OVERVIEW

Bukit Raya is a 2,278 m high mountain located on West and Central Kalimantan. It is part of Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park on Borneo Island. And part of the Schwarner mountain range at the border of Central and West Kalimantan. The mountain is not so popular to climb in Indonesia due to remote access and the elevation is not so high. The national park was a part of The Heart of Borneo conservation project. It protects a lot of endangered species of Kalimantan such as Sun Bear, Orang Utan, and many other species.

There are two ways to enter the National Park. First is from West Kalimantan and second is from Central Kalimantan. The current route is from West Kalimantan, Pontianak. We will have to use different kinds of transportation from Pontianak. First, go to Nanga Pinoh for nine hours. And then we have to use a speedboat and continue to use a longboat to get to the national park gate. Still, we have to continue the journey by motorcycle. It is very adventurous just to get there. Trekking is another thing. Penetrating the jungle of Kalimantan will be very challenging.

ITINERARY

DAY 1

Pontianak - Nanga Pinoh
Meeting point at Pontianak, preferably in the afternoon. Early dinner at the airport then we go by car to the bus station. It’s an overnight bus drive from Pontianak to Nanga Pinoh, for about 9-10 hours. (D)

DAY 2

Nanga Pinoh - Serawai
The bus will arrive at Nanga Pinoh early in the morning. Upon arrival we will go either by car or motorcycle to the National Park office for registration. Breakfast then go to the speedboat port. At 10 am we start riding the speed boat for about 5-6 hours to Serawai. We will spend one night at Serawai. (B, L, D)

DAY 3

Serawai - Rantau Malam Village (124 MASL)
Breakfast and then we continue by using Klotok (Longboat) to Rantau Malam Village for about 3-4 hours. We will stay overnight in Rantau Malam Village at homestay for a traditional ritual before the climb. (B, L, D)

DAY 4

Rantau Malam Village - Hulu Rabang (720 MASL)
Breakfast and we will continue using the motorcycle for about half an hour to Korong Hape (308 masl), the headtrail. Start hiking for about 11km to Post 5 Hulu Rabang. We stay the night at Hulu Rabang. (B,L,D)

DAY 5

Hulu Rabang - Soa Badak (1400 MASL)
Breakfast and head to Soa Badak for about 5km and around 6-8 hours hike. Stay the night at Soa Badak. (B,L,D)

DAY 6

Soa Badak - Puncak Kakam (2.278 MASL) - Soa Badak
We start early for the summit attack. Hike up for about 4-5 hours. Explore and enjoy the summit then we head down back to Soa Badak. (B,L,D)

DAY 7

Soa Badak - Sungai Mangan (640 MASL)
Breakfast and head down to Post 4 Sungai Mangan. Stay the night here. (B,L,D)

DAY 8

Sungai Mangan - Rantau Malam Village
Breakfast and head down to Rantau Malam. Stay the night here and do some traditional rituals again. (B,L,D)

DAY 9

Rantau Malam Village - Serawai
We will continue back by speedboat to Serawai. Starts around midday. And stay the night in Serawai. (B,L,D)

DAY 10

Serawai - Pontianak
Breakfast and continue by speedboat to Nanga Pinoh. Arrive in Nanga Pinoh in the afternoon. Early dinner before departing Nanga Pinoh by bus back to Pontianak. (B,L.D)

DAY 11

Pontianak
Arrive in Pontianak early in the morning. We will go by car to the airport and have breakfast. The trip ended. (B)

DAY 12-13

Spare Day
Depending on the river situation for speedboat and longboat.

PREPARATION

Because it’s a long trek on Bukit Raya, you need to improve your endurance by focusing the training on cardiovascular capability and carrying pack. You need to be able to walk for a long time with at least 10kg of pack. Go weekend hiking regularly will be the best training. It can be started with 8 km round trip hike with roughly 6kg pack, ascending and descending 600m, in less than 2.5 hours. The aim is to ascend 900m carrying an average pack of 10 kg in 3 hours. To reach it, try to increase the difficulty of your training in some way, either by adding weight to your pack (no more than 10 percent per week) or by completing the hike in a shorter amount of time.

In addition, you can do running two to three times a week for 45 minutes to an hour per session. Running on a route that have elevation gain will be a lot better, or use treadmill if there’s no such terrain in your hometown. You can change one of your running sessions in a week with cycling or swimming and especially you need to do also stair climbing with at least 10kg pack. It will be a good cross training. Besides that, muscle training is advisable. Strengthen your upper and lower body muscle, as well core muscle. You can do it at the gym or do your own set of push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, plank, etc. You need to train 3 months prior to the expedition. It will increase the rate of success.

GEAR LIST