gunung irau + gunung brinchang trek

| 14 february 2009 | saturday | 8.00 pm | arrived at kampung raja, cameron highlands | did some shopping for supplies for the trek | 8.30 pm | arrived at kwan tee temple at kampung raja | had dinner at lai fatt restaurant beside the temple | good dinner, and prices are reasonable | 10.00 pm | set up tent on the stage in the hall beside the temple | this is the place where taiping goh camp on the nights before his treks to the mountains in the vicinity | apparently no permission was needed from anyone | did not ask any one for permission as did not know who to ask | in retrospect ought to informed the temple caretaker | but was not disturbed | 10.30 pm | lights off | had trouble sleeping as the air pillow purchased at tesco leaked | same thing happened at gunung yong yap with another pillow purchased at tesco | do not recommend any air pillow from tesco | 15 february 2009 | sunday | 6.00 am | alarm went off | freshened up and broke camp | 6.30 am | had breakfast at kampung raja | wantan mee and eggs | 7.00 am | started driving to gunung brinchang | 7.30 am | arrived at gunung brinchang summit where some members of malaysian outdoors hiking trekking society were camped | surprised that the tents were still up | long wait | 8.20 am | johnny low, team leader gave a briefing on the trail from the summit of gunung brinchang to the summit of gunung irau | most useful advice was to follow the rectangular stone blocks marking the border shared by perak and pahang | the words per presumably for perak appeared on one face of the stone markers and the words pah presumably for pahang appeared on the opposing face | from gunung brinchang peak to gunung irau peak, the words per ought to be on the left and the words pah on the right | from gunung irau peak to gunung brinchang peak, the words per will be on the right and pah will be on the right | trail was well marked | trail had many forks but forked trails reconverged | 8.30 am | start of trek on the man made walkway from gunung brinchang peak | after the end of the walkway, the trail started with a steep downhill descent | the descent continued until the ascent to the gunung irau false peak | although it did not rain the day before, the trail was still covered with rotting moss | once the trek commenced, a single layer of dry fit t shirt sufficed to ward off the cold | 10.20 am | arrived at gunung irau false peak | short break | not cold, in fact fairly warm | weather was good | sun was out | started descent from gunung irau false peak | the descent continued until the ascent to the gunung irau peak | 11.30 am | arrival at the summit of gunung irau | rest and relaxation | sun was still out | quite warm | 11.45 am | left the summit of gunung irau | 2.15 pm | arrival at the summit of gunung brinchang | 3.15 pm | left gunung brinchang peak | 3.45 pm | dinner at lai fatt restaurant next to kwan tee temple | 4.30 pm | left kampung raja for home | overall an enjoyable trek | good for reasonably fit beginners | the trail from gunung brinchang to gunung irau was 2.35 km in length | the length of the trek was 4.7 km | gunung irau at 2110 metres or 6923 feet is the 9th tallest mountain in peninsular malaysia | gunung brinchang at 2032 metres or 6666 feet is quite tall as well | irau peak is only 78 metres or 257 feet higher than brinchang peak | brinchang peak is the highest peak in peninsular that is accessible by way of tar road | even if not trekking, a visit to gunung brinchang is recommended | drive slowly and horn to warn oncoming traffic as the road to brinchang summit is only passable by 1 vehicle | for the photos, please click here | for the photos taken by jimmy chew, please click here | for the photos taken by toh say li, please click here |