GUNUNG NUANG - 9 & 10 April

بِسْــــــــــــــــــــــمِ اﷲِارَّحْمَنِ ارَّحِي

The last time I went to Gunung Nuang was in July last year, that was two weeks before I left for Mount Kinabalu. At that time, I joined a church group from Seremban. It was challenging and fun as usual, we completed the climb in 11 hours. I decided then if I were to go to Nuang again I'd prefer to camp for one night at Kem Lolo and go for the final push very early the next day. The reason for that is because the return trekking along the never ending road from the base to Kem Lolo (the starting point for the climb) will take at least 4 hours. By camping for one night I'd have saved at least 2 hours of trekking the next day. So, instead of taking 11 hours to complete the climb, I'd need only 9 hours!

As part of my preparation to go to Gunung Tahan this year, I am going to do just that, camp for one night at Kem Lolo and go for the final push very early the next day.

All I can say is, we can only plan and God will determine the final execution. The whole thing didn't start as what we planned it. We wanted to leave KL at 4pm, we left at 6.30pm instead. And instead of going for the final push at 7am, we started at 9.45am only!

It was all because it rained heavily on the day that we left, the roads in KL were jammed and due to that and also work commitment I could only leave my office at 4.30pm. After picking up my first hiking buddy in KL area, we picked up the second one at 6.30pm and left for Ulu Langat immediately via Ampang route.

We also planned to have our sandwich dinner at Kem Lolo. Since it was already dinner time and we were already hungry we stopped over near Taman Agrotek for the dinner. It was a nice dinner!

By the time we reached the base camp it was already 9.20pm. And after the final preparations of checking that everything is in order and well packed in the heavy backpack, we left at 9.45pm only! For the first time ever, I had to carry heavy load on my back, it must have been 50 liters at least. I got my tent, sleeping bag, clothes for change and food rations for two days packed into my 48 liters backpack. My oh my. It was so heavy! I had no choice I had to do this as part of my training to climb Gunung Tahan, of which I have to carry heavy load for 5 days in a row!

The evening trekking along the never ending road didn't seem to take that long. After about 20 minutes, I remembered that I left our breakfast and dinner (a loaf of bread) on the boot of my car. John, the youngest amongst three of us offered his help of running back to the base camp for the bread! We stopped along the way at the three rest areas located along the way. Every time, I resumed the journey, I felt the air was so refreshing and it recharged me to continue further.

By the time we reached Kem Lolo, it was already 12.15am, that means we took close to 2.5hours! After setting up the tent, I left no chance at all and went to sleep straight away with my sweat soaked t-shirt and pants! I woke up 2 hours later to change to comfortable and dry clothes. As usual, I didn't have good sleep in the jungle, and I also noticed there were 3 more groups arriving between 3 to 6am! Wow, this mountain is so popular!

At around 6am, I was already wide awake and I heard the storm far away and I was speaking to myself, God, don't let it rain again! My prayers were not answered and it started pouring at around 7am and it stopped only 2.5hour later. Deep in my heart I was telling myself not to proceed as I heard so much about Nuang, it can be very nasty after rain, it's very slippery and it's full of mud! Anyway, I don't want to spoil the spirits of my buddies and I kept the thought to myself.

When the rain had finally stopped at 9.30am, we prepared ourselves for the final push and left Kem Lolo fifteen minutes later. The trails were slippery with potholes filled with water here and there and we made it to the next check point, Kem Pacat almost 2 hours later. Along the way, we met some other hikers namely Syed Khairul and his group of Rumah Merah from PSMB and Hafidz and his three angels. We met all of them at Kem Pacat and exchanged greetings! They were a bunch of nice people and very friendly too! Syed Khairul was there with his wife and eldest son!

Kem Pacat or Leeches Camp is unlike its name, instead of leeches there were a lot bees. I got stung by one of them as it was squezed in between my finger and the backpack while I was adjusting it. Having said that, the night before I didn't realise that I got bitten by 3 of these dancing queens (leeches/pacat).

One hour later we reached the false peak or officially known as Puncak Pengasih. And we gathered here again for the rest of the group members to arrive. To inform his group members that he'd reached Puncak Pengasih, Syed lighted a loud firecracker!

The final phase was the 1 hour trekking from Puncak Pengasih to the summit. When we finally made it there, there were already many people resting and enjoying the view from the peak. Some of them must have been camping there all night long!

Janda Baik can be seen clearly from the peak, while the view from the other side of the peak was very misty. We couldn't see anything at all. The squirrels were gone too, apparently, they had been fed a lot in the morning by the earlier group. It was all worth it, especially for my first timer friend.

We made our way back to Kem Lolo 45 minutes later and reached there around 6.15pm and left at around 6.55pm after dismantling the tents and packed up everything. And we reached the loggers trail at 7.15pm, before it was dark. It was a 2 hour night jungle trekking again and we reached back the base camp at around 9.15pm. After cleaning up, we left Gunung Nuang with lots of memories.

As a conclusion, rain or shine, I don't mind to do Nuang again!