I wish I’d done this walk before I handed in my Microorganisms last week because we saw lots of mushrooms. When I said lots I sure meant it. We also saw different plant species that are endemic to Borneo, including wild ginger which is not edible. We also saw oil palms!
I learned about Allan Quailey on the video at the Ranau Australian memorial. The track we took is exactly where he lost the will and strength to continue. His mates urged him on because they knew if he didn’t continue the Japanese would kill him. But it made no difference, Allan Quailey knew this too. He slumped against a tree and he was bayonetted. At the end of the Ranau track there is a memorial for him, on Quailey’s Hill.
I cant even imagine what it was like walking the track. They were like skeletons, they had malaria, scabies, lice and dysentery, and other horrible diseases. They had no muscles, and the Japanese had tortured them inhumanely, AND they didn’t know the Japanese were losing the war, which finished a few months after the “death march”. I knew that I had lunch waiting at the end, and a van to take us back to a hot shower, air con and internet! The walk gave me a TINY understanding of what they went through but only because I was thinking what it would have been like for the POWs.
It was an AMAZING experience.
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