Liwagu Trail, Sabah Park Kundasang

I have already by October book a date to hike Mount Trus Madi via Sinua Trail in December. So as preparation for the trip, I made sure I keep myself active by hiking whenever I can. The lower the cost the better. Hahaa..to my surprise while researching for trails in Sabah, I just found out that in Sabah Park itself, there area a few trails any any nature lover can give a go. Kiau View Trail, Pandanus Trail, Bukit Ular Hillside Trail, Bundu Tuhan View Trail, Bukit Tupai Trail, Bukit Burong trail, Mempening Trail, Silau-silau Trail and Liwagu Trail..We went for the longest trail there,  which is the Liwagu trail estimated at 5.6km one way on 30th October 2016. All these trail are accessible to the public at only RM3/head entrance fee..

Joining my entourage for this time is just a handful of us comprising of the ever faithful Fei, photography enthusiast Aldro and my always-excited-to-comment-whenever-i-post-a-hiking-pic friend Eydah. Eydah was skeptic about the idea at first because she claim that we were probably very fast to which I replied we would be doing a leisure hiking. So early morning I went to pick up Fei and Eydah, we had our breakfast together and take away packed lunch for the trip. We headed to Sabah Park and made our first mistake by parking outside the park at the bottom of the entrance stairs. Then the 3 of us made our way up, paid the entrance fee of RM3/person. I asked for the trail map and was a give a black and white photocopy of the trail outline in the park. Once Aldro arrived, we made our way to the starting point according to the trail map I obtained, which is to the right from the entrance. But then when the others started questioning the route, I went into the transport office and asked the gentleman inside, which one of the explained to take the left road towards Timpohon gate..so we change our route and starting walking..and walking up the road..that's when we started to asked ourselves, why didn't we just drove one of the car inside the park to find the starting point.."duh.." Once we passed the Grace hostel, Rock hostel, Kinabalu lodge then finally infornt of Liwagu restaurant.. we started to wonder where on earth is the starting point of Liwagu trail. Eydah went inside the restaurant to asked but the workers there were confused, guess not many people have come in and asked for direction to the trails in Sabah Park.Hahaa.. We just started to make a u-turn when Fei spotted an important looking fellow just exiting the back area of the restaurant so we just asked him about the trails. He said to no surprise that we had taken the wrong route, we were suppose to take the right turn from the entrance and would have seen the starting point not far off. But now he advised us to just go ahead to near Timpohon gate, which was supposed to be the end point of Liwagu trail and start from there so that we will end up finishing near the entrance.. So blessing in disguise, we did make a wrong turn but we ended up doing a circle route altogether. We thanked the gentleman and make our way up towards Timpohon gate on foot ya..could have just drove 1 car there and left another near the entrance. But what done is done so we make the best of it. Funny thing is.. Aldro said that we were talking to a Bos..to which I replied how would he had known that then he said..the guy was wearing a Rolex watch. The 3 of us just let out the sound "ooooo..."

Because we walked all the way up, with me as the sweeper because like the cars I have to change gear every time there is an uphill, we passed by some places that were unnoticeable. Like the monument they put up for the lost lives during the earthquake tragedy in June 5, 2015.

Monument for the lost lives, many were still children

The singage for Liwagu trail was almost unnoticeable because cars were park everywhere along the Timpohon gate. So we really had to keep a look out for it. But still I had to walk up the road more than I needed to in order to catch Aldro because he was too damn fast and far to hear us calling his name when he walked passed the signaga trail.Hahaaa..

Entrance to Liwagu from near Timpohon gate

As we were having a photo-shoot session before starting, I notice a few eyes just staring at us then when we went down the trail a tourist couple soon followed suite.. We let them passed us after a while because me and Fei want to spray adequate insecticide on our stockings. Now if we had started from the real starting point, this would have been a bit tiring because the trail is a bit steep but since we were starting from high grounds to low..it was quite an enjoyable hike.enough to make you sweat but not scream.. The trail itself is really pretty with moss and wild flowers here and there. We had to crawl over a few big pipes though..by afternoon we wanted to take our lunch but were not able to find q good spot. Up to this pint we were still within the tourist couple view sight since they were busy taking photos as well. Finally we got to a place near the river stream with a small wooden bridge and few rocks which was perfect for an eating spot. So, us 3 gals were busy chatting and eating while Mr.photographer was busy doing his own thing there setting up camera and jumping from rock to rock. Eydah finally lose it asking what is he doing back there and launched into reporter mode to investigate while me and Fei casually continue eating our lunch.This therapeutic moment was disrupted when Fei suddenly scream leech..a leech the size of a pea was making its way up my shirt..so the 2 of us went into mad women mode spraying ourselves. This time Eydah was the one casually sitting down cross leg asking us to calm ourselves down..

Mossy forest

We were so high up

 

Where we stop for lunch

The small waterfall we found near our lunch spot

So apparently Mr photographer have set up a photo shoot area with a small waterfall as our background. The 4 of us went into top model mode. After lunch we continue our hike but the weather started to change and we had to put on our ponchos. The trail is a bit slippery because of the rain and we rushed to finished it. But we did stop to take some photos when we spotted a tree looking like elephant trunks on the way. The river turned to a brown muddy color because of the rain though, all in all it was a good hike and we laughed at how near the real starting point was to the entrance gate. But I caught a cold after the hike because it was soo cold and our extra change of clothes was in the car. So we drove home shivering in cold and had to stop for hot drinks in Kota Kinabalu. So yeah..must remind myself change of clothes is a must every time. I would definitely be back to try out the other shorter trails.