It is said the level of difficulty at the later stage is more challenging than Mt.Kinabalu. Strong hikers can complete the journey within a day returning in the evening with torch light. It gets dark very quickly in the jungle.
My target was to reach Camp Lolo. This is a site where campers stay for a night before making the assault to the peak the following day.
The entry used to be free last year but now it is RM1 per person. I remember how muddy the track was but this time it was as dry as a desert.
This was also the area where a group of students or junior cadets got lost last year. It is believed some mountains are spiritually strong. This could be one of them. Mee Peng constantly reminds me not to make acerbic remarks while in a jungle or cave for fear of offending the spirits.
The start of the trail was wide with the heaps of tall green bamboos surrounding the forest. It was a good start and warm up, almost no steep climb but it was a very long track.
After over 1.5 hours of walking, we reached the waterfalls and took a break. To continue to the next stage, we had to cross the stream. Though it looks fairly easy but most of us were trying to do it without soaking our shoes.
From here onwards, it was a narrow uphill path all the way to the dam. There was a large rusty pipe that runs parallel and we soon found out the dam was not those that we usually find in large reservoir lakes. To my disappointment, it was a mini and disused semi-wooden dam. We met 2 hikers here and seek their advice what was ahead in Camp Lolo. They told us there was nothing much to explore between the dam and Camp Lolo.
My stopwatch displayed we had already trekked more than 2+ hours. I decided we should heed back since it had exceeded my estimated time of arrival.
On the way back, while crossing the stream, Mee Peng slipped and fell in a strange way, but luckily she escaped with no injury. Incidentally, I happened to video record the fall!
I slipped too…
Earlier, while we were hiking up the dam, I diverted from the main path and went to an obscure area along the stream to take a leak. I forgot what my parents taught me when I was a kid, to say “excuse me” in Chinese before doing the thing. While walking back to the main path, my left leg stepped on a large rock which seems perfectly safe and within a split second, my left shoe lost its grip sending my body off tangent, I slammed my right shoulder on the hard rock. I twisted my right arm, probably strained ligament. It was nothing serious but later I had trouble using my right hand to scrub my body during shower.
I inspected the rock; it had algae all over it.
We reached the base HQ just before 2 p.m, approximately 4.5 hours of trek time.
Overall, except for the minor incidents, it was a good hike. We are now more eager than before to explore new trails.
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