Letter rec'd May 22, 2013
Keith was making his way to Borneo (Sabah) via India and Japan – he sold his house in UK to pay for his worldwide travel- but before he could get to Borneo he developed cholera in Japan. He obviously got infected in India. The Japanese doctor could not speak English but he fortunately put Keith on a saline drip which saved his life. Keith was the first survivor for seventeen years. Keith became famous and the Japanese people sent him dolls (some of which he gave to Celia(Bobby)). The cholera cost the Japanese Government a small fortune as they had to trace people etc. etc. It occurred in an very famous holiday place, Mount Fuji. Celia and I got to know of this reading “The News of the World” – this paper was famous in the U.K. Quite recently the paper was cancelled (2011) because of many problems-it was on our U.K. television day and after Day. I think it was on the front page of the paper. I don’t remember how we got the paper in Borneo. Keith, shortly after we read the paper, wrote to us saying that he was clear of the cholera.
Sapong Rubber Estate was isolated. The roads were extremely poor and there were no bridges. The only route to Tenom was by rail e.g. a steam train that took all day or very small rail car, which was fast. The rail truck ran through a gorge, which regularly had landslides. When I used the rail car to bring Celia, Shane (two years) and Iain (6 weeks) to Tenom we had at least four landslides. We had to carry the children over the landslides to another rail car. I was mad to bring my family to Borneo. We enjoyed every moment including leeches which take your blood (and a hot cigarette makes one drop off), snakes and scorpions (big black ones) Malaria was also very bad – our house were sprayed inside every six months. There was only a very small generator, no gas and no good water etc. etc.
My daughter Fiona was born in the little Tenom hospital – no doctors etc.etc, but only a very good Burmese midwife, with one eye. She lost it due to small pox. Bella spoke English – the other assistants did not speak any English.
Keith got the rail car to Tenom- a very small place. Then he made his way to Sapong Estate across a big, fast river using the local ferry. Celia (Bobby) went to the ferry and saw Keith who had got onto a Sapong lorry. Celia called “Woolliams I presume” It was about 5 miles to the estate- the road was poor.
Keith and I started to collecting living plants. There were so many orchids, epiphytes, water plants, foliage plants, ferns etc.etc. Our highlight was making our way to Kinabalu (a very long distance). It was the highest peak in South East Asia. The road was very poor and very dangerous.
Kinabalu was not a notional park at the time and the going was difficult and dangerous – an extremely poor track full of large rocks and tree roots etc. It was a plants man’s paradise – so many orchids etc. etc. growing on the trees – also moss over the tree branches. We took two local porters with us. We intended to sleep at about 10,000feet and then try to reach the top, of 13,000 plus feet, the next day. As you get higher the trees disappear (get smaller). There were so many different plants including pitcher plants. Keith found very large one. It was so large that I said to Keith “They are as big as a buckets!” you could have got a rat inside the pitcher. Just as we were trying to take a photo the rain started – you could not see your hand in front of your face. It was very wet and extremely cold. We had to go down to find a place to sleep – too dangerous to continue to go higher. We found a wooden hut (7000 feet) where we stayed the night. Keith made a fire inside the hut – using wet wood (there was nothing else) – the smoke was so bad we had to get outside quickly. Thank goodness a Roman Catholic mission station took pity on us and gave us good accommodation, food and transport. The mission was in the foothills. The plants we collected were sent to Royal Botanic Garden, Kew.
Trying to cook at Sapong was very difficult. Our kitchen in the garden was a very old shed – very black woodwork inside due to the smoke. The iron stove was very old. There was one cold tap close to floor and chicken wire on one side of the shed to allow the smoke to escape.
The bottom line: we did manage to feed Keith. The secret was to ensure the wood was very dry. No wet wood, no smoke. I did manage to get a camping stove (two rings) for Celia to boil water and cook on and a pressure cooker (saucepan). All the water was filtered.
My pride was the newly built chicken house. I had put some chickens inside for the first time on the day Keith arrived. Unfortunately for me two python snakes decided to eat my chickens. The one in the corner of the shed struck me. The python have very many nasty teeth and they wrap their body around you but they do not have venom. With the help of the local people the snakes were killed. They were not too big, about 12 feet or just under 4 meters. I have a photo showing the size of one of the snakes.
I wanted the skin, so I made a bargain with the Chinese that they could have the meat if I got python skins. The Chinese eat snakes and dog meat. Our pet dog was taken by the vegitable man for food. We did’t know where it had gone and only found out because my manager told me. I remember Keith made a moving film of the snakes.
