Diary of Gunung Ledang Expedition

on 23 – 24 August 2003

by

Teh Ah Yeow

DID Team XPDC

(August 2003)

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Diary Of Gunung Ledang Expedition on 23-24 August 2003 DAY 1 (23 August 2003) Initially, there were supposed to be 18 of us in the team but one could not make it at

the last minute. In the end, four travelled in their own vehicles and the rest of us

(including the driver) travelled by JPS bus. Everybody was very excited to start the

journey and finally we departed from JPS Ampang at 2.30 pm

Reached Tangkak town at about 5.00 pm where we stopped to have a tea break.

Had to walk quite a distance to find food stalls. The ‘coffee o kau’ that I had was

really good. So was the ‘roti bakar’ that Pang ordered.

At about 5.30 pm, we continue our

journey to Gunung Ledang resort.

Along the way, we were treated to a

breathtaking view of the mountain

range, the highest and most famed of

all being the Gunung Ledang itself.

Seeing our overwhelming excitement,

the driver kindly obliged to our request

to stop the bus in order for us to

capture the magnificent view. Finally

at about 6.10 pm, we reached the resort where we proceeded to check-in and rest.

Team members were told to assemble at the resort ‘s lobby at 7.30 pm to go out for

dinner. Finally at 8.00 pm, the JPS bus left for Tangkak town to hunt for food. We

spent quite sometime walking around looking for food stalls, not knowing that hawker

stalls could be found near the bus stop. After a hearty dinner, all of us went back to

the resort.

A briefing initially scheduled at 10 pm was postponed to 10.30 pm because we came

back late from dinner. The resort’s chief ranger, En. Zaaba gave us an interesting

briefing at the Dang Wangi room to prepare us for the next morning’s climb. In his

briefing, not knowing how fit and how prepared we were, he gave the worst scenario

that could happen, that the climb to the summit could take between 8 to12 hours,

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everyone should be equipped with enough food supplies, torchlight..etc. Some

members of the team especially those who thought that they were not so fit or well-

prepared were a bit worried and frightened and having second thoughts whether they

should attempt the next day’s climb. Ooi, Teo and myself who had previous trip’s

experience had to convince them that all of us should be able to make it to the

summit if we climbed at our own pace and with caution, even though certain

stretches of the trail were extremely challenging. Moreover, since the resort had

agreed to allow us to check-out late, we could afford to take longer than the expected

5 hours to reach the summit. In order to save precious time for the next morning,

registration for the next day ‘s climb was also submitted to the ranger.

At 11.30 pm everyone retired to their room to have a good rest to prepare for the next

morning’s climb... Good night everyone and sweet dreams !!

DAY 2 (24 August 2003)

The early birds were already at the resort’s restaurant for breakfast at 7 am.

Everyone was very cautious and choosy over the food to be taken lest they suffer

from stomach upset during the climb.

By 8.00 am, most members of the team were already at the resort’s lobby and

together they walked to the ranger’s office area to wait for the rest of the team

including the rangers. In view of the varying difference in fitness level between the

members, we opted for 2 rangers, ranger Zakaria taking the role of ‘anchor’ (the one

who leads) and ranger G-Pop, the ‘sweeper’ (the one who covers the tail end).

Warming-up and stretching exercise were

conducted by ranger G-Pop. A quick group

photograph was taken and everyone was

about to start tracking when we suddenly

realised two members of the team were

missing ! A brief panic ensued but luckily a

quick check found that they were actually just

about to go for their breakfast – they had

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overslept lah !, must had been dreaming of Puteri Gunung Ledang the previous night

!. The rest of the team members then decided

to track in to Kolam Puteri first (8.30 am) and

enjoy the scenic view while waiting for the two

of them. Ooi volunteered to wait and lead them

in to meet up with the rest.

At 8.45 am, En. Hasim from the Instrumentation Unit,

Hydrology Division gave an interesting and informative

briefing on the DID Storm Warning System at the Kolam

Puteri rainfall and water level telemetric station.

At 9.05 am, 15 members of our team of 18 from JPS (including our driver – Pak Din

who could not resist the challenge and decided to join us) and four family members

(a total of 19) started tracking in to Check Point 1 (CP1). The other three members, I

guess, must have fallen in love with Kolam Puteri at first sight and decided to stay

put.

It took us about 25 min to reach CP1 from

Kolam Puteri and after a 5 min break, we

continued our tracking to CP2 which took

another 30 min.

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We rested for 5 min and then tracked on

to CP3 (Kolam Anak Gajah). We had to

track through a stretch called “Tanah

Kuning” to reach Kolam Anak Gajah.

Apart from that, we had to cross through

a stream flowing between two pieces of

big rock with a small rock outcrop

between them. Here, we had to step on

the small rock outcrop while holding on to somebody’s hand to help us across.

A member of the team could not resist the

cool and clear water here and decided to

jump in for a good and refreshing swim.

We rested, ‘makan’ and chatted for a

while before carrying on our journey to

CP4 (Kolam Gajah 2050 ft). Here, we

were greeted with a really breathtaking

and fantastic view around here.

Members could not resist standing on a

big rock outcrop to pose for photographs.

Proceeding to CP5 (Sungai Segi Tiga, 2200 ft), we tracked most of the time along a

stream, crossing 2 hills where we found the vegetation to be quite unique and

attractive. The journey to CP5 took us quite long, slightly more than an hour. Here,

we rested for about 30 min. Some of us took this opportunity to replenish our energy

by eating some snacks and others filled up their water bottles.

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Some of the men had a go with the ‘Tarzan

Swing’. To make it more realistic, the ladies

volunteered to provide the sound effect – could

have been better !!. A few of us could not resist

and had to answer nature’s call among the

bushes – a truly ‘unique experience’

The journey to Gua Kambing (CP6

3050 ft) from CP5 took us 30 min.

Here, we had to go through a steep

cliff using ropes. Later on, we

crossed a place called ‘KFC’ (Killing

Field Centre – definitely not

Kentucky Fried Chicken !!!) where

we had to climb almost seemingly

endless steep slopes complicated by

trees roots cutting across the

tracking path. Here I noticed that some members were already losing ‘steam’ and

had to stop quite a number of times to catch their breath, sound of very heavy

breathing could be heard. The more physically fit members had to play the role of

‘cheerleader’ by giving words of encouragement to push the rest to move on. ‘Sikit

lagi’ was repeatly heard. Everybody heaved a sigh of relief when ‘kali ini, betul-betul

sikit lagi’ was finally heard.

At Gua Kambing, we rested about 45 min

waiting for the second group to catch up.

Three members of the second group had

some problems, one with her ‘gear box’

problem (sakit lutut lah !) and the other two

had leg cramps. Thanks to Ooi, Aziz and Pak

Din for being a good ‘tukang urut’. Here, we

met a group of students on their way down,

resting. When we came to know that one of the student injured her leg, a gentleman

from our group offered his ‘minyak gamat’ to her.

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The track from Gua Kambing (CP6) to Botak Hill

(CP7) was extremely challenging. We had to

squeeze ourselves through a small tunnel in the

cave and then climbed up some wet rocky track

with the help of ropes. This was no thank to

yesterday’s rain. The two rangers did a really

wonderful job showing us the safe and right way to

do it. Upon reaching the second level of the cave,

we met with another group of students who were

resting. They kindly made way for us to climb up. It

was kind of

‘traffic jam’ here with so many people around. We

took the opportunity to look down at the track and

realised that it was going to be even tougher,

taxing and very dangerous to descend. Thank

God, we were going to descend using JPS

vehicles !!. Teamwork prevailed as all members

pulled their resources together to help one another

overcome this very challenging stretch – hands

were stretched out to help to pull members up and

there were also some pushing from the bottom,

apart from the endless encouraging words to keep

the spirits up.

It was really wonderful to see the

kind of moral support given to the

three members who had ‘gear box’

and leg cramps problem to enable

them to successfully climb up the

almost 65 degrees three-storey high

rock face. The initial fear of climbing

the rock face disappeared when we

were greeted by very bonsai-like and

very attractive vegetation at the top of the rock face.

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At Botak Hill (CP7 3650 ft), the rangers

showed us the place to get clean (awet

muda) water ...hmm... couldn’t help but

noticed that only the men went for it !!.

Ranger Zakaria explained that the name

‘Botak Hill’ came about after a group of

irresponsible campers set a camp fire and

burnt down almost all the vegetation around this area. Since then, vegetation had

problem growing back. We could

also get a glimpse of the summit

from here and it was obvious that

some of the members were already

very excited to reach the summit as

soon as possible.

Yahoo !, we, the first group finally reached

the summit at 3.05 pm after more than 6

hours of tracking. We were the only

climbers at the summit as the other

climbers had already descended. We had

the whole

summit to

ourselves,

everyone

was very

busy posing for photographs – all kind of very

interesting poses from the ‘Incredible Hulk’ to I think was

Jackie Chan’s or Jet Li’s kungfu...arm twisting ....

I guess more to express their joy and thrill feeling of

‘YES, WE MADE IT !! It was WORTH IT !!’

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The weather up at the summit was quite

unpredictable, varying between cool misty

temperatures and hot sweltering heat from

the sun. The first group were at the

summit for more than 35 min before the

second group arrived. While waiting, most

of us took the opportunity to admire the

fantastic view around the summit, looking

into the far horizon, while Mat Pua’at

had a very cosy nap. After taking

group photographs, the first group

decided to descend first to JPS Hilltop

Monitoring Station via the Telecom

Tower to meet-up with JPS Johor

staffs and others including family

members who were anxiously waiting

for our safe arrival. They had with

them packed snacks and bottles of

mineral water to recharge us after our long exhausting track.

After a quick briefing by En. Hasim at

the JPS Hilltop Monitoring Station,

five JPS vehicles took us down to the

resort where a wonderful lunch cum

dinner was waiting for us at the

resort’s restaurant. – courtesy of JPS

Johor.

We had a quick bath and packed-up before checking out at about 7 pm. The bus

eventually left at 7.20 pm and stopped at Tangkak town to allow some of our men to

do some shopping – actually to ‘ambil hati’ (pacify) their wives.

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We had another break at the Ayer Keroh R&R as the driver was feeling very sleepy.

A peek at the back of the bus explained it – almost everyone was sleeping very

soundly – some with mouth wide opened !! After that Hamzah was assigned the task

of ‘tukang sembang’ to chat with Pak Din to keep him awake to make sure we arrived

home safely. We finally reached JPS Ampang at 11.10 pm. Thanks, Hamzah, you did

a wonderful job. Then it was back home for a good night rest with sweet memories of

Gunung Ledang.

By :

Teh Ah Yeow

DID Team XPDC

NOTE :-

DID Team XPDC was formed on June 2003 specially for this expedition to climb

Gunung Ledang. The number of members started at eight (8) only initially and slowly

increased to 18. The name ‘XPDC’ was coined from the word ‘Ekspedisi’ - the

Bahasa Malaysia version of expedition, to instill in every member of the team with the

following qualities :-

X - Xdventurous, Xtraordinary, Xciting, ....

P - Positive thinking, Preserverance, Proactive, .....

D - Determination, Do it ! ...

C - Cooperation, Commitment, Caring, Courage, .....

We believed that the above qualities in every member of the team made it possible

for ALL of us (those who attempted the climb) to reach the summit successfully on

24 August 2003 despite the fact that quite a number of our members were not

physically fit and prepared.

DID team XPDC would like to take this opportunity to sincerely express our heartfelt

thanks and appreciation to KESSO JPS Malaysia, JPS Johor, JPS Muar,

Instrumentation Unit of the Hydrology and Water Resources Division, Human

Resources Development Division and last but not least, Administration and Finance

Division for all their support and assistance given to us.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!.

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SPECIAL NOTE :-

This kind of activity is a very healthy activity and should be encouraged as it cuts

across all borders - race, status, age, gender, religion,...etc, apart from promoting

healthy lifestyle to warga JPS. Healthy bodies, healthy minds will in return reaps

rewards - increase in work productivity !!.

It is through this kind of activity that every warga JPS has the opportunity to inculcate

/ instill in them the qualities and spirit of leadership, unity, teamwork, preserverance

(tahan lasak), commitment, caring, positive thinking,...

- the spirit of ‘KITA BOLEH, JPS BOLEH, MALAYSIA BOLEH’

XPDC Mendaki Gunung Ledang Pada 23 – 24 Ogos 2003 - Anjuran KESSO JPS Malaysia

Resort to CP1 – 25 minutes CP1 to CP2 – 25 minutes CP2 to CP3 – 60 minutes CP3 to CP4 – 25 minutes CP4 to CP5 – 60 minutes CP5 to CP6 – 30 minutes CP6 to CP7 – 45 minutes CP7 to CP8 – 30 minutes TOTAL – 5 hours

Note : CP - Check

Gunung Ledang Trail (6km only)

Cross Section Of Gunung Ledang Trail