Gunung Lendang (Y2011 MTT)
BASIC INFORMATION
Trek: Y2011 MTT
Date: 21 - 23 February 2011
Location: Gunung Lendang, Johor, Malaysia
Elevation: 1,276m
Duration: 1D
BRIEF ITINERARY
Day 1
Transport to base of Gunung Ledang
Day 2
Day Trek up Gunung Ledang
Overnight at base camp
Day 3
Transport back to SG
Day 1
While waiting at the usual Kranji MRT Station, we were entertained by a really pirated version of Monopoly deal. We reached City Square, and had dinner at some stone grill place, (the food here is mighty awesome!) and bought food supplies for the trek at Kapitan Mart.
On the bus, the driver put on a movie called “Kungfu Master” a hilarious show, with random scene changes and bad dubbing. And who can forget the slick moves like “rainbow chasing the moon”. But who am I to judge eh? (Only Zavier and I bothered to watch the whole… >.<)
We finally reached the outer gate to Gunung Ledang where the plantation roads were too narrow, and the bus could not navigate itself in. We had to take a cab into the place for an extra RM 30.
The campsite was the best I’ve seen so far. There were lights, properly laid out areas for you to pitch tents and TOILETS WITH RUNNING WATER! Pitched our tents and prepared our stuff for the next day. We kept our valuables and food stuff in a hut that we rented for RM 60.There was a bed and pillows and a fan in there. But we all chose excitedly to sleep outside! Cos’ it’s fun to sleep outside! Right? Right. So we slept outside, at around 3am. (Some pillows went missing from the hut that night though)
Day 2
We got up at 0730 hours, had a quick breakfast and headed off to the main office at around 0800. We brought only our basic supplies and daypacks. The morale was good, a little warming up and laughs and we were good to go. We had to declare the things we were bringing up the mountain, including clothes, food, and other stuff. If we failed to produce the things we declared when we came back down, we would forfeit RM 5 from the rubbish deposit. Then at around 0830 came the briefing, by Azam. He offered us to be the first people to try out a new route after CP7 to go to the third tallest peak in Ophir. We didn’t mind, but timing would be a factor. So we did warm-up, led by Kenneth, and he made us do “running-on-the-spot” with our daypacks on. Made it look like we were getting ready to run up the mountain! The trek started at around 0850, which consisted of 1874673829746928364 stairs. OK fine, there were only like 700++ stairs, but damn it was painful
CP 1 (0900)
We were really surprised that we reached so quickly! Or at least I was… Took a photo, drank a bit of water and set off again.
CP 2 (0922)
Again, reached really quickly, and I guess it was a real morale boost to be hitting checkpoint after checkpoint quickly. Again, we snapped some photos of ourselves and off we went.
CP 3
We reached in about 20 minutes. We were told that we were going to bypass CP 4 and go straight to CP 5 due to time constraints.
CP 5 (1100)
We arrived at CP5 at about 1100. The place was big, with a stream running through. Had light lunch here, and refilled our water bottles. The climb to CP5 consisted mostly of roots and some steep inclines, but no scrambling. The weather was also really good, very breezy and not too hot or humid! Perfect! It deserves a smiley! =)
CP 6 (1215)
From CP5 to CP 6, we had to go through something called K.F.C. or Killer for Climbers. It consisted of steep terrain with rocks and rope to grab on to. It had been a fun experience for most of us as it kind of added variety to the trek. According to Debbie, it was no kick, or in her words “Huh? That was K.F.C. ah?”
Mid CP 7
The trek to CP 7 was the most challenging of the entire trek. We had to use fixed ladders to go through two small “caves”, and more scrambling was done. It became really fun as people started showing off their monkey special moves as we navigated up the terrain. Then there were the abseils… We had to abseil UP three rock faces, each steeper and higher than the previous one. This needed a good hand grip and lots of guts to do, and a tinge of insanity. No harness, just hands and feet and a thick white rope as we scaled the wall. The last wall was at least 3 to 4 stories high with an incline of about 68 degrees. But the view at the end was awesome! Everyone made it through with smiles on their faces, even Debbie who said she was terrible at heights. We took roughly a half hour altogether to complete the entire abseil, moved off from the area at about 1320. Then we entered into bonsai land! Wow!
CP 7 (1335)
Soon after, we reached CP7. However, due to some obstacles along the way, we came in a bit late. The guide told us that we couldn’t make it up to the alternative summit due to the timing. The summit and campsite on the mountain was closed because of renovations. I think they were trying to install a lift! (No, actually it was because of landslides, so it was kind of dangerous) We left the area at around 1405. The guide told us to stick close for the descent, and he sounded quite serious, and so began our long and arduous descent.
Descent
We took a different route down up till CP 3, after which we backtracked all the way. The guide was a little irritated that we were moving at a really slow pace. Some in the team were getting cramps and knee problems hence we decided not to push too much. However, the guide kept sighing and making lizard sounds… “Tsk”… He wanted to get back before dark because he was afraid that there were going to be panthers about during that time. Well, after a long 4.5 hours, we finally made it down to base camp. We were glad to see the stairs again. But of course, it felt like an eternity again to get down there.
We reached base camp at 1835, before dark! Awesome for we were expecting a night trek! So we got down to going through the tagging forms, and all of us passed. Headed back to the campsite and started preparing for dinnerThe initial plan was to have pot luck, and well, I think there was too much food… Better more than less I guess. We were all satisfied that we got to bathe! BATHE ON A TREK! Cool! Kudos to Zephan who brought shampoo, soap, you name it, you got it! We stayed up to talk a little, but everyone was really tired. A 9 hours straight trek was quite a challenge for some of us. The weather continued to be kind to us and we enjoyed a peaceful and cool night. Beautiful trek it was. Goodnight!
Day 3
After a restful night, we woke up at 0730. As we munched on our breakfast, which consisted of energy bars, chips, Zephan’s gigantic bottle of Nutella and not forgetting the awesome chocolate drink from Chula’s group, we were treated to Jonathan’s collection of songs, most Jay Chuo’s!
Finally, it was time to pack up. We reluctantly packed our bags, dismantled the tent and bid farewell to Mount Ophir’s fantastic campsite. As the bus could not make its way into the campsite itself, we had to take cabs out again.
Once we were out into the main road, we spotted a cute, lonely puppy wandering about in the bushes. At first it was shy and refused to come out of the bushes. Eventually, Jonathan managed to lure it out and once it was out, it stuck closely to Jonathan! It licked his hands, legs and even his bag! After taking many, and I stressed many jump shots, we finally board the bus home.
Along the way at about 1000, the driver alighted us at KFC (not killer for climbers anymore) for our breakfast. While a few of us stayed at KFC, the other more adventurous ones went out looking for a coffee shop and we found one near the Nanyang pit stop! The food was delicious and surprisingly affordable. We ordered 10 (estimation) pratas and the bill was like RM12! What a bargain! We also had other food such as maggi goring, mee soto, hor fun, etc and chilled drinks! It was a splendid breakfast, and may I add it was round 2 breakfastJ
We reached City Square at about 1300. All of us decided to return back to Singapore and give seafood dinner a miss. Unfortunately, many projects and assignments await us and our holiday has ended. The moment Jeremy switched on his phone, he had 100 odd emails coming through! We crossed the custom anticipating a flood of emails and missed calls as we prepare for the battle ahead.
Mount Ophir was a wonderful getaway and some of us are already anticipating the arrival of the next trek! Till then, persevere!
Written by: Jonathan Pang, Trek IC
