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| Giluk Falls |
Maliau Basin is the Lost World of Sabah. I went there in Oct 2006 in the middle of the awful haze that enveloped the country so many of the photos are spoilt by the hazy conditions. In fact it was so bad that Tawau airport was closed for a day or two.
Maliau is an amazing place, totally unspoilt - although sadly loggers and poachers are encroaching right up to all the boundaries.
The Basin is a huge bowl, bigger in area than Singapore, and was only explored for the first time in the 1980s. The sheer sides of the basin have kept it a secret place. Now it is designated a Conservation Area along with Danum Valley to the east.
The road from Tawau -
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| my muddy foot |
Ginseng Camp
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| hazy view of the basin |
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| Camel Trophy camp |
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| natural tannins |
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| leeched ! |
No reproduction without permission
What a beauty!
ReplyDeleteWow! Interesting place!~ Liz, may I know how to go there? Need to apply permit? Any accomodation? Hire car at Tawau airport? I want to go there oneday.
ReplyDeleteThis pitcher plant is called Nepenthes veitchii. Only found in Borneo.
ReplyDeleteHa, thought you were referring to a photo of me and instead its a waterfall :-) I might have guessed :-)
ReplyDeleteThe other waterfall I don't have good pictures of as we saw it from the upper level so I have no pic looking down.
thanks for that. I have so many pic of different pitcher plants, maybe I'll post some others when I get time.
ReplyDeleteJust checked my photos, and unfortunately I didnt get any photos of the really tiny pitcher plants that are found at ground level. I was too tired on that day after the strenuous trekking!
ReplyDeleteJunglemike - Maliau is still quite remote in that very few people go there. Yes you need permit and need to go with a tour agent, you also need insurance that covers emergency helicopter evacuation and you need a medical cert to say you are OK for trekking. Accommodation you can see in the photos, Camel Trophy is good, Loba is very basic, the other camps are inbetween. You need 4WD to get there unless they've improved the road. If you search The Star archives you should find an article from last Nov or Dec written by my colleague.
ReplyDeleteLiz
Thanks Liz. Yes, you can post the pictures of pitcher plants, then I'll identify for you.
ReplyDeleteHello Junglemike, I've added a few more pitcher plant photos although they are probably all the same species. Sadly I didn't get any pic of the really tiny ones.
ReplyDeleteDear, how can I refer to your photo, when all you show is just a question mark...:-(
ReplyDeleteI think this one is Nepenthes macrovulgaris.
ReplyDeleteWow!!! So many pitchers!!!
ReplyDeleteThis one not sure....should be Nepenthes macrovulgaris.
ReplyDeletemaybe this orchid is Spathoglottis kimballiana. nice looking flowers!
ReplyDeleteThanks. I wondered if that is a different one as it was found in a different place from all the others. All the others were taken in the same place in a mossy forest.
ReplyDeleteCirrochora malaya if without apical spot u/side. Your shoe must be smelly and salty.
ReplyDeleteNot my shoe, it was the guide's shoe!!!! I've now added a picture of my foot with the same butterfly. So my shoes also salty!!! Thanks for the ID.
ReplyDeleteNote that my big toenail is still intact. After just a few days of steep downhill descents in Maliau my toenail fell off some months later
This one ? I can see two leech marks. Big toe nail fell off -what happened !? What do you do to remove the leeches ?
ReplyDeleteIs this you ? Your leg muscle looks terrible.. over worked .
ReplyDeleteThey are not suppose to do logging anymore, no.
ReplyDeleteAfraid so. My knees were so swollen I was really had trouble on the downhills, but especially on the last day going down off the basin. And I couldn't climb the observation tower at Agathis Camp cos my kness simply refused to work.
ReplyDeleteI just pull leeches off. I don't mind leeches at all, I've had hundreds on me over the years, in all sorts of places on my body, the worst being on my eyelid at night. People say you shouldn't pull leeches for for various reasons, but as I say I've done it hundreds of times and never had a problem. And I love playing with leeches once they have fed - rolling them up, stretching them, squashing them so all the blood squirts out........ :-)
ReplyDeleteI actually lost 3 toe nails after the Maliau trip, due to all the downhills with my toes hitting the tops of my shoes. Didn't hurt at the time. 3 nails dropped off about 1 month later, and then took almost one year to totally regrow. It's happened to me before in Mulu.
Who says!!!!!!!!! And who is going to enforce it. As I said I saw more logging trucks on that road than I've ever seen before, we counted around 50 laden trucks on that one road. The Star reporter was with us and she was going to write about it. I don't know if you are familiar with that part of Sabah but it is so heavily logged its almost unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteAnd they are poaching in the basin, both for animals and plants and also the valuable gaharu resin.
They say politic is not dirty. The politician makes it dirty. You and other commoners know about it but the authorities don't know about it. If the reporter wants to keep her job it is either she keep quite or her report will be bared by her editor. The only people who can make some noise is the international organisations. " I actually lost 3 toe nails " Don't you think you should wear canvas jungle boot ? Take glucosamine and muscle swelling tablets ? Use salt on leech ?
ReplyDelete>Use salt on leech ?
ReplyDeleteKetchup or chilli sauce makes them taste better :-)
wow,fantastic....
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDelete