Rafflesia Flower at Gunung Gading National Park in Sarawak

Rafflesia Flower spotting at Gunung Gading National Park in Sarawak is one thing you must see if you are an Eco lover and enjoy rainforest trekking here in Borneo.
The Gunung Gading National Park covers a total area of 4,196 hectares is located in the district of Lundu in Sarawak. The mountain is also about 906 metres in height.
Trekking up Gunung Gading is no easy task, so you need to be prepared for this trek. My exploration here took me a good 2 hours of trekking uphill to find the famed and unique Rafflesia flower.
Our local guide was met on reaching the park headquarters, who was booked 2 days before we arrived. So we started out our journey at about 9am, and it looked pretty simple at the beginning.
As we trekked into the lush rainforest, we encountered many exciting critters, flora and even some fauna along the way.
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Trekking up Gunung Gading |
One hour into the trek and the path keeps going uphill. I forgot to mention, you must have a local guide when going trekking in Gunung Gading as getting lost in the dense rainforest is relatively easy here.
The trekking paths are marked with coloured flags on the trees, so you know which way you are trekking as there are several treks here like Viewpoint Trail and Waterfalls Trail.
When trekking there, you have to be extra careful as many critters move around on the ground, and you would not want to step on them.
And finally, after two hours of uphill trekking, the local park guide spots the beautiful Rafflesia flower off the trek.
The Rafflesia Flower (Bunga Pakme in Malay) species found here at Gunung Gading is called the Rafflesia Tuan-Mudae (Beloved Prince).
I think we spent a good 2 hours there as while we were busy photographing the Rafflesia, our park guide found another flower in bloom about 200 metres from where we were. So it was a bonus for us!
You may have also heard that this flower smells like a rotting corpse. When I was 1cm away from the flower, I did not smell anything.
The Rafflesia is also a great flower beauties flower bud takes a whole 9 months to develop into a beautiful flower. And the sad thing is that the flower only lasts for 7 days.
From my research, the traditional medicinal values of the Rafflesia Flower Bud are where the bud is boiled in water and the concoction given to recuperating new mothers to help them regain their strength.
Rafflesia Buds are usually found near rocks or near rivers and streams, so it is always wise to check with the park headquarters or guides to see if there are any in bloom as you may not want to just go there and trek for hours to find nothing.
Seeing the Rafflesia flower up close in real life is one of the things I had dreamt about for years. Not many people have seen a live flower up close.
Finally, after enjoying the special moments, we made our way to the waterfalls almost at the top of the mountain. Beautiful and peaceful, the waterfalls were just perfect to end our exploration here.
Directions to Gunung Gading:
By Bus: Travelers should take STC (Sarawak Transport Company) Lundu Express Bus or Bus No. 2B from Kuching City to Lundu town centre.
Park Accommodation:
Park Contact information:
- Park Head Quarters Telephone: 082 735714
- National Parks Office in Kuching Telephone: 082 248 088
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