- A School Adventure that treks the famous `Headhunters Trail`
- A Cultural Exchange spending a night in a longhouse, as guests of the Iban people
- Meet the inhabitants of the Sepilok orang-utan sanctuary
- Climb to the summit of Kinabalu, Borneo’s highest peak
This exciting School Adventure trip begins in the Mulu National Park, home to vast caves and soaring limestone pinnacles. From here, we trek northwards on the ‘Headhunters Trail’, with an overnight stop in an Iban longhouse where we gain an understanding of the culture of the ethnic tribe-people. Then, it’s on to Sandakan, where we visit the orang-utan sanctuary at Sepilok and enjoy 2 nights at a jungle lodge on the Kinabatangan River, in an area fantastically rich in wildlife. Finally, we turn our attention to Mount Kinabalu (4101m) and make the quite challenging 2-day ascent of this impressive granite peak, with an overnight at the mountain lodge of Laban Rata. This is Borneo at its very best!
Educational Perspective
Borneo’s rainforest has greater biodiversity than almost anywhere else on earth, with 1000 species of trees and more than 10,000 species of flowering plants.
Amend or Extend
This itinerary could easily be changed to give even more emphasis to Borneo’s amazing wildlife or to reduce the physical challenge by leaving out Mount Kinabalu, for example.
Trip Guide
We recommend a minimum age of 15 years
The first trekking element on this trip is the 4-day exploration of the Gunung Mulu National Park. You will need to be prepared for hot conditions and for, at times, testing underfoot conditions. We will be mostly walking on tracks and trails between villages. There will be rutted, muddy roads and slippery hunters tracks through the forest. There are also river crossings, some on tree trunk bridges. We have a couple of hours walking on our first day at Mulu, 2 to 3 hours on the second, 6 to 7 hours on the third and 4 to 5 hours on the final day in this area. Two days are set aside for the ascent of Mount Kinabalu. This is a tough undertaking, involving approximately 2200 metres of ascent and descent via the same route. The path is well maintained in places and has countless steps. It can be slippery low down in the forest and after rain. High up on the route, there are sections of bare rock slabs, with some fixed rope handrails. The route is never very steep nor exposed. Each KE School Adventure is given a grade, taking into account the amount of walking involved, the difficulty of the terrain, the remoteness, the altitude and the overall length of the trip. The trips are graded on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most challenging. This trip is graded 6.
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