Day 243 (Wed 7 Mar) - Gunang Gading National Park

Up at 6.30am and finished packing our bags.

Caught a taxi to the Express bus station and bought our tickets. Sarb promptly fell asleep. A few hours later we pulled into Lundu, the nearest town to the park.

Got off the bus and a couple of hawk faced taxi drivers hassled us and the other travelers for a fare. We shared a taxi with an old European couple. Our dodgy looking taxi driver spent ages trying to start his taxi with no luck. When he did finally manage to get it going he promptly reversed and knocked over a parked motorbike behind him. Not a good start!

We eventually set off and got to the park entrance. Paid our entrance fee and were told that two Rafflesia plants were in flower. One by the waterfall Number 7 and the other near the park entrance.

Decided to walk to the waterfall first as if we failed to spot the plant here we would still have the opportunity of seeing it at the park entrance.

Very, very hot as we set off. Still suffering from colds so it was doubly hard. We weren't too sure if it was our noses running or it was sweat pouring down!

Eventually we made it to waterfall Number 7. Not a massive waterfall but the formation of the rocks and the clear water was a welcome sight. Could not find any sign of the flower anywhere.

Whilst we sat there we got chatting to a German bloke that looked the spitting image of Brett, a friend we are going to meet in Australia. His name we think was Michael but we called him, amongst ourselves, Little Brett.

Little Brett headed off whilst we sat by the rock pools ( [1], [2] ). Set off back to the HQ where we bumped into Little Brett again. He had been looking for the Rafflesia plant said to be near the HQ for about half an hour with no luck. The staff were not being too helpful possibly because they wanted to be hired as a guide, for 20 Ringitts!

After crashing round for a while further we found a very small path. Decided to head down it and soon found a ranger guarding the rafflesia Flower!

It was not as big as we expected and also only gave off a very faint smell of rotting meat as they are won't to do. Still pretty amazing.

Left Little Brett to meet up with his Dutch buddy whilst we walked it back to the town of Lundu.

Got into Lundu where we had a few cold ones and also managed to get our phone card working. Apparently we had to dial a different connecting number (not on any of the instructions!). To test it Sarb phoned his Dad who sounded suitably groggy!

At the bus stop we met little Brett and his buddy and a Swedish couple. We were all going to Bako the next day so decided that if we all met up and travelled together we could split the cost of the boat from Bako to the National Park.

We got dropped off on the outskirts of Kuching. The Swedes stayed on the bus whilst our little group of four jumped into a taxi to take us to our hotel. Said goodbye to Little Brett and friend and dumped our gear in our hotel.

Headed off for a pizza that evening.