Gunung Belumut - Run 1 (Y2015 MTT)

BASIC INFORMATION

Trek: Y2011 MTT Run 1

Date: 21 - 22 August 2015

Location: Gunung Belumut, Johor, Malaysia

Elevation: 1,010m

Duration: 2D1N

Difficulty: Unexpected Steep Inclines

BRIEF ITINERARY

0530 Depart from SMU

0800 Reach JB for breakfast

1000 Arrive at Gunung Belumut Base

1030 Start climb

1430 Reach summit and short lunch

1450 Start descend

1730 Arrive at base camp

Gunung Belumut! The first trek of the new academic year, with many freshies (aka many fresh faces to leave an impression on J)! Starting the fresh semester with a trek was a great beginning for me, as I personaly went for Intro Trek in my freshie year as a participant and made great friends. Now as OIC, I was feeling slightly nervous as I hoped it’d be as meaningful for the freshies as Intro Trek was for me.

We gathered at SMUX room at around 4.30am for short brief and distribution of logistics, before leaving for Malaysia at 5am! Some of us slept over in school the night before because of the early meeting time. Gunung Belumut was just in Kluang, 2h drive away from the checkpoint, which is nearer than most of the treks we’ve been going for in Malaysia!

Right before we left SMU!

After a minor few hiccups along the way, we reached our first pit stop in Johor – a coffee shop for breakfast!! Fueled up on delicious wanton mee and coffee before continuing on our 2h long van ride to the foot of Gunung Belumut.

When we reached the carpark of Gunung Belumut though, a most unexpected, jaw-dropping sight greeted us….

A WILD MANKEY APPEARED

And I’m not even kidding.

The biggest monkey (it reminded me of Planet of the Apes) I’ve ever seen in my life outside of the zoo, tried to attack my van. Half-asleep but shocked awake by the sight of the monkey trying to jump into our van, I think that was the most memorable moment of the entire event for me. Thankfully we survived the almost-attack by the monkey. No belongings were damaged and our limbs are still intact!!! All thanks to our amazing driver who threw a rock at it and chased it away. J

After the episode with the monkey, we quickly packed our belongings and left it at the rangers’ office. We started a little behind on time (as claimed by our guide), so after a short safety brief, we started our climb! We had to first cross a small suspension bridge right at the start of the trek and from then, it was into the woods. Sadly, due to time constraints, we weren’t really able to go down to the river to swim or just chill.

Crossing the bridge at the start of the trek

The climb up was tougher than expected. Many of us were not fully prepared for the climb, having had little sleep and lacked sufficient rest. We could really feel the effects of meeting so early in school! We definitely didn’t expect the trek to be that steep. Some said that they felt like they were doing more rock-climbing than trekking haha! Nevertheless, we pushed the best we could.

Steep incline that we weren’t expecting

Reached the top of the mountain after about a 4h climb! Spent some time just taking a breather from the shag climb, and passing our food around to share!

View from the Summit

“This is the best of me”

Up on the rocks!

Started our descent shortly after, after about a 30mins break. We were worried that we would hit a night hike as we started our trek late! The way down was more fun challenging as well, involved a lot of acrobatic and balancing movements due to the steep incline of the mountain!

One thing about the descent though, was that we didn’t prepare enough water during the trek, and didn’t ration enough for the descent. The walk down, especially at the 2nd checkpoint, felt longer than it was because some of us were feeling dehydrated, and really thirsty. Some really important thing to take note for future hikes – to really ensure that everyone brings sufficient water!

Aaaand… we all completed the trek!

All of us finally reached base camp at about 6pm. There wasn’t much lighting at the base camp, so it turned dark really fast! It was time to really rest and enjoy, and reward ourselves with a good field-cooking dinner! Dinner was really good with some great outdoor chefs amongst us! Spencer brought an entire bottle of olive oil and made Aglio Olio! Marvin brought fresh mushrooms to cook. Best of all though, Clinton made Apple Crumble for our entire group! Yay it was a great satisfying dinner!

Field cooking under the stars

Something different we did during this trek – we didn’t sleep in tents! We slept at the empty parade square at the base camp on our sleeping bags (ground was infested with ants though L) under the beautiful night sky. Was really nice talking and getting to know each other better under the sky full of stars, not something you’d expect when in Malaysia! Throughout the night though, my group’s one fear was the scary beast we saw in the morning. We could hear animal sounds from where we were and it was quite scary sometimes haha.

Woke up early the next morning, and waited awhile for our van to take us to KSL Mall for a short shopping getaway! Some took the morning to do morning yoga…some looked away from the camera…but all of us took candid photo shots!!

Morning candid shots

Early morning yoga

How bout some Kungfu?

The most normal shot

Though it was challenging for an introductory Trek, I think it was great fun and a good bonding experience for many of us who went for it. As they always say, tough times (or climbs) don’t last, tough people do! My greatest takeaway from this trek, is really the reminder to find the joy in the simplest of things that we do – be it being optimistic while climbing, or cooking under the night sky.

And lastly, here’s a preview of our exclusive SMUX Trekking Nametents J featuring the night sky at Gunung Belumut!