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Sandakan Death March and Mt Kinabalu, Sabah, East Malaysia [4101m]
May 14th to 26th 2009
In WW2, following the fall of Singapore, the Japanese held over 2500 POWs in a camp near Sandakan on Borneo. The prisoners were used as forced labour to build an airstrip. As the war was drawing to a close the Japanese attempted to hide their behaviour by force marching the remaining POWs through the jungle toward Ranau. Only six escaped. The rest perished from hunger, exhaustion, sickness and execution.
An opportunity exists to follow the route of the Death March from 14-26 May, 2009. It will use the services of TYK Adventure Borneo run by Tham Yau Kong who has set up the Sandakan Death March track. In country costs are from $3,000 to $2,550 depending on the number of participants. Maximum number is 22 people.
The website: www.sandakan-deathmarch.com has lots of information. It is proposed to do the Eleven Day Challenge Tour but not the visit to Labuan. Instead it is suggested to climb Mt Kinabalu, note the Challenge Tour is set up so participants can do the Challenge Highlights (3-4 hours per day instead of 6-7 hours).
Read Sandakan: A Conspiracy of Silence by Lynette Ramsay Silver for a really informative account of the Australian and British POWs in Sabah during WW2.
Final numbers are needed by the end of January to allow necessary bookings. For more information contact Jocelyn Booth by email: jocebooth@gmail.com
