World Challenge – Borneo

Written by Students Lulu G and Sienna P.

In June-July, 14 students from Henley High School, plus teachers Ms Gardner and Mr Richardson, and World Challenge leaders Chris and Vi, travelled to Borneo, Malaysia, to embark on a two-week adventure of a lifetime. We enjoyed jungle trekking, waterfall swims, orangutan spotting, visiting the turtle conservation and much more.

We had more than a year to prepare for the trip that was organised by World Challenge and designed to help young people develop life skills and confidence through meaningful travel.

During the lead up, we had a number of meetings that covered our itinerary, gear packing, and environmental sustainability. They gave us an opportunity to get to know one another as our group consisted of students from both year 10 and 11.

One of the rules of the trip was that no one was allowed to bring a mobile phone, so all communication with our loved ones back home was via updates that our teachers posted on a group WhatsApp.

After teary goodbyes at Adelaide Airport, the team set off on a Malaysian Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur. After the seven-hour journey we transferred to another flight to Kuching, the capital city of the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

We spent three nights in Kuching, where we explored the city. We walked along the Sarawak River, saw the golden parliament building, went to markets, a night water show with fire, and tried all sorts of new food and discovered the Everise convenience store chain that sustained us throughout the trip.

One morning we caught a bus to the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre to see the orangutans, swinging on ropes and trees. We witnessed a cute baby clinging on to its mum.

In Kuching we experienced our first Malaysian downpour while we were on our river cruise. We were still able to enjoy ourselves and try some traditional dance moves.

There were some memorable meals, including one dinner where the owner of the restaurant told us that if we ate everything we ordered, he would let us sit in his Ferrari! Thanks to Nick and Mitchell drinking the butter chicken, we finished the food and took up the offer to sit in his Ferrari.

We visited the Chong Choon Café a few times to have our breakfast, so we could have a break from the spicy food and just get a piece of toast.

A two-hour bus ride from Kuching took us to Gunung Gading National Park for two days of trekking, camping, swimming, and reconnecting with nature after days in the busy city. We set up camp and checked out the beautiful clear stream, crystal clear water holes, the lush jungle, some families of cats including kittens; and the not so good: squat toilets, leaky taps, and massive spiders/insects.

On our first trek we came across breathtaking waterfalls where we were able to swim. As we walked on, we appreciated the sounds: of birds singing, trees rustling and water trickling. But the humungous red and grey millipedes were the worst. It was extremely hot and humid, so the waterfall swims helped cool us down.

Our second trek was a test of our limits. It took us more than seven hours to cover seven kilometres including 965m of climbing. The trail was so steep and everyone found it challenging, especially when it felt like every turn we took just lead to steeper, more slippery terrain. Some of us were questioning whether we could even make it to the top, but we pushed on thinking that the view would be amazing. Disappointment hit when all we could see was trees from the top, but we were proud of our achievement. On the way down many of us fell over on the slippery track, but we were rewarded with the best waterfall we saw on the trip where we could swim and cool off.

At nighttime at the campsite we played Mafia, which was our favourite game that kept everyone entertained.

We travelled back to Kuching for a day to reset, and the day was spent washing our clothes at the laundromat and stocking up on snacks for the next few days at the turtle conservation site. We happened to meet another World Challenge group from Scotland, who told us what to expect at the turtle place.

After seeing the Scottish people for breakfast, we set off on the bus – then a boat ride – to Tanjung Datu National Park. We went on fishing boats to the campsite and were blown away by the blue water, white sand beaches and lush green foliage.

Once we set up camp, we met up with our local guide Mel. The next few days we swam for hours, ate delicious food that was cooked for us, went on walks, spotted monkeys, played hundreds of card games and chatted. But the main attraction was being a part of the turtle conservation program.

Each night, some members of the group went out on roving patrols with some of the park rangers to see if any turtles had come to shore to lay eggs. We were very lucky to see the turtles’ laying eggs and we got to be a part of the experience watching them. We saw many amazing things: a turtle being measured and tagged with a piercing on each front flipper, and a few turtles that had a satellite tracker on its shell. The rangers collect the eggs and transfer them to the protected nursery area where they are labelled and counted, and on the last night a few of us were able to get involved. We labelled one set of eggs “Henley” which will hatch 40 days after they were laid. At night we saw little tiny hatchlings breaking out of their shells and through the sand.

We also played games at night with our World Challenge leaders Chris and Vi, who led us to reflect on the trip so far and what we had learned and experienced.

At sunset on most days we watched the hatchlings scamper across the sand and into the ocean which was a magical thing to witness. Our work during the day was to dig out the old nests, where we came across a few little stragglers three of which we named Scully, Alfred, and Demi, and helped into the ocean while wishing them a long and happy life.

We also had a lengthy task to dig and shift sand to make a new nursery area. On beach walks we carried bags which we filled with lots of rubbish, mainly plastics and polystyrene, which was sad to see.

We came across two species of baby turtles: hawksbill (rare) and green. There were other animals around too: gibbons, flying lizards, snakes, wild boar, macaques, silver-leaf monkeys and scorpions.

During our five days at the conservation site, our guide Mel documented that 9 turtles came to the beach to lay eggs, 977 eggs were laid, and 309 baby turtles hatched. Almost everyone said that our work with the turtles was the favourite part of the trip.

After that we had three more nights in Kuching, and many more activities. We visited the Fairy Wind Caves, Blue Lake (Tasik Biru) where we rented paddleboats, the Paku rock maze garden, and the Sarawak Cultural Village. There was also some time for souvenir shopping, and we enjoyed our final few meals together, including celebrating Bella’s 17^th birthday on the last day.

At Kuala Lumpur Airport we were sad to say good bye to Chris, one of our World Challenge leaders who was great fun and made a big difference to our experience. He was traveling to Melbourne while the rest of us came home to Adelaide and back into the arms of our families.

It was an incredible trip with the best group of people. We got to know each other very well, made lasting friendships, laughed together, tried new foods, learned new life skills, and feel inspired to travel more and see the world.

Borneo Group 2025

Students: Lulu G, Sienna P, Bella C, Erica Y, Imani E, Lara P, Abbi Dn, Finlay Y, Jasmine T, Mitchell W, Xander T, Nick L, Mitchell A, Izzie P.
Teachers: Ms Gardner, Mr Richardson. World Challenge Leaders: Vi and Chris.