Gunung Datuk (Y2013 Intro Trek)
BASIC INFORMATION
Trek: Y2013 Intro Trek
Date: 26 January 2013
Location: Gunung Datuk, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
Elevation: 884m
Duration: 1D
BRIEF ITINERARY
Transport to Gunung Datuk
Day trek up Datuk
Transport back to SG
Woohoo! First trek log of treks in 2013 to be posted
At midnight on Saturday, 29 tired looking faces gathered at SIS subway benches in preparation for the trip to Gunung Datuk. Beyond some familiar faces returning from the previous semester’s treks, we were happy to welcome some new faces into the family!! Especially those that defected from the Diving Team (*wink wink*). Most people were on time, and everyone was present by 1230. Nubbad.
We were off at 0110 when the vans came. We chartered 3 mini-vans to fetch us to Gunung Datuk, because the bigger ones couldn’t manoeuvre the route to the mountain – and as a result the ride was pretty comfortable for the long journey ahead of us!
En route to the Woodlands checkpoint one of the vans had a punctured tire Everyone stopped as a result, but the drivers were pretty cool beans and were able to fix it after the JB checkpoint.
Basically everyone KO-ed on the van, so no pictures because we were too tired.
Reached the base of Datuk at 0530, and it was still dark out. Everyone found a seat at the tables and KO-ed again. But a series of unfortunate events started.
#1: It started drizzling though, so we were worried it might get heavier and impede our climb. Thankfully the rain stopped by 0615, so by 0630 we could start warm ups and prepare for our ascent up!
#2: The guides were late. We had hired 2, and by 0650 they hadn’t arrived. We wanted to start at 0700 though. After waiting until 0715, it was decided that we were able to start without the guides – the park ranger gave us specific directions, and the trail was pretty decently made out. So at 0730, after taking multiple group shots at this giant dagger at the base of Datuk –
– we were off!
The journey up probably doesn’t need much explaining. The trail was made up of a lot of roots and rocks, and provided quite solid footing for us to climb.
I shall let pictures do more of the talking!
The weather for trekking that day was pretty awesome. Although we were afraid of the rain, the wind was amazing and it made the whole trek very cooling! In fact, it was so rare to see sunshine that when we actually did, we would stop to take photos hahaha.
After about an hour of trekking, we finally reached this mega huge rock – the one in the second picture – which meant that we were about 10-15minutes away from the false summit! So obviously everyone, energized by the fact that summit – regardless false or real – started chionging up
happy group 2 taking pictures at the boulder
When we finally made it to the false summit, everyone was happy to put their bags down and rest for a while. Because the way to the real summit for Gunung Datuk requires one to scale a few ladders, a recce team was sent up first. After about 10 minutes, Group 1 and 2 could start heading for the real summit first. Due to limited space on the summit, not everyone could fit on the top aw
While climbing up the ladders, we saw that someone had pitched a tent underneath the rock area – pretty cool.
The only thing that was scarier than climbing the ladders was the strong wind that blasts you as you make your way up. Your hair flies 90 degrees sideways and your shirt tends to fly up if you didn’t tuck it in. Whoa.
(Truth: going down is way harder than going up when climbing these ladders!!!)
Super kudos to Keng Phang, returning to join us despite joining Dino ranks!!
But it’s all worth it when you finally see what waits for you at the top!!!
If I could use words to explain the view, I would. But I can’t. So here’s a compilation of all the gorgeous photos everyone took.
And group photos!
Groups 1 and 2
Group 3
ex ex ex tm + new tm!!
taken at the false summit
Everyone was really sad to leave the false/real summit, because the view was awesome!!!
Nonetheless, what goes up must come down, so at about 1330 we started making our way down.
We estimated about 3h for the way down, because the terrain, although great for going up, wasn’t very kind for anyone going down. However, the group of people were super zai (Y) Everyone seemed to get across the obstacles downhill easily – thank you to everyone for looking out for one another!
Instead of taking the 3h, we only took 1.5h! Half the time!! That was pretty cool because it means we hit the base of the mountain at about 1500, way ahead of schedule.
By 1600, after people had washed up/bathed/changed, we boarded the minivans and headed off for dinner at Taman Sentosa (yumzyumz). Everyone, again, was really tired, so we all KO-ed on the bus ride there.
Dinner was the standard seafood – literally had cravings while finding photos to put here argh D:
crayfish yum yum yum
Shan’t put too many photos of food, otherwise I will really start feeling super hungry!!!
Reached back to school at about 2000 – really early compared to past treks, so that was pretty awesome – and that concludes the end of our first ever one day trek to Gunung Datuk!
I’m really glad that the trek went well – SUPER SUPER SUPER thankful for the gorgeous weather and the amazing scenery. Datuk’s really the type of mountain that has the best reward for the amount of energy put in, and the company during the trek was really good. Yay Hope one day I can catch the sunrise on Datuk, I think it’d be a pretty awesome experience.
On an ending note, thank you everyone for participating; really couldn’t have done it without all of you.
Special thanks to my org comm (Tommy Wayne Kaijun and “advisor” Wei Jie) and thank you to everyone whose photos I probably used while writing this trek log. For more photos check out Facebook!
To those joining us for the first time, hope to see you around at more treks/trek runs! For those returning trekkers, thanks for your support! SMUX trekking wouldn’t be the same without it. See you all again soon!
Written by: Chelsea Ho, Trek IC
