OGKL has stepped its foot into another adventure and this time
around it was in Cameron Highland. The trip on the 15th – 17th
August was OGKL’s second visit to Gunung Tangga after the year of 2007.
Nevertheless, the adrenaline of 23 participants including 6 committee members
rushed through the veins as this trip was the first, for some of us.
15th August
2014
The venue before the journey started was set at LRT Gombak. The
eager participants have started to swirl around LRT Gombak since 10pm and some,
even earlier than that.
16th August
2014
12.00am
The
expedition began with 7 cars all together. All drivers have stiffened up their eye
lids to stay awake and drove safely,
while most of the other members slept soundlessly.
2.00am
2 o’clock in the morning sharp! We have reached our
first pit stop, which was RTC Simpang Pulai to boost up and some
of us were kind of starving. So, we headed up to the café and filled up our cranky
bellies.
2.50am
Without
any delay, we heated up the engine and left to our next pit stop, Masjid Keputeraan Lojing.
4.00am
Alhamdulillah, the road journey was perfectly fine and we arrived at Masjid Keputeraan Lojing safely. Thanks
to all the drivers! You guys were the best! After a while, we hooked up with
another 2 cars at the mosque, as they drove directly from Penang
and Kuantan. All of us were freezing with the fresh breeze and hurried ourselves into the mosque to warm
ourselves up and take a nap.
6.00am
The
adzan was called out not long after our deep naps. That particular morning, the scenery was splendid! One by one
started to wake up, perform prayer, had breakfast and get ready to forward ourselves
to the adventure of Gunung Tangga.
8.00am
We left
to the Lojing Police Station to inform the police regarding the duration and
some of participants of our
expedition to Gunung Tangga.
8.30am
All the
assigned drivers parked their cars at Pak Kassim’s house (The Guider) and walked to the starting point, where all
the other participants have been dropped off earlier.
9.00am
Everyone
started to gather around and began the warm up session which was led by one of OGKL
members, Ferhad. Right after that, all the participants were given brief reminders
by the leader of the expedition, Jan Rock and prayers were recited by Syamil to ease the
journey.
9.30am
The
adventure began! For an hour or so, we had to walk on 45 degrees timber trail
and back into the woods. Every step
was full of excitement and things just got better when we had to cross over 3
rivers. Sense of balance was on trial! No doubt about it! From balancing
your steps on river stones, wobbly bridge, to walk on a huge long log. The log fell
perfectly as a link from one side to another, as if it knew people would use it
as a bridge.
11.00am
We have
reached the 2nd last water point, put aside all of our bags and
dashed to the area
where the flourished Rafflesias were found. There were only 2 Rafflesias and according to
the guider, Rafflesia should not be touched and its lifespan is only around 2 weeks before it decays.
Hence, we were lucky enough to enjoy the beauty of Rafflesia. But, we were
not the only lucky ones, there were some students who came to do some research
on it and there were also quite a number of European tourists who shared the same
excitement as we did.
12.30pm
After
several photo sessions with the Rafflesias, we headed back to the water point
to have our lunch and some of us
managed to have a short bath at the water point. The water was quiet cold and totally
energizing!
2.00pm
Everyone
was contented after enjoying the beauty of Rafflesia and ready to pull up their anchors and get moving to the first camp site. The
track was kind of ramp for only about 20
minutes before it got steep right until the first camp site.
6.30pm
This
very first camp site was named after Pak Kassim and it was the last water point
at Gunung Tangga. The water was not
as lavish as the previous one, but it was enough to make use as drinking water and
cooking purposes. Later that night, after the shelter
were set, OGKL committees started preparing the dinner with the help of some
participants and some other make used of the serenity to get some rest and get
to know one another.
17th August 2014
5.00am
Rise and
shine! There was a wakeup call from our sous chef (Razman). He was up earlier than any one of us, as he has
started to prepare the breakfast. It took around two and a half hour for
everyone to perform Fajr prayer, breakfast and get ready to hike up to the peak.
7.30am
Adventure
continued.
8.30am
We have
reached ‘Kem Spenda’ or ‘Boxer Camp’ as told by Pak Kassim. We took a break for few minutes and continued
our way, up to the peak of Gunung Tangga.
9.50am
We have
made it! We started to change our sport attires to ‘Baju Raya’ and take out all Raya Foods that were brought up
by some of us. While waiting for the other participants and committees, we have captured tons of
photos and it just got exciting when everyone
else arrived. The last person reached the top was around 11.00am.
12.30pm
The peak
area was not that spacious, however, it managed to occupy 29 of us with all sorts of characters and it was the best feeling you
could ever asked for at that particular moment.
We started to descend to our camp site. It went smoothly, even though, there
were few minor injuries encountered.
2.00pm
Right
after we have reached the camp site, we started to pack our bags. Clear the
camp site area, especially from plastics.
Making sure we leave nothing, but foot prints. We also had our lunch before
descended to the starting point. So, we went through again all the routes that we
stumbled upon when we were ascending.
7.00pm
Finally!
We were back at where we started our expedition.
~Article by Atikah Mahdzir~
