Monday, October 20, 2008

Gunung Chamah

Posted By Sia on Oct 19th - http://living-life-as-a-devil.blogspot.com/search/label/ODA

Gunung Chamah Expedition 30th September to 4th October 2008

Recently went for a G7 trip wit Outdoor Discovery Adventure on 30th of September until 4th of October.

8 people go for this trip… 4 guys(Fu Yaw, Mr Voon, Ah Boon and AhSia) and 4 gals (chiannie, Miss Lim @ Teacher, BeeSuan and SiewTing)

G7 Mountain = Gunung Chamah, Kelantan

Mountain specialty =

From Gua Musang to Pos Rekom(an orang asli settlement)… 20 mins drive to a school and from there… Kenari need to park beside school as the remaining road can only use a 4wd where in this case… hilux.

Supposedly take 5 hours of 4wd(3 guys, Ah Boon, AhSia, Fu Yaw is the VIP for hilux, our seats are reserved at the back, cargo area) we bounced and bumped and groaned for 3 hours before we face a problem. The remaining 2 hours of drive cannot be completed as the roads are impassable by 4WDs…

So… gung ho… take our backpacks and hike to the orang asli settlement. Hot blazing sun scorched our heads and minds for 3 hours. And the road we treading on is logging trails… as you can see from the pics in the photo album. 3 hills and one mountain size peak we need to go thru before we reach Pos Rekom.,

From the orang asli settlement, POS REkom to Kem Tongkat Ali, needs 3 hours of hiking thru the jungle.

From the Kem Tongkat Ali to Gunung Chamah Peak… need 6 hours of hiking and climbing.

What SPECIALTY??? From Tongkat Ali to Chamah Peak… 6 hours of rigorous hiking, and Tongkat Ali is the LAST WATER POINT to boot. And WE plan to spend the night at Chamah Peak… so we need to bring enough water for all of us(cooking) and for individual drinking… In total… around 20 hours without any water source…

Lastly… there are 6 ‘false peaks’ before we can reach the real Chamah Peak… meaning one need to climb up and descend down from false peaks before you can reach the real Chamah Peak! Nice leh… haha…

And please check out some of the photos I posted in the album…

So overall… for this trip… 3 hours to Pos Rekom, 3 hours to Tongkat Ali, 6 hours to Chamah Peak and add it all when we come wan to leave the place adds up to 20 hours of trekking. Cool isn’t it?

Gunung Chamah Day 1(no pics)

Day 1…30th Sept 2008

Meet up at Shah Alam wit the rest of the gang around 5pm for a last minute hoo hah and briefing and packing before drive to Gua Musang, Kelantan.

2 cars…
Hilux equipped wit off road tires – MissLim, SiewTing, AhSia, Fu Yaw.. (If I not mistaken la.. quite poor memory these few days)

Kenari – Mr Voon, Ah Boon, Chian Ni, Bee Suan

Nothing eventful happened on the way there… jus tembak tembak(ejek) sesame sendiri, eat Loh Mee at Ulu Yam(the vinegar damn lousy), stop at rest area(loads of people!) and one meaningful thing happen.

On our way into Kelantan, Gua Musang area… there is a car… Honda Jazz… apparently the car’s battery sizzles out after being left wit car lamp on for half an hour. The group of people are fellow mountain climbers it seems, on their way to Gunung Yong yap. Apparently they are helping car accident victims for half an hour and flag down passerbys to bring the accident victims to nearest hospital before finding out they are also victims too… wit their car’s battery dies out.

Luckily for them, Mr Voon aka McGyver(all of us thinks same way as me too) helps them to be on their way in few mins time(haha.. exaggerates a bit).
We, ODA are helpful in times of emergency and always we dun ask for anything in return except a few “thanks mate!” or shake hands and exchange information bout mountain climbings…
And in this incident… the Honda Jazz guys just watch in awe of our McGyver and after the small operation on their battery… they jus ask “ can I know your name” to mr Voon.. and well… jus left!
From my hearing and some of our gang… they never say any thanks or any gestures that they are grateful for our help( or in this case, Mr Voon’s help.) How we know they are going to Yong Yap? Apparently, Miss Lim need to ask them 2 to 3 times, “where you all going tonight?” before the leader of the gang says ”Yong Yap”

Lucky Mr Voon helps them or there wil be no Yong Yap for them until morning… that time is around midnight wit very very few cars passing by.

That night we reach Gua Musang around 2am… and spend the night(or morning??) at motel..

Gunung Chamah Day 2 - Oct 1st

Woke up at 7am, bath(forced to) and head down for a hearty breakfast.

After filling up the petrol to the fullest, we begin our real adventure to Gunung Chamah.
20 mins drive to a school, Kenari was forced to be left behind as the road are meant for 4wd vehicle only


8 people in one HILUX??? Luckily for 3 guys, they are the VIPS for Hilux… ODA reserved 3 special seats for Fu Yaw, AhSia and ah Boon at the back of the Hilux.
So 3 of us… bumped our way for almost 3 hours. On the 3 hours hell of a ride, we met wit 3 obstacles
1st stage – First time here…all of us really dunno the way to Pos Rekom as the guide that we find earlier has not shown up. So Mr Voon as the driver wit 4 gals inside the car and 3 VIPS on the back, we jus follow our
instincts and jus…drive into the unknown.

Lodging trails, fallen timberss, big gaping holes and panoramic vieware part of our journey until we accidentally met a Chinese middle aged guy who was very helpful and nice. He offered to lead us to Pos Rekom so happily(painfully for the VIPS) as Mr Voon follow him closely. And when I say closely is the Chinese guy drive his Hilux at neck-breaking speed and Mr Voon followed closely in pursuit of the fast car. So that is why I say it is painful for the VIPS. Haha… “OSIM’s saddle chair will not be able to fight this ride” is wat I remarked to Fu Yaw.

2nd Stage – Fallen timber blocking the way, there is a narrow gap jus perfectly fit for Hilux to go through. Perfectly fit means if you navigate the car a bit off less than 1cm, kiss the paint goodbye. Hehe… look at pictures for better view.

3rd stage- Supposed to be 5 hours ride, the remaining 2 hours ride are not meant to be as the road is too full of big gaping holes. We are forced to abandoned our Hilux by the roadside and trek the remaining road to Pos Rekom. Thanking the Uncle happily, we embarked on our first phase of Chamah Expedition, walk on barren logging trail wit hills to reach our first checkpoint
Pos Rekom.

We walk under blazing hot sun carrying the backpacks… and well… it really sapped our energy and mind. Jus after half an hour… my skin is all black and tanned. Until now I can still feel the scorching sun on my skin.
We took 3 hours to reach Pos Rekom, where the orang asli says our speed is quite fast as there are many groups of mountain climbers who take at least 4 to 5 hours to reach Pos Rekom from the place we left our Hilux. Terror le… haha

That night we spend the night at Pos rekom, sleeping in the Kongsi settlement( a kongsi is like a resting place and sleeping place for workers, and in this case, it is for logging industry workers)


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

wa wa wa....gunung chamah what a nice trip !!! Dig here dig there...so exciting , so shuang(especially for the teh tarik adventure)wahahahah !!! but i cant go for this trip..arghh...><
nvm , after SPM i will be back...muahahaha...