Dare 2 Dream: Gunung Tahan Training Trek

Wednesday, May 31, 2006 in Uncategorized

Trek Log by JJ

Day 1: (Sunday 21st) 8pm, Board train from JB station
Some of us were to meet the rest of the main group straight at the SG side of customs, instead of meeting earlier to collect the bags packed the day before and left in school.

In the end, due to unforseen circumstances, Boss & I waited for Mei until it was almost time to board the train! In the end, the 3 of us reached the train station ahead of the main party which had went off earlier for dinner…

It was a mad rush trying to contact Melvin over the phone telling him the 3 of us were on the way. Note: Boss was holding the train tickets… Woohoo! We reached in time… to wait some more for the train… hahaha

who you looking at???

Day 2: (Monday 22nd) before 1st light, alighted at Gua Musang Stesen
Merapoh – Sungei Relau – Kuala Juram (by Jeep)
Kuala Juaram – Lata Luis – Kem Kor (13.5Km), 4 river crossings & 1 waterfall b4 camping

Had breakfast, nasi with chicken and some curry gravy in the dark, before 2 vehicles were hired to ferry us to the merapoh trail HQ. Sadly, I left my ziploc of comfort food there!, at the breakfast place… =( Right after Melvin passed it to me some more… Oh well.

breakfast in the dark, nasi ayam with a splash of curry

After breakfast, 3 vans ferried us to the Sungei Relau Ranger Station, where we declared the items in our packs: number of plastic bags, cans, socks, clothing items etc. In the mean time, we waited for our guides and the 4WD transport to ferry us to the Kuala Juram trailhead.

Altogether 3 consecutive trips on the 4WD were made before all of us and our bags reached the trailhead. I dozed off on the ground while I waited as the last group to be ferried via the 4WD.

After some warm up, time to start walking… over the first bridge!

Trekking Proper:
Because not everyone in the team were experienced trekkers, we had 1hr walks then breaks before continuing. We also switched the order of groups each time we had a break, so that each group had chances to be at the lead, middle as well as at the back.

When it was my group’s chance to be in the lead, we paused a few minutes just before Lata Luis. Then onwards to Kem Kor.

some of the team @ lata luis

First campsite, camped under a tarp with Boss! At one point in time we squeezed 5 under the tarp, including: cloudy, boons, ahkow, boss and I. In the end only boss and I slept there though. Mild rain, but the tarp was an effective shelter. Just need to practice more and get the right flysheet. Had fun adjusting the tarp with the trekking poles. Attacked by the sandflies in the night…

just reached Kem Kor, footwear off, poor ankle… spot the ankle guard?

our guide no.1, Mr Ibrahim. 10 years experience. under his shelter =p

I am inspired by the guides as well as how some of the other trekkers use a flysheet and a tougher version of a groundsheet(note the orange blue material) along with some lines, sticks and improvisation to create a shelter that holds even in the rain!

guides’ shelter in the dark

guides’ shelter in the day

what lies beneath the guides’ shelter… note that the stuff there is all that they carry! including the flysheet and the groundsheet! 5kg???

Day 3 (Tuesday 23rd) Kem Kor to Bukit Botak
Kem Kor – Permatang – Kubang – Belumut – Bonsai – Bukit Botak (21Km)

Basically the uphill walk to the summit. Supposedly going to wack till the summit by end of the day and camp there, but yea, we camped 1 CP away at Botak instead. Better place to camp in my opinion… heh

@ Permatang or is it at Kubang? lol

Belumut is not the same Gunung Belumt day trek, that one is in JB… (thanks to Mr Heng for the clearing up bit) Saw some peahens? (not, again thanks to someone ahkow? for clearing that one up.) some birds la. you see for yourself!

@ belumut

not peahen, some bird la… hehehe

anyway somewhere during Bonsai? before Botak, dear ahkow had a bad case of the cramps. Kudos to him for making it all the way to Botak manz! Also Kudos for paulie porter for saving the day, by coming to meet us the rear party and bringing ahkow’s pack up to the Botak camp site.

It was supposedly damn cold la on Botak at night, but somehow i managed to get by in my shorts and tee. No more tarp shelter for me and boss though…

paulie, cloudy and me

introducing jimmy’s grp! from left, paulie, melvin, jimmy, sandy cotton, toesy woesy and mr mountainsmith, somehow i was running ard trying to keep warm and not keeping still to take a pix with my grp… heh

Psst… secret ah, only supper of the trip was past MN with boss than Erjun. We couldn’t sleep, so I thought a hot meal in the stomach could help the sleeping process. Plus I have this notion that sandflies only bite the warm areas. We went out into the friggin cold to cool down and reduce the sandfly areas’ to attack… (that’s suji’s conjecture ya)

Porridge and then 1 packet of Koka courtesy of Er Jun! woot… Gd stuff then zzz at 2am… or was it 3am??? LOL

Day 4: (Wednesday 24th) Summit then down to Pangkin?
Bukit Botak – G.Tahan Summit – Kem Padang – G. Gedong – G. Reskit – G. Tangga Lima Belas – G. Pangkin

After a breakfast cooking warm stuff in the muddy alcove outside boss and I’s tent, time to ascend to the summit @ 2187m.

@ summit, boss will be boss, from left: Mr Ibrahim, Mei, Boss & TT… =p

One of the more tiring days, because the going down starts from today, and when i mean down, it’s down down down. ladders kind of down.

look at the length of the ladder manz… denise looking on as weibo’s descending

@ G. Tangga Lima Belas, from left: Boss, cloudy & Mr Heng… Down Down Down Lima (5x) times… woot!

This was the day that it decided to rain on the tail end of the day… Also due to space constraints, the rear party had to camp on G. Pangkin instead of the regular campsite, Kem Pangkin below.

We the rear party walked and walked in the rain until we saw cloudy & Mr Heng waiting for us on G. Pangkin, with 2x 1.5L of water for cooking! yay! I had to put on my jacket and trackpants to sleep that night… wet and cold not gd to sleep in with just shorts, tee and a poncho… heh

Cooking in the tent should be discouraged… =)

Day 5: (Thursday 25th) Pangkin to Kuala Teku
G. Pangkin – Wray’s Camp – Kuala Teku

Today was best, short and relax by the river! woot! But dear boons and to a lesser extent, ErJun, got some splash damage from scalding water after cooking in the tent the previous night… Oh well. Boons is a strong gal! After waking up early to rendezvous with the main party below, 3 brave and 1 crazy souls ventured into funky terrain to top up water!

The 3 brave ones were paulie, ahkow & jimmy, crazy 1? who else? me la… hahaha. I only remembered Boss volunteering his pack to store the 12x 1.5L empty bottles and dunno how many waterbags lo, plus 2x 1L Nalgenes too! In the end, paulie with 2 Nalgenes in hand climbed back ahead to call for backup! And that’s how we managed to get water until Teku…

We breezed past Wrays 40min away from Pangkin

Supposedly to wack till Putih one, but after reaching Teku @ 3pm and Putih an estimated 5hrs away… time to set up camp!

1st it’s cleaning up time! in the river!

time for dinner! and after that campfire!

Received a secret egg from ErJun for porridge for supper, but I was burning up and Teku wasn’t being kind by being warm, even after the bees knocked off after 5pm… Downed a blue panadol from TT and I KOed in the tent…

Before that my shoulders were in knots and kindly cloudy knelt on the ground and massaged those knots away! Muacks! That plus heat rash plus me having almost no rest in between the last two legs gave me that burning up feeling inside! And it was warm! by the river in the night! Luckily I doused myself in the river once I reached Teku… Probably saved my life…

In the meantime as I was trying to cool myself down…

cloudy seems to have gotten a reputation after her demonstration on my poor shoulders… now’s Boss’s turn…

look at the queue outside cloudy’s tent manz… can charge $$ liaoz lo… wahahaha

Day 6: (Friday 26th) Kuala Teku to Kem Tengah
Kuala Teku – Kuala Putih – G. Rajah – Kem Tengah

The day began with the dawning realization of how serious boons wound was. The guide had to prick the blisters and then apply some salve before wrapping them up and then waterproof it.

kenna shark bite! on tahan… wahahaha

Today we would be hugging the riverside all the way till Putih and crossing the river 7 times! sometimes to hip deep levels! The current is so strong such that you will be pushed off balance if you only have one leg planted on the river bed!

ahkow trailblazing across the river while some stand atop the dry rocks waiting for the rest to cross

After G. Rajah, the last significantly high point, it began to rain yet again… all the way to Kem Tengah. Wet and muddy… Today Boss and I slept on: 1. blue groundsheet, 2. green poncho… and still the wetness seeps through… whahahaha. That was how muddy it was.

@ Kem Tengah

Day 7: (Saturday 27th) Kem Tengah to Jerantut
Kem Tengah – Melantai – Kuala Tahan – Jerantut

After clearing up amidst the mud, the final stretch we basically fast walked till the Kuala Tahan trailhead. Had a chance for a final cool dip in the river at the Melantai checkpoint. After declaring with the trail HQ we’ve not left our stuff up in the trail, it was time to take the boat across the river to one of the floating restaurants!

Too bad, boss idea was for us to take the bus to Jerantut before having dinner… In the end, we only dallied for drinks at the floating restaurants before moving off on the bus.

Before we knew it, at least I was dozing in my smelly semi-dried trekking outfit, blue OCS shorts and grey army tee when we alighted outside a street in Jerantut.

We had dinner/supper at KFC! hahaha. Fated la, met up with some of the Rovers ppl, Jorin, Ivy, JJ etc, when we lugged our stuff up to the second level in KFC. Jac, dips and weiguang were there too! On hindsight, why couldn’t I have been less smelly… hahaha would have been more goodies! =p

In the end we dozed over at Cheong Fatt, a dorm with enough double decker beds to accomodate the whole bunch of us. Time for a proper shower and shampoo etc… We chatted, played some cards while those that washed up earlier went out to venture for some recce about the surrounding areas. I almost dozed off, so comfortable I was… hahaha… Oh well…

The next morning after a simple nasi lemak with ayam breakfast and bandung ice, time to lug the pack and catch the morning freestanding train from jerantut station back to SG.

END

Until next time… tahan redux or the other highest peaks in Malaysia, but next, in 2 weeks time, Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania awaits…

Personal feelings aside… this trip was a lesson and a very timely one in letting go, in cultivating patience, tolerance and understanding, as well as simply experiencing instead of continually thinking from an objective point of view. The time when I return to my “home” in nature is not too far off… I will make it so. The company has been great, boss even with his stress and responsibility as a first time trek ic has not made the trekking experience any less enjoyable and interesting.

Maybe trekking and my life has become intertwined… relationships and memories I treasure a lot. Cherish the present, forget the past, and anticipate the future!

credits to the pix goes to Mr Er Jun

check out: http://daretodreamblog.blogspot.com/ =)