Wednesday March 31 Day 6 – The Day After

Ouch! Swing legs out of bed, plant feet firmly on the floor, and push up to a squat. Step 1. Wait a few minutes until the legs unfold and push up to standing. Step 2. Now swing one leg in front of the other and head to the bathroom. Step 3. More pain. With movement the screaming thighs and calves became more flexible. With movment came more flexibility, less pain, and the ability to walk on the flat. Walking downhill to the restaurant used a whole different set of muscles. We called it the “Kinabalu Walk” – I think everyone experienced the symptoms at various degrees. 

Ray’s foot was fine, thank goodness, sore, but no worse than it had been, and he only suffered stiffness.  The last thing I wanted was food, but I knew I should eat. I wanted to sit, but I knew I should move; and I wanted to sleep,but I knew I wouldn’t sleep at night. So, after breakfast we walked to the forest, climbed slowly up some more steps for about 80 metres, and onto the swinging bridges in the canopy of the jungle. The challenge, to walk across without holding on. The views over the tree tops, some about 75 metres high and 3 or 4 metres in circumference, and the thrill of the swinging bridge was all exciting and made us momentarily forget our aching limbs.

After the canopy walk we headed back to our room, collapsed on the bed, and slept for 2 hours! We weren’t the only ones!!

Our afternoon activity was a visit to the hotsprings, a unique sanctuary in the middle of the jungle where the sulphur springs from the mountains were piped into separate little pools in pods of 4.  You made sure the pool was emptied from the previous resident and then we refilled it with water at our chosen temperature. Somewhat sanitary!!

The little village at Poring Hotsprings was a strip of shops and restaurants by the edge of a two lane road. The shops included a laundry, so we took some washing there and picked it up on our way back from the hot springs. Then we showered, headed to our group meeting at 7:000, ate dinner, and were in bed by 9:30 p.m.