Staying in the hostel at Mulu National Park felt a little like being on a school camp. In the best possible way of course, there were no sheets to fill in, no assessment plus there was beer. Well actually, there was a questionnaire and the presence of beer was somewhat tenuous.

Basically there is a big group of people staying in the same place, eating in the same place and going on little tours into the rainforest. I did a few of these little guided walks, caves mostly and then came the terrifying Canopy Skywalk. I tend to block things out, not thinking about my impending dental surgery until I’m counting backwards from 100. So I signed up for this aptly named skywalk, got up and met my group at 7am and wandered into the rainforest. I’d heard great things about this walk and was really excited, but I failed to consider the fact that this was a canopy sky walk. A series of rickety suspension bridges, and the longest one in the world, metres off the ground. Flights of stairs to get up there, flights. Did not consider any of this before I was confronted with it, head on, and my heart (and stomach) dropped and I remembered why I’d never done anything like this before: I’m afraid of heights (and quite possibly mentally disabled).

Do you see how high up this is?

These bridges are up high, we were told how high but I closed my ears, and only 2 people are allowed on a bridge at any one time. That first step out was alright,  heart pounding and mouth dry, at the halfway point of the first stretch my knees weakened and I felt terror in my belly. There was no one else on this segment, that rocking was my own shuddering. I couldn’t go on, but turning back would require me to physically turn around on this tightrope. Why the hell did I do this? The next viewing platform is so close I can almost taste it, so I keep going forward, step, crunch, step, crack (did I mention that this bridge is noisy?). Elated at having made it this far I breathed in the quiet of the forest and just watched.

With each completed segment the next got easier to handle, I was almost enjoying myself though I was never able to relax, and you better believe that most of my photos turned out blurry.

I am exhilarated to have been able to conquer my fear for a few hours and I’m sure that it has something to do with travelling alone. Ordinarily I would have been able to fall into a crumpled tearful heap and I’d have been saved, but this time I was all alone, no one to lean on but myself. No one to save me, so I took a deep breath and stepped into the abyss.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 5:02 am and is filed under Malaysia, Sarawak.