The mixed Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook.), Masson’s pine (Pinus massoniana Lamb.), and hardwood forest is a major forest type in China and of national and international importance in terms of its provision of both timber and ecosystem services. However, over-harvesting has threatened its long-term productivity and sustainability. We examined the impacts of timber harvesting intensity on soil physical and chemical properties 10 and 15 years after cutting using the research plots established with a randomized block design. We considered five treatments, including clear cutting and low (13.0% removal of growing stock volume), medium (29.1%), high (45.8%), and extra-high (67.1) intensities of selective cutting with non-cutting as the control. The impact on overall soil properties derived from principal component analysis showed increasing with a rise in cutting intensity, and the most critical impact was on soil nutrients, P and K in particular. Soil nutrient loss associated with timber harvesting even at a low cutting intensity could lead to nutrient deficits in this forest although most of the soil physical properties could be recovered under the low and medium intensities of cutting. These results indicate that clear cutting and the selective cutting of extra-high and high intensities should be avoided in this type of forest in the region. View Full-Text
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http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/6/12/4383?utm_source=trendmdwidget&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=trendmd&trendmd-shared=0
Nearly 17 Meters tall and open to public since June 2003, Mahua Waterfall (local name: Air Terjun Mahua), which is 26 KM away from Tambunan town, is gaining popularity as one of the top destinations of Sabah interior. I visited Mahua days ago and strongly recommend this beautiful waterfall to those who drop by Tambunan. The GPS Location of Mahua Park is 5.796761, 116.408407 (see Location Mapor Street View)
To go there, you need to drive 1.5 hours from Kota Kinabalu to Tambunan. Before Tambunan town, you will reach a roundabout with ginger and machete statue on it. Turn left to Jln. Ranau Tambunan (Ranau Tambunan Road), Mahua Waterfall is only 13 KM away. You will see a brown signpost to Mahua Waterfall shortly. Driving for about 6 KM, you will see the Mahua signpost again at a junction at the left, which leads to a 6-KM small road in Kg. Patau (Patau Village). The road is nicely paved so you don’t need a 4-Wheel drive.
In the beginning, you will pass by the beautiful paddy fields of the village. Drive slowly and keep an eye on the roaming dogs, buffaloes and kids along the road. Very often you would find village dogs sleep on the road and don’t even bother about approaching cars.
Then you will enter a hilly road with forest view of Crocker Mountain Range. I saw many Yellow Wagtail birds, the common winter visitors called “Beras Beras” (rice) in local Malay language, and some Ashy Drongo and Pacific Swallow birds perched on power lines too.
Ticket counter and office of Sabah Parks
At the end of the road is the Mahua substation (of Crocker Mountain Range National Park) managed by Sabah Parks, where you buy entrance ticket. The opening hour is 8am-5pm daily. The following are the ticket rates for visitors to Mahua:
Age
Malaysian
Non-Malaysian
18 years & above
RM3
RM10 (≈US$2.50)
Below 18
RM1
RM6 (≈US$1.50)
Below 16 (student)
RM0.50
RM6
The start of 500-Meter walkway to Mahua Waterfall is just behind this building. You already can hear the sound of thundering waterfall at this spot. Mahua Waterfall receives about 1,600 visitors a month, making it the most popular attraction in Tambunan. Besides locals, it also attracts foreign tourists from Canada, USA, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Norway, Australia, Japan and Brunei.
Lacewing on orchid
Crocker Range is an important water catchment area. Water means life, so Mahua is a magnet for variety of fauna and flora. Like the 3-inch-big lacewing in photo above is new to me. Seeing my camera and tripod, the park janitor asked if I took photo for National Geographic. Haha.. if I answer Yes, not sure if they will charge me thousand$ for commercial filming.
Only a few Meters inside I found big mushroom to photograph. Mahua Park is more than just waterfall. I am so glad that I discover a natural eco-garden.
The walkway is under a mossy, shady and moist secondary forest, and such dim and damp environment promotes the growth of mushroom and fungus. The fungus above look like the skin of Chinese Bun (Bao) and Dim Sum. Edible?
Another type of fungi, they are very tiny.
See if you can spot this “Smiling Rock” near 10th Meter mark of the walkway
Concrete walkway to the Mahua Waterfall
Despite the hot day outside, the shady forest and running stream make the surrounding very cooling and refreshing. The temperature hovers around 23 degrees Celsius, as if I am in an air-conditioning room.
Normally I need to walk a long away on rugged jungle trail to see a waterfall. But the 500-Meter walkway to Mahua Waterfall is so short and easy, I didn’t even sweat.
The trail is quite flat and paved with cement. Watch out for the slippery mossy surface.
There are some hut shelters, benches, trash bin and toilet along the trail, very well-facilitated for picnic. But sorry, BBQ and fishing are not allowed here, as these activities are bad for the conservation. Most visitors come here for swimming, picnic, camping and other nature-based activities.
Daddy longlegs (Harvestmen)
Not only human likes waterfall, you also can spot many insects and bugs wandering among the undergrowth, ferns and shrubs along the trail.
Finally I saw the majestic Mahua Waterfall from a distance.
Closer view of Mahua Waterfall. It is about as tall as a 6-floor building. I went there in weekday, so there was no swimmer around.
Viewing platform of Mahua Waterfall
There is a ladder leads to a viewing platform.
Here you go, the photo of Mahua Waterfall. The force of water is so strong that it pounds the pool and create a mini storm and earthquake around it. Even though I was more than 10 Meters away, my camera and I was bathed by wind of misty spray.
Mahua Waterfall is nearly 17 Meters (55 feet) tall. But don’t try to jump from the top to the pool, as the water is only about 1+ Meter in depth (I never swim there, it can be deeper during wet day so just be careful).
You can swim around the waterfall, but be cautious of the falling rock from top.
Huge Tree in Minduk Sirung Trail
If you are a tree hugger, you will thank me for telling you that there is a gigantic tree hidden in Mahua Park.
Starting point of Minduk Sirung Trail
About 120 Meter before the waterfall, you will see a hanging bridge at your right, which leads you to a signage that reads, “Minduk Sirung Trail. Mahua ke Gn. Alab 12 KM”.
Interesting tree in Minduk Sirung Trail
Minduk Sirung Trail is a jungle trail that connects to Mount Alab (Gunung Alab) substation about 12 KM away, another park in Crocker Range. Some avid hikers use this trail for jungle trekking from Mt. Alab to Mahua Waterfall (mostly descending trail).
Other big trees next to the Minduk Sirung Trail
Anyway, the big tree that I mentioned is only 1.5 KM away from the starting point. However, there is no clear signage along the trail. You will see many big trees on the way and wonder which one it is. But, when you see it, you know that’s the one, as it is SOOooOOoooo…. BIG!
Huge tree at KM 1.5 of Minduk Sirung Trail
The trail is a bit steep in first 1 KM and lurked with blood-sucking leeches, so you better wear proper hiking shoes and anti-leech sock.
Accommodation & Meals
If you want to overnight in the park, you may book a room with Mahua Rainforest Paradise (located at park entrance), which has 12 bedrooms and a restaurant. Camping and meals are also available. The accommodation fees range from RM30 to RM95 per night (≈US$7.50-24), you may Click Here to check out its rates.
Hostels, bedrooms, common bathroom, camping area and BBQ gazebo of Mahua Rainforest Paradise
The owner of hostel also runs a restaurant near the park, which sells common food (e.g. fried rice / noodle, noodle soup, bread) and hot & cold drinks from 9am to 5pm every day. The prices of food are about RM5 to RM10, drink is RM1.50 to RM4, and they serve no pork. If you want to picnic there, BBQ gazebo is available for rent in full-day (RM45), half-day (RM30), and quarter-day period (RM15).
Photos taken in Tambunan, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
For further information log on website :
http://www.mysabah.com/wordpress/mahua-waterfall/
Besides the popular Hot Springs and Canopy Walkway, there are a few “Ex-Situ” gardens in Poring nature park. Ex-Situ means “off-site conservation”, which is a process of taking special plant or animal out of its natural habitat and place it in another location such as garden, for conservation, research, tourism and other purposes. Visitors also can have close-up experience to observe them all in one place, without going into the wild.
These gardens are more like the “secondary” attractions of Poring. A few require entry ticket and they may or may not worth your time and money. I will let readers to judge after reading this blog.
Butterfly Garden
Butterfly Garden or Butterfly Farm is the most-visited garden of Poring and open from 9am to 4pm (close on Monday). One reason is that it is just next to Hot Springs, and everyone loves butterflies.
Separate entry ticket is required. Just look at the photo above for ticket price. FYI, you also can purchase 2-in-1 ticket (Butterfly Garden + Canopy Walkway) there, which is RM1 cheaper.
Once enter, you will see an open garden. Probably attracted by flowering plant in this garden, there are many butterflies flying around. Butterfly is active from morning to 3pm during good weather, so don’t come here after 3pm.
The butterfly garden is also an excellent place for bird watching. During fruit season, many species of birds will forage around here in early morning. I even saw two flying lizards once.
When I was busy chasing and shooting butterflies, a nice guy told me that there are more butterflies in the Butterfly Enclosure and he is right.
Above: Butterfly Enclosure of Poring Butterfly Garden
In the enclosure, I was surrounded by hundred of flying butterflies in different colors.
However, most of the butterflies in Enclosure have broken wings. The green and blue butterfly above is my favorite photography target, too bad it’s wings are not perfect.
Anyway, there are still some perfect butterflies there. Like the bird-wing butterfly in photo above.
Look at this butterfly! It looks like a dry leaf.
The garden even has a few feeding platforms for the butterflies. You can get very close to them when they are busy feeding hence less vigilant.
You may watch the 1-min video below to see Poring Butterfly Garden:
Tropical Garden is more like a mini-zoo that shows some animals of rainforest. This garden is poorly-maintained and most of the captivities are empty. The park will tell you there is nothing much there too, so don’t waste your time and money (as ticket required).
Above: the gate of Tropical Garden
You will see a rafflesia plot at your left before the gate. I saw a few rafflesia buds that are about to bloom after a few months. You have to be very lucky to see blooming rafflesia.
There are a few private rafflesia gardens near Poring park. If there is any blooming, the owner will put up a banner or signage, like the Vivian Rafflesia Garden at entrance of Poring, shown in photo above. You may Click Here to know more about rafflesia gardens.
You will be disappointed with the aviary of Tropical Garden. No bird chirping at all, so quiet that as if nothing lives there. I only saw a pair of Bulwer’s pheasant, a rare Borneo bird which has beautiful white tail. I tried to get a photo of them but they played hide and seek with me. Too bad..
The Tropical Garden is a wood area with a 700-Meter trail. Just follow the trail and you will see some cages, captivities and enclosures along the way, but most of them are empty, not even any bone left.
Ok, at least there are one or two that are not empty. I saw two Borneo Blood Pythons (or Borneo Short-Tailed Python) sleeping in enclosures.
Ethnobotanical Garden
The Ethnobotanical Garden of Poring displays some useful and medicinal plants as well as jungle fruits. No ticket required.
Above: the entrance of Ethnobotanical Garden
Above: small pond of Ethnobotanical Garden
Honestly, I’m not a botanist, so this area is not interesting to me. Unless you have a plant expert going with you, this garden offers little or no entertainment value to ordinary tourist.
If you go deeper, there is an orchard with jungle fruit trees.
Bamboo Garden
The Bamboo Garden is strongly related to Poring because the name “Poring” means Bamboo (species Gigantochloa levis) in the dialect of Dusun people. The locals were using bamboo pole, which is abundant in Poring, to build their bamboo houses.
It is a small open garden (no ticket required to enter) not far away from park entrance. If you look carefully, they are a number of bamboo species planted there.
Poring Visitor Center is just next to bamboo garden. Besides introduction of flora and fauna in Kinabalu Park, the exhibition hall also shows some info on bamboo. They have video presentation scheduled daily at 10am, 12pm and 2pm.
Btw, I saw a headhunter legend about the bamboo, which is quite interesting:
“Long time ago, there was an area which was covered with the growth of unusually huge bamboo. The hollow inside the bamboo was big enough to accommodate a child. The bamboo grove was known to be a resting place and shelter. During the bygone age of Misangod(headhunting spree), male infants were targeted by enemies as it was feared that they will grow up to be warriors. Whenever adults went out to tend their farms or involved in war, the babies were hidden inside the bamboo hallow and were retrieved on their returns.
One day a thirsty hunter stopped by the bamboo grove and slashed a pole to get water. He was greatly shocked when blood spurted out of the bamboo and found a lifeless child inside the bamboo. He was greatly moved at the sight. Suddenly a poisonous snake called Mantakag appeared from the bamboo grove and licked the wounds of the child. The wounds magically healed and the baby came back to life, and grew up to be a great headhunting warrior of the village.”
Source: The late Gambakon Bin Gondou (1983) Kg. Poring Ansow Gunsalam, Kg. Bundu Tuhan
Site Map of Poring Hot Springs Below is a Site Map of Poring for you to know the location of each garden: You may click the picture above to see bigger map.
