On the 7th of November 2008, at 6.00 p.m., I said goodbye to my dad as my mom fetched me to Grace Assembly, the meeting point of the camp.
This was to be no ordinary camp where we would have a few fun activities, stay for a night or so, and then leave. The highlight of the camp was a hike. A hike that would stretch our muscles to their limits, leave litres of perspiration behind, and possibly... injure ourselves.
I had trained for this hike by hiking the Gasing Hills 3 times with other rangers and commanders. We also jogged at Bukit Kiara together twice. Besides those training, I also hiked and jogged on my own for about 1 1/2 months. Those hard, leg taxing training were to prepare us for the challenge ahead.
Gunung Ledang was the mountain in which 7 boys and 4 men hiked. Its peak towers over the sea by 1276 meters. We had to hike a total of about 5.8 kilometres. 8-10 hours is the usual time it takes to make it to the mountain's peak and back. Madness, what would they expect of me?
The afternoon before I left for base camp, I felt I was not ready for the hike. I kind of got scared. Oh well, it doesn't matter now.
I reached Grace Assembly at about 7.00 p.m. We only left Grace at about 7.45 p.m. though; Jon and Josh arrived late.
We arrived at base camp about 2 hours later. We passed this rubber plantation before reaching. We registered, got our dorm keys etc. However, there is something about the Gunung Ledang National Park authority that I had not known before. It is very, very, very strict about cleanliness.
Before sleeping, all the boys and the commanders had to fill in a form stating everything that we were going to bring with us on our hike. This includes things like the amount of plastic bags, plastic bottles, energy bars, and even the clothing that we were going to wear. And what's the worst part? After our hike, they sat beside us and started checking. If we had anything missing, they could charge us up to RM100. Freaky...
My two 'chaletmates' and I slept, not peacefully for the first hour... One of them (let's not name names now, OK?) started hammering my stomach. His 'excuse' was that he couldn't sleep. I, on the other hand, was too sleepy to confront him. I believe he was going 'hyper'.
We woke up early the next day, went to the breakfast area to have a light breakfast of canned sardine, bread, and juice. Then we did our warm ups and stretches... And together, we took our first step of a thousand miles (5.8 km).
We first had to climb a 'stairway' of about 600+ steps. And what's worse? It was continually uphill. 10 minutes of stairs. Then we got to checkpoint 1, 'Bukit Semput'.My commander said that some people just climb up this stairway, look at the CP1 sign, turn around, and climb down. Weird people...
We hiked a bit more, this time, on soil. Not too hard however. Most of it was slightly uphill. Then we reached CP2, 'Lagenda Trail'. We decided to take a break there to drink water and stuff like that. Then we hiked on.
The trail became somewhat harder, but still not that challenging. My commander said that he loves uphill but hates downhill. Know why? When you are going uphill, you know that you are getting closer to your destination. When you are going downhill, you know that you are going to face more uphill in the future. Also, going downhill also has a bit of an impact on your feet. Then we reached CP3, 'Batu Orkid'. After that came the boulders.
As we progressed, we didn't see any orchids, but we sure saw boulders. Some were the size of 30 men put together! Not something you usually see by the side of the road huh? However, even those weren't big enough. Soon, we met a boulder that is perhaps 30 meters high. When I saw it, I was amazed. I wonder how much it weighs?
We skipped CP4 (a waterfall) because it is closed. Someone died there. So we took a shortcut to CP5. On arriving at CP5, I could feel the tension in my legs. I was literally shaking. Thankfully we took a break at this point.
After CP5 is KFC. Wow, KFC was sooo tiring. Puh, did you really think that there would be a fast food restaurant high up in a mountain? KFC up in that part of the mountain stands for Killing Fitness Centre. Whee... It seriously kills your stamina. Thank goodness I brought some energy bars with me. Constant uphill were the words I thought of during our tour through KFC. The steps we had to make were huge and sometimes we had to use our hands to give ourselves a boost up. But deep down in my heart, I was happy to know that the peak drew near...
The challenge wasn't over yet! We had to climb up one huge rock (about 2 storeys high!) with only the help of a rope! My hands felt quite painful after climbing this rock.
View from the foot of the big rock.
View from the top of the big rock. Cmdr Nat (left) and Josh Chin (right).
The beautiful scenery is at the back. Can't see clearly because of the camera lighting.
After that long and tiring part of the hike, we reached CP 6. Finally, the peak was only about an hour away! We hiked slightly uphill, which was a relief from KFC. We kept on walking until we reached a water source where we refilled our bottles. The water was quite yellow. The kind of shade you would find in green tea. But it tasted almost the same, so I drank it anyway *sigh*.
Then we started uphill again. The path from there to the peak wasn't that eventful. But there was one thing that I saw which was pretty unusual. 'Wow, clouds move very fast', I remarked to myself. Commander Terence said that when Elijah reaches the peak, he should shout, 'Barack Obama!'... for some reason.
I walked though the shrubbery for about half a minute and then, suddenly, when I stepped out of the greens, I was shocked. There was such a breathtaking scenery before my eyes. The air was cool and refreshing and we could see part of Melaka as well. I looked over the cliff and I assure you, it was quite a long way down.
Blue Shirts: Cmdr Terence (left), Jack (2nd left behind), Elijah (3rd left), Cmdr Peter (right)Red Shirts: Me (left), Acker (middle), Joshua (right)
Orange Shirts: Cmdr Koo (left behind), Jo Win (middle), Cmdr Nat (right)
White Shirt: Jonathan Chin
HOORAY TO ROYAL RANGERS!!!
Later, we had a scrumptious lunch (what would you expect, I WAS hungry from the hike) of bread, sardines, and 'Brahims' mutton curry. We all took turns dipping our bread in the curry and occasionally popping a chunk of meat into our mouths. The bad part was that there isn't a place to wash your hands... So whatever things we touched during the hike weren't washed off... Oh goodness... Oh well, I guess that's part of the price you have to pay for climbing mountains.
After lunch, we used a faster but more boring route which took us about 3-4 hours to reach the foot of the mountain. When I stepped down from the last of the 600+ steps, I felt great. I had conquered... Gunung Ledang...
We managed to ascend and descend the mountain in about 7-8 hours.
We then went to the cafeteria in which I bought an 'Ais Kosong'. Water never tasted so good.
After resting in the cafeteria, we washed up, and then one of us made an interesting discovery. There are fish in a stream which nip at your feet. We recognized them as doctor fish. Doctor fish are used in 'Fish Spas', if you know what they are. The fish spas, I hear, charge around RM60 per hour. But here, we get it for free. The only downside were the many flies and mosquitoes.
After that, we washed up and had dinner. We ate at a decent Chinese restaurant. Then we went back to our chalets. There we played a game called 'Pass the Bomb'. It's a word game which can really freak you out if you're not good at English. I did quite well thankfully.
After we got bored of the game, we started watching football. Arsenal vs. Manchester United. I decided to root for Arsenal. Mainly because football is more fun if you actually root for a team. In the end, Arsenal won 3-1, I think. Can't remember too well.
Then we went to sleep. Thankfully, the person who hammered my stomach the night before was also sleepy; so, he didn't do it again this time. I slept quite fast that night. I have to say that I was thoroughly tired.
The next morning, we woke up, lingered around the fish spa a little and then left. On the way home, we ate some good pork ball noodles. During the trip back, our van broke down. We managed to get it to a repair shop. And while the commanders were having a hard time talking with the owner of the shop, we rangers were... Buying and eating potato chips from a nearby store... So typical...
After we got the van working again, we hopped inside and headed back to Grace Assembly.
Wow, that was a great trip. I got to know the rangers better. However, this year, most of them have been promoted to Expedition Rangers. The hike was a truly memorable and unforgettable experience. I encourage you all to go for the hike if you're able to.
I want to thank my commanders and God, the master ranger, for helping me to successfully climb Gunung Ledang.
