Gunung Serapi (Kubah national Park)

Gunung (or Mountain) Serapi is actually one of the peaks of the Matang Mountain, which is in the Kubah national park. You can take the trail to the summit as we did or you can take another trail which leads you through the rainforest to the Matang wildlife santuary.

the start of the trail to matang wildlife santuary

Alo near the bottom is a frog pond, unfortunatelly we didn’t actualy see any frogs in or near it.

the signboard suggests that we may have had more luck spotting frogs at night...ie when the park is closed 😉

This mountain is a little different from the other ones which you can climb in the area. There is a Telecommunications tower built on top of the mountain.

Telcom tower on mt. Serapi

this is used to take the heavy loads to the top of the tower

Quite frankly the tower building reminds me a little of some of the Starwars “architecture” anyway to build, and later resupply the telecommunication station on the summit the telephone company has built a concrete road nearly all the way to the top.

The concrete road allows easy access.

This changes the experience significantly, on one hand you are walking on a road so you don’t feel like you have quite as much contact with the nature around you. Also on a sunny day some sections of the climb may be a bit hot so take a hat. On the other hand however you are not constantly looking underfoot because the path is flat and even. And while there are not as many larger animals you will be able to spot a lot of smaller lizards and isects.

An interesting very "wide eyed" cricket

Grasshopper, further up the trail

your typical ant...on steroids 😉 (3 cm long)

this cockroach is about 8 cm long

a lot of small skinks like this one scamper of the road as you pass

ok fine, this is just a snail

an iguana of some sort, quite happy to pose for pictures

there seems to be quite a lot of these red dragonflies anywhere near jungle streams

the blue dragonfly was more difficult to spot

a flying stick insect, it was off again before I could get a better shot

another cricket

This is also the mountain to choose for anyone who has concerns about their fitness, you can always go as fast or slow as you want, there are huts you can rest in and the road make it considerably easier to get to the top. In fact if you climb the mountain on the week end you may see the locals climbing the mountain for exercise, some read papers as they walk other jog to the top (not easy).

Most of the journey to the top of the mountain you are surrounded by rainforest with a lot of ferns and other undegrowth.

top of a tree fern

one of the more common sarawak orchids

this bamboo like plant is used by the local people to wrap food

fern shoot

we all know what this is and what it is used for 😉

As you get close to the top the trees get a bit smaller an thinner, if you climb on a cloudy day you will also find some of the clouds passing right around you.

The trees getting smaller, the species are also a bit diferent up here

One of the neighbouring peaks

a cloud passing around us

Overall the mountain is not too crowded though, we only saw 4 other people climbing it on our satuday trip. Also unlike many of the mountains around Kuching this one has an awesome view from the purpuse built viewing tower. On a good day you can see both the Indonesian mountains to the west and Kuching city to the east, as well as the turtle islands out on the south china sea to the North.

The turtle Islands, you may recognize them from the end scenes in the "farewell to the king" movie which was filmed in Sarawak

The view from the summit onto the south china sea

So despite being a little apprehensive about the trip (because of the concrete road all the way to the top) it turned out to be a fun and rewarding trip. It is also only 30 kliometres from the city limits.

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