and supported by the Sarawak government, Curtin University and WWF-Malaysia, participants of the event will explore the pilgrimage trail of the Lun Bawang and Kelabit people through primary, secondary, riverine, montane, moss and heath forests.
FORMADAT) is a transboundary, grassroots initiative in the Heart of Borneo (HoB) highlands set up in 2004 by the elders and representatives of communities from the Highlands in Malaysia — Bario, Ba Kelalan, Long Semadoh, Ulu Padas and Indonesia — Krayan and Krayan Selatan.
The HoB Initiative is a joint effort of the governments of Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei to manage 22 million hectares of land and forest in central Borneo.
WWF-Malaysia (World Wide Fund for Nature-Malaysia) was set up in Malaysia in 1972. It currently runs over 90 projects, covering a diverse range of environmental conservation and protection work, from saving endangered species such as tigers and turtles, to protecting our highland forests, rivers and seas. The national conservation organisation also undertakes environmental education and advocacy work to achieve its conservation goals. Its mission is to stop the degradation of the earth’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the nation’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.