Gunung Ledang - Descending

Continuation from Memories of Mt Ophir a.k.a Gunung Ledang

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While we were enjoying the nice breeze and the beautiful scenery at the summit, 16 others decided that they had enough of the view and started their descent.

As for me, I was at the summit for 39 minutes before we (12 of us) made our way down.

While others dread the thought of going down, I was quite happy about it. Going down normally doesn't pose too much of a problem for me because my knees are still strong. No pain, no ache, no creaking sound, nothing. :)

What I didn't realise was how steep it was when I descended. How did I ever manage to climb up the steep terrain was beyond my imagination.

Messner made this comment : Going up is optional but coming down is mandatory.

Thank God for strong knees. I made it down, slowly, but surely. I was very careful with every step because one miscalculation could mean a very looong walk back to the base.

Soon, Iceberg, Sirdar and I formed one team, moving faster than 9 others.

We came down via another route, which bypassed all the Batu Hampars and caves. Boring, yes, but this made our descent faster.

Iceberg experienced muscle cramps and we had to stop for a while for him to rub some cream on his thighs.

At one point, Sirdar was way behind me and he asked me to slow down. He didn't feel good, probably because of the mee hoon that he ate at the summit. So we stopped for about 10 minutes, giving him time to err.... add fertiliser to the soil.

As I was walking, Sirdar pointed out this big, round, black nest which is the size of a football. I was pretty sure it was a bee hive but Iceberg later clarified that it was not.

We stopped again when we reached the main route. It was 3.40pm. Iceberg and Sirdar looked pretty washed out and I couldn't resist taking this picture. (oh well! To tell you the truth, they actually posed for me!!)

From there , we asked our guide how long it would take us to reach the base and he estimated about 5.30pm. Gosh! Another 1 hour 40 minutes more.

Somewhere near the Kolam Gajah signboard (between CP 2 and CP 3), we saw PeterLai and Joo Tatt. We were surprised because PeterLai had to reach the base first to do the roll call.

PeterLai explained that Joo Tatt's soles came off and the terrain was slippery for his sole-less shoes. He had to move at a slower speed. And PeterLai, having gone on so many mountain climbs, knew the buddy system - that no one can be alone at any one time.

After five minutes of rest, we went on with our journey, this time, at a slower pace to accomodate Joo Tatt.

Somewhere along CP2 we asked the guide to be with Joo Tatt while we went on ahead. The terrain at that time was a gradual slope downwards and it was easy to move fast.

Soon we passed CP1.

And then, came the steps. The moment my feet touched the steps, I started moving very fast, counting all the way down. Eunice had given me a task to do : Count the number of steps. And I couldn't do it if I were to walk down slowly. I literally ran down the steps, stopping only very occassionally.

On the 630th step (estimation), I saw a Faith, Siva, Geok Siang (can't remember the rest) coming up to go to the pond nearby for a dip. I literally ignored them (they must be wondering why I didn't acknowledge them at all!!!) and continued going down and counting. I knew that if I ever stopped to say "hi", I might lose my concentration and forget what number I was on.

I arrived at the base at 5.12pm

I saw some of my team mates hanging around near the car park. Uncle Loke was one of them. He said that he reached the base at 4.10pm. Gosh!!!! He's 64 years old and he's so much fitter than I am. I salute him!!! When I asked him how many times he climbed prior to this, he answered that this was his third climb, the first two being Gunung Datuk and Gunung Angsi. Wow!!! Bravo!!!

Four people from KL were all set and ready to leave the park. They cartainly had a long drive back and I don't envy them for the jam that they would encounter once they go past the Sg Besi toll. It was a long weekend for us afterall.

I called Eunice and the first thing she asked was, "You came down already-ah?"

"Yes", I answered her

"Wah, sooo fast", she exclaimed

Yeah, I was kinda proud of myself.

I checked myself to see if there were any parts of me that were aching. None!!! I didn't feel tired at all. In fact, I felt so alive.

I declared all my stuff to the management and grinned sheepishly when they saw that I had the 9th plastic bag peeking out of my backpack. I explained that it did not contain any food stuff, which was why I didn't count that in.

There was only one shower stall in the ladies' and seeing that no other ladies would be using it anytime soon, I took my own sweet time in there. It was certainly VERY refreshing.

This is iceberg, looking so drained out

Iceberg needed to leave as early as possible and even though we could've left the park early, there was still something which held us back. Iceberg's backpack was with the guide leading the last team. Later, we found out that Iceberg paid RM20 for the guide to carry his backpack, all the way up and all the way down. And the comment was that Iceberg spoiled the market because I only gave Sirdar and JasonW a cucumber each for carry my backpack up.

We waited until the last person reached the base. JohnL arrived at 6.37pm, limping as he walked. Samuel, who arrived not long before that, looked ill.We left the park at 6.54pm to go for dinner in Tangkak. Messner, JohnL and Samuel didn't join us because Samuel was not feeling well.

We went to this restaurant called Soon Guan. The owner, seeing that we were a big group (12 people) decided to throw in the yee sang for free. Afterall, it was the last day of Chinese New Year.

Eunice already warned me that they would order weird dishes and true enough, our dishes were chicken with wine, turtle, frog's legs, long beans with cucumber, fish and err... one more dish - can't remember the name. Anyway, realising the weird dishes that they ordered, I asked them to order friend rice for me. It was a huge portion and I had to share it with Faith.

The bill came up to a whopping RM212!!! Gosh! So expensive.

We left Tangkak at 8.30pm. I was in Sirdar's car together with JasonW and Iceberg. Nobody felt like driving. Sirdar and Iceberg were tired partly due to the fact that they didn't have enough sleep the night before. JasonW drove in the morning .... so I did the responsible thing and volunteered to drive. I drove from the first rest stop all the way to Seremban.

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I picked up my car at Joo Tatt's place and the four of us went to my mum's place for coffee.

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It was certainly a very nice ending to our climb - a hot drink at the end of the day :-)

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Truly, I have enjoyed myself climbing Ledang and I am glad that I cleared my schedule for this.