Bako

Bako National Park is a picturesque and peaceful place. The park is located on an island and is only accessible by boat. It is home to lots of wildlife, rugged jungle, and pristine beaches. Most people come here to relax and enjoy the slow pace and tranquility of island life. Not us.

We decided to come to this most beautiful of places and put ourselves in a world of hurt. There are lots of accommodations at Bako ranging from hostel type shared rooms, to individual rooms with shared baths, to private bungalows. Where do Ben and Casey decide to stay – in the middle of the jungle in a tent. Why? Because.

We had read in a brochure that there were several jungle treks available at Bako. One that caught our eye, Teluk Limau, was a 10km trek through the jungle to a private beach. Sounds perfect. 10km is a respectable hike but not too long – even with backpacks on we figured we could make the journey in about 6 hours – the brochure said 7. Our thinking was we would hike in one day, spend 2 nights on a private beach, and then hike out and stay one night in the hostel. This way we would get away from the other tourists, have a unique experience trekking in the jungle, and best of all a private beach. Now I consider myself to be fairly fit. I am in good physical shape and I have experience when it comes to camping and backpacking. I assumed that since I had climbed a bunch of mountains and gone on a bunch of backpacks that I was prepared for what lay ahead. I was wrong. Teluk Limau was by far the most physically, mentally, and emotionally grueling hike I have ever been on. It was impossible.

Physically: the hike was only 10km but it took us 10 hours. Admittedly, we brought too much stuff but I think we only had about 10 pounds of excess weight. There were no switch backs. Up a huge hill, down the other side, up a huge hill, down the other side, up a huge hill, down the other side. Stacy hates to go downhill while I hate to go uphill so at least one of us was always miserable. This hill after hill without the use of switchbacks was constant. This would not have been so bad if the trial were manageable. I don’t know what I expected, after all this is a wild jungle. The trial and the footing was impossible. Every step had to be precise and thought out. There was no just walking while enjoying the scenery. Every step was purposeful. Tree roots, boulders, rocks everywhere. There were also all the razor sharp ferns and leaves to contend with. My favorite however, was when you were about to lose your balance and you reached out to grab hold of something, only to grab onto a branch filled with thorns. That feels great. I almost forgot to mention the heat. It was crazy hot – soaked to the bone in sweat after only 10 minutes. We do not have pictures of the trail because it was all we could do to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Now you crunchy Colorado mountaineers reading this may be thinking to yourself, “10km that’s easy, I am sure I could do that hike no problem” Maybe, but this hike was more difficult than any 14er I have ever done.

This picture is after a gentle 10 minute walk

Mentally: This hike was so mentally challenging because the brochure said it would take 7 hours. Now to me that means it will take 5.5 or 6 hours – NOT 10. The trial was fairly well marked. Lots of painted trees but no indication of where you were or how far along you were. After hour 7 you start to wonder, after hour 8 you start to get pissed, after hour 9 you start to think maybe you
are walking in circles, and by hour 10 you actually want to just give up and take a header off one of the huge hills. It was a bit tricky finding water as well. We would go for hours without finding a water source. After 2 hours of strenuous hiking in stifling heat not being able to find a water source will drive you crazy. In fact when we did at last make camp I had to trek back in 1 hour to the nearest water source. Miserable.

Emotionally: The two above descriptions should explain why this hike was so emotionally draining. Add to this the fact that everyone who visits Bako National Park loves it – they rave about the wildlife, the beaches, the tranquility. In fact Bako does indeed have all these things and they are conveniently located right at the park entrance next to all the accommodations. Now we did end up spending one night here and sure enough we saw all the wildlife we could hope to see, watched a beautiful sunset, ate a hot meal, drank a cold beer, and then slept in a bed. But that was day three, after we had been schooled by the jungle. The fact is, we did not even make it to our destination on day one. After about 8 hours it was almost dark. We had no idea how much farther we had to go and we were staring at an enormous uphill. We had to make camp. There is no way we could hike in this dense a forest, on this rough a trail, carrying these packs, in pitch darkness. We had to camp right in the middle of the jungle right in the middle of the trail – the very rocky, unlevel, muddy trial. Stacy was not thrilled. We set up camp-we had no choice. These pictures do not actually do justice to how filthy our site was, how filthy we were, or most importantly how many bugs were eating us. We had no water, no energy to eat, and no energy to swat away the bugs. We were eaten alive. We had to keep the rainfly on because it rained the entire night so the inside of the tent was a sauna – no exaggeration - inside the tent it was over 100 degrees. We did not sleep – principally from discomfort but there is always that gnawing fear that there is something outside your tent that wants to eat you. The next day we woke up, packed up, and after about an hour finally found water. A few hours later we made it to our beach, physically, mentally, and emotionally spent.

Having written all of the above I can honestly say that Bako National Park is the greatest, go there and hike Teluk Limau – it is awesome. This is of course my thoughts in retrospect. A few pictures should demonstrate why I so quickly changed my mind. Two days on a beautiful beach without seeing a soul will change anyones attitude. Actually after a few hours lazing in the sun I was almost happy that we exerted ourselves to the maximum.

This does not mean, however, that I was willing to hike back. In fact, there was absolutely no way I was strapping that pack back on and trekking 10 more hours back to the headquarters. No Chance. We had food for a few extra days, shelter, and a water source one hour away. We decided to wait to get rescued. In the morning of our last day, however, we were blessed with an extremely low tide. The tide was so far out that I was able to walk almost 200 meters out into the bay. From there it was only a short swim and a quick scramble up some rocks and I found myself out of the bay, into the sea, standing on an outcropping of rocks. Here I stood, waved my arms like a madman and yelled to all the fisherman passing by. The boat that finally stopped was actually piloted by a park ranger living on a nearby small island. He picked me up, brought me back to the beach where we packed up our tent and things and caught a ride back to his island. He called us a boat taxi and voila! we were rescued. If I had hiked back to headquarters we probably would not have made it out in one day. We would have camped again in the jungle being slowly consumed by all sorts of nasty little insects and I would have hated Bako. Instead I caught a ride, was back to headquarters in half an hour and spent the next day chasing monkeys and telling everyone who would listen how awesome Bako was.