2nd Mountain Climbing for 2009

I can't believe I climbed Gunung Datuk again! Two Saturdays ago, 13 of us were up on this same mountain. While huffing and puffing all the way up to the mountain, I was telling myself that I was doing this only to fulfill my mountain climbing quota for the year.

Rachel couldn't make it for the 1st climb and she really wanted to go mountain climbing. Last Thursday, I asked her if she was working on the coming Saturday and if she was not, maybe we could get others to hike with us. She said she had the day off but needed to check if she had other obligations to settle.

Friday morning I was rudely awakened by the ring from my cell phone. It was Rachel confirming that she had no activities the next morning. I got hold of some of my friends and Sirdar emailed to all our ex and current climbers. Not surprisingly, many couldn't make it.

That Friday night, Minch organised a CNY dinner at Kong Ming Restaurant with some of our good friends and we ended up in Eddie's house till 12.20AM. That night I had trouble sleeping and at about nearly 4am I could hear the rain fall and it was getting heavier. Immediately I smsed Rachel and Sirdar (2 different locations) saying that it was raining, and I had very little sleep. They replied the next minute saying that it wasn't raining over at their side.

Come 31st January 2009, Saturday morning 7.15am, I was so reluctant to go because although it was only drizzling, the ground was still wet. Sirdar said that if I didn't want to climb I could wait for them at the base.

There were 7 of us who climbed that day. Sirdar, Jason, Steve, Rachel, Me, Faith and Grace.

The ground was "wet-ish". Not that wet, so I said I would join them for this climb. We started at 8.54am.

Up we went. We stopped so many times.

I love these roots. The roots snake freely down the slopes making it easier for us to climb. I believe I have posted a picture something like this a few days ago.

Some flatter ground.

Grace and Faith had so much energy. They were ahead of us and we constantly had to call them to stop and wait for us.... well, if you want to know the truth... Rachel and I were the slow ones. I didn't have much sleep the night before and was feeling uneasy. In fact, I was surprised at my lack of stamina. I thought after last week's hike, I should be able to climb more easily this time. I was wrong.

We came across some fungi on dead tree trunks/branches. Faith (or was it Grace?) wanted me to take some pictures of them so here they are.

After walking for an hour and 30 minutes, we started getting impatient. When will we arrive?? Faith who came here last week remembered that there was a boulder just before reaching the peak, but she forgot how high it was. So every boulder she came across, she asked if that was the one. Steve told her that it was a huge boulder.. like 2 storeys high or higher.

At 10.44am, 1 hour 50 minutes of hiking, we finally reached this boulder. We were so relieved.. well, at least I was.

Not quite the peak, but it was for Rachel and me. We arrived here at 10.53am. We took 2 hours to climb today. It was 20 minutes longer than last week's hike.
There was a group of university students who were there first, but the "almost" summit was big enough for all of us.

This is the highest point of Gunung Datuk. You'll have to climb several metal ladders to reach here. (I find myself repeating what I said last week). Go check out my post dated 31 January 2009.

The Tee sisters. I like this shot.

Going down the metal ladders can be tricky. Looks dangerous ya?!

We left the summit at 11.48am.

Rachel led the way. She went down so quickly and sometimes disappeared from our sight.

At one point, we saw a small snake. Steve managed to take a picture of it. We waited for a while to see which direction the snake was heading. It looked like it was going down, but it disappeared into the bushes towards the right side.

We arrived back at the base at 1.23pm. We took 1 hour 35 minutes to descend. Hmm.. even longer than last week. I wonder why.

Something happened to Fatih's footwear again. This time her slippers gave way.

She was washing up in the bathroom when it happened. Good thing Rachel has a spare pair of sandals. Earlier, I asked Rachel to bring a pair of slippers along for bathing. She had already packed in a pair of sandals, and without thinking much she brought along her slippers too.

We spotted some lovely Bunga Raya (hibiscus) at the base. We left the base at about 2pm and headed to Pedas for lunch.

We ordered 3 plates of noodles and it was gone in minutes... oh well, slightly longer than that. We were very hungry but didn't want to overeat, so each only had a bowl or 2.

It was a good hike. There were no leeches. Thank God. :) With this climb, I have fulfilled my quota for the following year too. Yay!