Lünersee

Last weekend, Joey and I did a weekend getaway (friday till sunday) at the scenic Lünersee in Austria. From the place where we stayed in germany, it took us around 3.5 hours to reach the place. Coming from germany, we had to buy an "entrance sticker" for our car, which cost 9.90€ for 10 days (nope, they don't have anything lesser) that allowed us to drive into Austria. Guess we didn't get to utilize it with our 3-day stay. 

We stayed at a cosy hut called Schattenlaganthütte which was privately owned and run by an austrian couple. Think we spent overall about 50€ per person per night. The only hassle was that this hut is situated below the cable car and a few KM away from Lünersee  itself. And the ticket of the cable car wasn't cheap - 21.50€ for to and return. What bothered me the most was the cable car stopped at 5pm. So the next time I would prefer staying "up" the mountain - ideally at Totalphütte.

After a day of driving around scenic routes and taking pictures, we decided to challenge ourselves with the toughest trail at Lünersee - a 10,5km hike and over 1300m elevation to Schesaplana, peaking at 2964m above sea level, the highest peak around Lünersee.

scenic view of Lünersee with mountain ranges at the back. Swimming not allowed but fishing yes.

All the trails at Lünersee are clearly marked (same as many other hiking trails in europe). What I find useful is that the signboards also indicates the difficulty and duration of the hike. Also, one can't really get lost as the internet connection was surprisingly stable despite the elevation - shame on you, Germany!

The trail to Schesaplana was at the start of the hike pleasant. As we ascended higher and higher (luckily we did not experience any altitude sickness), the trail started to become snowy. We managed to hiked up to Totalphütte without any hiking sticks and gloves but had to stopped there as the snow were too much for us to handle.

Totalphütte (2385m)

Even the snow almost reached my knee level at Totalphütte (2385m). 

We were told by the lady working at Totalphütte that it would take us another 2 hours of hike to reach Schesaplana. Upon hearing this we decided not to continue because 1. it was lunchtime and we were hangry  hungry 2. even if we managed to hike up to Schesaplana, we wouldn't been able to catch the last cable car on our way back.

that knee-level snow

Despite that, it was still a memorable hike. One that would definitely wanna do it again - this time with more planning and preparation to hike up Schesaplana. Maybe in 2024. Stay tuned!

Mulu Pinnacle - The First Attempt

WARNING: this is an emotional post that I have been procrastinating for almost 2 years 😱

As the hike happened in Sept 2023, some of the memories of the hike might have faded away but the feelings I had of the hike still lingers within me till this day.

It all started on a sunny day when we landed in Mulu from Miri with MASWings. If it wasn't for this trip, I would have never heard of MASWings - it's basically very tiny plane with propellers at the side, for the entire flight lasted just 25mins.

Notice the arrival information (white)board on the right.

Anyhow, after we landed at Mulu (very tiny) airport, we were picked picked up by our guides (from Borneo Tropical Adventures) and driven to the Mulu National Park where we had to register ourselves.

After the registration, we then took a "sampan" (long wooden roofless motor boat) ride that felt like an eternity to the start of our hike. I don't remember anything special about the boat ride e.g. the appearance of an anaconda - except for how hungry I was because it was close to noon.

The comes the first part of the hike - a 9km (almost) flat rainforest hike. 

Not that I have never done this before, just that I was probably too excited and started (or rather tried) walking as fast as my legs could take me. In hindsight, one of the guides challenged us to read Camp5 (that's the place where we would overnight) before XPM (forgot the details here) or rather, before it starts raining as the weather was forecasted to rain sometime in the afternoon.

This is where the problem started to creep in. Everything was still ok/normal when I reached Camp5. It was only after dinner when my left foot felt funny - the achilles of my left foot felt loose. I tried ignoring it, thinking that this would eventually go away on its own after a good night's sleep but boy was I wrong because the next day I woke up with a swollen achilles. A hiking buddy of mine who happened to have some pain killers gave me some so cope with the pain. It helped for the first part of the summit hike but the effect of the pain killer eventually wore of.

lying on the wooden bed, contemplating over the choices I made in life.

At 6am sharp after breakfast (forgot what I had for breakfast), we started our hike to the summit / the Pinnacle. What makes the Pinnacle hike different from the rest of my previous hikes was that this one comes with stringent checkpoints - meaning you would have to reach each checkpoint at the allocated latest time, if not, you would be asked by our guide to return back to Camp5.

Oh yeah, did I also mentioned that everyone was forced to carry 3L of water for the summit hike? It has to be 3 water bottles and not a 3L water bladder because you will eventually have to leave 1 or 2 bottles along the different checkpoints during the ascent. Like seriously, they would do a spot check. Anything less then 3L, you go back to Camp5.

look mum, I made it to the first checkpoint!

There were 4 checkpoints (including the "Summit") in total but due to my swollen achilles, I only managed the 1st checkpoint. I wasn't the only one who was sent back to Camp5 though. With me, there were 1 Austrian lady and a French guy. The rest of my hiking buddies continued and reached the Pinnacle without me the other day.

Of course it bugs me till this day but that's not gonna stop me from hiking or returning to Mulu again for a 2nd attempt in the future. But rather, I was kinda proud of myself (?) for knowing my physical limitations on that day and decided to be safe rather than dead 💀

Anyhow despite the failed attempt, I still enjoyed my time at the Mulu National Park. Actually, besides the Pinnacle, the national park has lots to offer. For one, I got to witness bat exodus near the Deer Cave. Millions of bats leaving the cave in the evening to search for food (I think it was around 5:30pm) that looked like they were dancing in the sky.