The Adventures of the 'Ladies of The Loop'

The exhausted ‘Ladies of The Loop’ returned to fieldbase after a mammoth trek that saw them battle torrential rain, circumnavigate impassable rivers, negotiate landslides, and make emergency tyre changes. And we can now officially reveal it takes 3 women 30 minutes to change a tyre in the rain!

The incredible journey started on Monday when Laura, Claire and Emma dragged themselves out of bed at 06.00 (far too early in the morning!) to make their way - via Kundasang for a quick Hari Raya celebration with Raleigh friend Sammy - on to Alpha 3 down in Imbak Canyon.

After the yawns subsided the mood lifted, the ‘girlie songs’ blasted from the radio and the ‘Ladies of The Loop’ made their way up the beaten track into Imbak Canyon, where they were met by the Alpha 3 welcoming committee of PM Will, Ee Laine, Charlene, Gordon, Ibz and Caroline (who was leaving to spend time with Alpha 2).

Preparations began for the trek to BBC camp, where the rest of the team were organising a Black-Tie dinner for the loops arrival, when the heavens opened and didn’t stop for the rest of the evening! Excitement turned to disappointment as it was realized the loop would not be attending the dinner with the rest of Alpha 3, and only a flying visit would be possible in the morning. Never the less a fabulous dinner was prepared at Ranger Camp and gratefully received by the ravenous group.

After a quick exchange of stories and an unexpectedly long game of draughts the group stranded at Ranger Camp made their way wearily to bed. An early rise for Will, Claire, Caroline and Laura (and a lie in for the rest - gratefully taken!) and a whistle-stop trek in to BBC camp to collect Caroline’s stuff and back out to be on the way to Daunm.

Unfortunately due to the torrential rain, the Imbak River was now a ranging torrent - well a bit high for Bravo 2! The back road out of Imbak would have to be taken if the ‘Ladies of The Loop’ were to reach their next destination of Danum by the evening. The undeterred group (now 4 strong) made their detour through Tawau (south-east edge of Sabah) not stopping for anything - even lunch! - and made it before dark to Alpha 4 in Danum Valley.

Greeted by the ’Danum Sentry’ Yousif and the group dressed in jungle ties and tiara’s, the Loop was treated to a phenomenal meal of homemade fish cakes - whipped up from Raleigh rations - to be followed with a special cake to celebrate the completion of the Rhino Pools bridge and its opening the following day. The group and their guests rose early to watch the sunrise over the river - unfortunately due to cloud cover the spectacular sunrise was clouded and it just got light!

Despite the lack of sunrise, the excitement began to mount as the time to trek to the newly completed bridge for the loop to officially open it drew closer. The trek finally got underway - a little off schedule and running at ‘Sabah time’ - and Alpha 4 and the ‘Ladies of the Loop’ made their way to the bridge. The ceremonial ribbon was tied and Laura said a few words before declaring the bridge open and photos were taken.

The group celebrated with a quick dip in the waterfall at Rhino Pools before the ‘Ladies of The Loop’ had to race back to camp to make their way to their final destination. Despite been a little behind schedule, and having to pass lots of logging trucks on the way out of Danum Valley they made their way toward Batu Puteh in Bravo 2. Lunch was again crackers and cheese on the move, and time was looking good when disaster struck - the left rear tyre was as flat!

We gathered together the tools, made a few phone calls and set to fixing the tyre with cars hooting their horns at us (took us a while to realize they were seeing if the 4 white women needed any help!!). In half an hour we were back on our way to meet Alpha 2 at Batu Puteh.

Kirstie, Big Tom and Fairy Tom were on hand to finally greet us upon our arrival, and escorted us through some rather soggy terrain, to the campsite alongside the Kinabatangan River. We were welcomed into the group and were assisted in making our beds for the night - Laura, Claire and Caroline’s hammocks were strung under the main sleeping basher, and Emma’s between a couple of trees on the entrance to the long drop - not as gross as it sounds, it was well out of sniffing distance!! Some expert use of the parang was demonstrated by Josh in getting the wood for our hammocks and stakes for the tarpaulin - if you need a woodsman, Josh is your guy!

A spectacular dinner of vegetable curry and spicy rice was prepared for us, followed by fruit cake, fruit and condensed milk - we were treated like queens! It was another early rise for the ‘Ladies of The Loop’ - but for pleasure this time. Escorted by Bev and Ishen - and of course the local driving the boat - we were taken on a river cruise, where we saw macaques, proboscis monkeys, hornbills, herons and of course leeches in abundance! We were taken to the Eco Camp in the most beautiful location nestled on an oxbow lake, and shown the work the team would be continuing.

We returned to camp where a phenomenal breakfast of sausages, scrambled eggs and porridge was waiting for us. We said our goodbyes to the team and started the long journey back to fieldbase. We were making good time – enough to pop in to the Kundasang War Memorial, commemorating the Australian and British soldiers who were killed on the Sandakan—Ranau death march of World War II. We climbed back in Bravo 2 for what we thought would be a simple steady run through the Crocker Range. But if one thing this loop had taught us it was this - if you’re trying to travel in Sabah, no journey is simple!!

We encountered not one, but two landslides! After sitting in stationary traffic for an hour - and somehow managing to break the radio! - We brushed up on our Raleigh games, playing many rounds of ‘the alphabet game’, laced with a dash of ‘hangman’ and a splash of ‘I spy’. We were finally on our way, and for the fourth night running arrived at our destination just in the nick of time! Our adventures over we raced for the shower, then enjoyed a well earned pizza - courtesy of the fieldbase crew - a welcome return!