Our group for this weekend's hike was reduced to 5. The rest had something or rather and so the 5 of us made our way to the venue for our third hike which proves to be the most trying thusfar.
MY said that it is challenging and kidding she was not. In choosing to be ignorant, I was spared the chance to chicken out and trudged on with the rest. Unbeknowst to me, this trek would test my mental strength and challenge my very psyche.
There were warning signs posted at the start of the trail citing the latest 3 accidents to befall careless climbers. Somehow, the person(s) who made the sign only cited the accidents involving women... (-_-)
Making our way up through the cover of trees was not unlike our other hikes. It took us 30 mins to reach the first rest stop.
We were rewarded with a beautiful view of a lake with the morning mist still hovering over the surface of the water. I later found out that this was the Klang Gate Dam. Look closely at the picture below and you can see the ridges that form Bukit Tabur. Looks like a stegosaurus, no?
On the other hand, is civilisation. Twas a misty morning so the twin towers were shrouded in a gossamer shroud of (haze) doom!
Our trail continued uphill from there and just when I was beginning to think that the 'tough' part was all hype, we came to the first challenge, which I would like to call my 'kryptonite'.
There were 2 options to move onto the next ridge (side note: remember stegosaurus? - see picture) either we do the "dare-devil" which involves using a notched rope to scramble down the boulders or the "wussy" which involves walking around the boulders. Being enthusiastic and knowing our K decent will involve ropes, absailing and dare-devil type antics, we chose the former. There are no wussies here.
MY and TW surveying the 'drop'. Note the rope on TW's right. That's our 'insurance'.
TW was the first to take the rope. He made it, no sweat. Next was MY. She, too aced the rope. I was next. Oh-kay... Grab the rope with both hands. Easy enough. "NEVER LET GO," said MY. "Now swing around and plant your left foot on the left boulder". Done. "Lean onto the rope. Trust the rope and let your right foot hang down to look for a foothold." Wha..? Me brain froze at "trust the rope". Haaaaaalp!
There were some tense moments where I couldn't connect my brain to my hands and feet. My right hand kept trying to hang onto the boulder when it should be firmly holding onto the rope to help my left foot support my body while my right foot refused to budge. WTF! I'm so screwed!
MY and TW were tops, they talked me through the whole episode and I managed to scale down the boulder but not without scrapping my knee in the process. HY (pictured right) took to the rope and slope like a duck to water. I felt like chickensh*t after that. JH had long legs so he practically 'walked' down the slope. Double chickensh*t =(
The second challenge was a climbing one where we had to scale an almost verticle, jagged slope. MY said, "you'll have to do the spiderman here". Raaaaiggghtt~! Picked up more 'souvenirs' from here. Bruises to my knees and scrapes on my right hand. I'm such an apparent noob (T_T)
The last challenge of the day was to hop over a 'longkang' (drain). This so-called longkang was actually a chasm separating two ridges and the sharp stones do not exactly make it any easier. Imagine landing on it (ouch~!). Face first (OUCH~!!). Luckily, none of that happened (whew!)
Enough adventure for the day. We started our decent through more 'friendly' terrain. By friendly, I meant more trees (handholds), exposed tree roots (footholds) and damp soil to cushion our trek. I have never been more thankful for trees (,")
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