Wednesday, November 12, 2008

yong yap trek

| 7 november 2008 | arrived at about 7.00 am at kampung raja at cameron highlands | had leisurely breakfast | mucked around kampong raja morning market | bought 909 soap which selama kong swears will keep leeches away | bought cheap nylon socks for trek | taiping goh called | said pinoy group will be late | met up with taiping goh at coffee shop | headed to temple to be picked up by 4wd vehicles | tried to nap but with some difficulty as a primary school was having a concert nearby | pinoy group arrived | 11 pinoy and 1 pinay | introduced to joon the leader of pinoy group | climbed onto a 4wd vehicle | set off for pos rengil | had to stop at pos rengil as apparently the 4wd vehicles declined to cross sungai brooke for whatever reason | taiping goh had some discussion with the villagers of pos rengil | no idea what they were discussing | started trek at about 10.30 am | see trek log for the details | trek at moderate speed | not as fast as the titiwangsa traverse trek | plenty of breaks for water and food | quite long breaks for food | no leeches | but plenty of "agas-agas" an insect that packs strong bites that itch for weeks | sometimes called "sandflies" | but kept well at bay by nylon cheetah track pants and by insect repellant spray on | sprayed every now and then to keep "agas-agas" and assorted insects away | nothing untoward during the trek up to gunung yong yap summit | first experience with "night-hiking" which is apparently an "in-thing" among pinoy and malay trekkers | apparently pinoy trekkers like to trek at night because it is cooler at night | drawbacks to "night-hiking" include lack of any view, limited vision, the cold and difficult photography | however "night-hiking" did not turn out to be too bad although did step into a hole and scrapped the shins | rained during last part of night hike but stopped before summit was reached | arrived at peak of yong yap mountain by about 9.25 pm | put on poncho to keep cold at bay | set up flysheet and groundsheet | unpacked everything | dumped stuff onto groundsheet | wiped and powdered | changed into sleeping clothes | started cooking | 1 piece of solid fuel to boil 600ml of water | when boiling added 2 packets of 20g campbell mushroom soup and 1 packet of double serving couscous | waited a while for couscous to soften | ate | not bad | edible | took a drink | started to prepare for bed | was probably asleep before 11.00 pm | woken up intermittently because the inflatable pillow newly purchased from tesco was leaking air | mistake not to test pillow earlier | had to use spare clothing as pillow | 8 november 2008 | woke up at about 7.00 am in the morning | had quick breakfast of cup instant noodles and 2 packets of 3-in-1 30g quaker oats cereals | packed | attended to toilet matters | changed to trekking cloths | wandered around campsite | mucked around | first group of pinoy left at about 8.00 am | waited till about 8.40 am for the second group | left summit at about 8.40 am while second group of pinoy still packing | arrived at the first water crossing on the way to pos rengil and stopped at small campsite at about 10.30 am | waited for others to arrive | at a rice dumpling or "bak-chang" | too salty | better to stick to sandwiches | washed up | cleaned up | resume trek at about 12.15 pm | fairly uneventful trek to pos rengil with short stops for water every 30 minutes and a slightly longer stop for food at base camp | arrived at pos rengil at about 5.50 pm | chit chatted with villagers of pos rengil and 4wd drivers | all trekkers arrived safely at pos rengil by 8.00 pm and boarded th 4wd vehicles back to kampung raja | had dinner at kampung raja | left kampung raja at about 10.00 pm |

No comments: