Ledang 3

It was the third time Messner and Sirdar organised a climb to Gunung Ledang. I didn't join them for Ledang 1 because of work. I did, however, made sure I was available for Ledang 2, which was only a few months back.

I remember having "that good feeling" when I climbed Ledang the first time and I was definitely looking forward to this climb. I even swapped working Saturdays to make it for this climb.

Just days before this climb, I fell ill and was a little worried about my physical strength, whether I could recover in time or not.

The night before the climb, my head felt heavy and I was seriously thinking of pulling out. I tried to sleep early (11.30pm) but found that I was restless. I woke up many times feeling hot and sweaty. Yucks!

I remember waking up at 2.45am, thinking that I only had another 15 more minutes to sleep. The phone alarm rang at 3am. I didn't succumb to temptation to go back to sleep.

I got ready slowly and waited for Steve to pick me up at 3.55am. From my place, we fetched Cila and Nicholas to Kemayan Square. Bro. Won was already there.

We left at 4.30am. I was asked to drive (and I was really looking forward to having a short nap in the car) to Tangkak. Thankfully I was quite wide awake. Somewhere along the way, calls were going back and forth and some were already in the coffeeshop in Tangkak as early as 4.40am. Permission granted, I sped like never before. I was consistently going at 120km/h - 140km/h.

I took only an hour to get to the coffeeshop. (It was supposed to be a 1.5 hour drive).To tell you the truth, I have never driven past 120 km/h before. The road was quite clear that morning, which was why I decided to drive fast.

I had a bowl of tasteless kuey teow soup and a cup of Milo.

At 6.20am, we departed for Ledang Park.

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At the car park, someone cut the bananas individually to be distributed out.

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A group picture (Siva is too busy capturing the moment .... and as a result, you don't see him in this picture

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Exercise and warm-up to loosen the muscles before the climb

Steve was kind enough to volunteer to carry this heavy rope

We registered with the park, eased ourselves and warmed-up. A short briefing was led by Messner and Sirdar. There was a doctor in our team (but unfortunately, he was "on leave" and left us in the care of his two assistants).

The rubbish for that we need to fill out before climbing

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At 8.10am, 36 of us stared the long, ardous climb.

It was steps, steps and more steps.

As usual, I was panting after about the 100th step. Pretty normal because I needed more oxygen than the rest to be able to gain strength and energy to climb.

Apart from our group, there was this other big group of Malay youngsters whom we meet up with intermittently and also another group from Singapore. I actually felt as though there were way too many people climbing up this mountain.

We arrived at CP5 at 10.30am. Late! I was a little horrified by how slow I was this time. Hmm... I actually wanted to move a little faster but chose not to.

After CP 5, the terrain got tougher and poor Sirdar, had to carry 2-3 other backpacks apart from his 15-kilo backpack.

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KFC (a.k.a. Killer For Climbers) came soon after that and I suffered a little ... err.. a lot, I mean. I had forgotten how tough it was. I wondered how I was going to survive until the next CP.

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The first cave which we had to climb through. Aunty Chris enjoyed the cool air in the cave and wanted to sleep on one of the big rocks.

Gua Kambing came into sight after that long, torturous limb-stretching climb. I was a little scared the last time because the rock face was slippery but this time, I climbed with confidence. I guess the Columbia hiking shoes dear twin got for me from Melbourne helped a lot. I was more sure-footed.

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Anak Batu Hampar. Aunty Chris took the difficult way. I veered toward the right and went up with the help of the tree roots.

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The Batu Hamper seemed to get bigger as we move higher.

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Finally, the Mother of All Rocks. This huge boulder is as high as a 3 to 4 storey building.

Anak Batu Hampar and Mother of all Rocks was after that. I was not afraid at all. It certainly looked intimidating, climbing up the huge boulder using only a thick rope to haul myself up. I made it to the top, with slightly more difficulty than the last time.. partly because I had my backpack with me this time.

Aunty Chris was next. They forced her to use the harness, even though she didn't want to use it. Personally, I think she can pull herself up the huge boulder without help from others but Sirdar and Messner didn't want to take the risk. Steve (and Messner) were at the top, pulling the rope while Sirdar walked alongside with Aunty Chris.

Taman Bonsai was next. I didn't really stop long to enjoy the beautiful view. All I wanted to do was to get going. By that time, I was with Aunty Chris and Aunty Shirley.

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We came to Bukit Botak, where the sun was shining down hard on us. I didn't expect it to be so hot because earlier, we heard thunder rolling across the sky every now and then and it didn't look as though it was a sunny day. But it was really hot. I think I got a little sunburned from that stretch.

CP 7 came and we rested for a while.

And then we climbed and climbed. It was never ending.

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Towards the last leg of our climb, we met others who were on their way down. It was really steep and I didn't want to think about how mashed up I would be if I were to slip and fall.

Seeing Winnie slightly ahead of me gave me a surprise. She was behind me by a good 15-20 minutes. It was later when I realised that some of them took a shorter route up. Gosh! If I had known, we wouldn't have wasted our energy on those precious 15-20 minutes. Aunty Chris almost cursed me for that. Haha!

We finally arrived at the summit at 2pm. I think we were only up there for 5 minutes. It was not as windy as the last time I was there.

Then we went down again, to a small clearing where the rest were waiting, with HOT, streaming coffee, curry chicken, pita bread and dried meat. We had a quick lunch and descended at 2.30pm.

I volunteered to be with the kids because I knew that they would race each other down. Just about 100 -150 meters, we sudenly came to a halt. I was told that this lady wanted to answer to nature's call - in a big manner and that she was a little further down, so we gave her a little time (like about 5-10 minutes) before I got sent down to see if she had already done what needs to be done.

I called out. No answer. I walked further and kept calling her name. The others came when they realised that she is no where to be found. We got a little worried. In case you didn't know, Gunung Ledang is known to be a spooky mountain where one could get lost easily. The guide helped by going off to another trail while I kept calling her name and asking if she was done. Finally, we heard an "okay" and continued.

A little later, we were told that she was already with another group in front.

We were moving at a very fast pace (to make up for lost time) when all of a sudden, we came to a halt, again. There was a group in front of us who were going at snail's pace. The kids were, by that time, quite impatient and made remarks such as "Why so slow?", "Go faster-lah" and were actually reprimanded by someone in that group. We found out that one of them sprained her ankle and was holding up everyone else.

We couldn't do much except to follow behind at such a crawl because of the narrow pathway. Well, actually we tried to move past them but they didn't really allow us space. Finally, our guide called the other guide to stop for a while to let us through. We mumbled our thank yous while overtaking them.

Once we were on our own, we moved very quickly and soon lost sight of the other group.

CK and the children went down so fast and waited for us

It rained for about 40 minutes and the pathway was a little slippery. That didn't stop us from practically running down the mountain. We wore our ponchos to avoid getting severely wet. Someone didn't bring one and used his orange backpack cover over his head. For a moment, he really looked so funny. Like someone with this mob of orange hair. Too bad it was raining and I kept my camera in my backpack to prevent it from getting wet.

It was a little dark when we reached CP1 and I thought it was already 6.20pm. I was getting quite worried about the fact that I might need to walk in darkness (I did bring 2 torches, though).

When I reached the steps, I breathed a sigh of relief. I ran down happily.

It was only at the base that I realised that it was only 5.25pm. Gosh!!! It took me less than 3 hours to get to the base. I think if it were not for the two halting episodes, I would've gotten down much faster. Nevertheless, I was really happy with this record .... though I was just as disappointed that it took me 6 hours to summit (compared to 5 hours previously).

The cold bath was REALLY great. I felt so refreshed.

Sirdar helped carry this rope towards the last 2 CPs down

The last person down was Winnie, who sprained her ankle. Poor girl. Messner and Boey accompanied her. It was 7.30pm then and they looked so washed out.

Steve looked pretty washed out too, due to the fact that he had to carry the ropes, plus help do other stuff.

Truly, what Messner, Sirdar, Boey and Steve did was commendable. They helped the weaker ones and ended up getting so wiped out.

Dinner was at the same place (can't remember the name) and this time, we didn't have weird food because Johnny ordered, not Sirdar. Dinner came to about RM502 for 2 tables (23 people).

I went back with Messner and had to keep him awake by talking to him. Well, I volunteered to drive but he didn't take me up on my offer. Hmmm.... probably afraid that I might do a 160 with his 4 wheel drive.

I got back at 11.45pm, tired but happy.

Overall, the climb was great. I got to know so many new people. This team consists of some people from Ledang 1, some from Ledang 2 and about 6-7 new faces.

Bravo everyone, for making it to the top - especially Aunty Chris and Aunty Shirley (because thier very first climb was only a month ago and this Ledang climb was their second)