Night Hiking to Gunung Bunga Buah
There were beautiful night view of KL city light at the summit of GBB. When Subki, invited me to go for a night hike to GBB last weekends, I agreed even tough I know that going into jungle in the dark during "peak season" of rain is not actually an idea of fun.
Nonetheless, Subki, Yat, Adam and me head up to GBB at 1:00 am on Sunday morning. It was raining heavily during Saturday evening, but luckily the rain stopped when we departed from KL.
The steep ascending slope behind Gohtong Jaya apartment was slippery; it was something like 2 steps up and 1 step sliding own. We scrambled up in 40 minutes, double the times taken during daytime and dry season, to reach the weathered tarred road. Our hard work was rewarded by the views of well lid night scene of Genting hotels hovering in clouds.
We initially, with great enthusiasm, would like to trek up to summit for sunrise, but after another 40 min of walking, the mists started rolling in, and it was getting thicker and thicker, visibility also was getting lower and lower on the torch-lighted trail. The trail was overgrowth and dangling with fallen bamboo trees. The scene was spooky and resembled those found in “misteri nusantara”. I was walking in front, breaking the trail, and kept regular stop to avoid being trekking alone and far from the group. I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering; it kept playing screens of horror movies.
Sleepiness also started to strike us, so we decided to look for a campsite to put up our tent. We found an open area on the tarmac road, and camped at the middle of the road. It was a good decision, as the 'campsite" was dry, flat and most importantly warm.
Mystically, after we put up our tent, the mist dispersed and the sky opened up. A bright oval moon hanging over glowing sky, casting shadows over the valley, and the surrounding jungle was alive with musical orchestra.
The wind was blowing softly and we could see the clear sky dropped with thousand stars. Adam even spotted a meteorite. We made tea and instant noodle before going to sleep at about 5 am.
We intended to wake up at 6 am to continue walking. But to wake up after 1 hour of sleep in a windy and cold morning is tough, so after dilly-dally; we didn't start moving until 9 am.
The rain soaked jungle trek look like it had been abandoned for long time; at some points, we had to maneuver over fallen tree trunks. There is slight ascent of muddy trail immediately after the tarmac road, followed by a long steep 100 m drop; this part of trail was destroyed by some animals and as expected, leeches were militarized along the trail. Sadly, the leeches–human battle always resulted in blood, Adam got a shot at his butt.
After reaching the bottom of the drop, it is all the way up; about an hour, we reached a rocky ridge with mosses carpeted surface. It is the most beautiful part of the trek. It looks like a rock garden. We could see the rolling hills of the main range, KL city view with Twins Towers as well as hotels in Genting Highlands.
After the rock garden, the surrounding vegetation starts to change, from low land forest with thick undergrowth to sub montaine forest with trees covered with moss. We reached the summit at 12 am, however it was misty. It started to rain when we were on the way down. Fortunately it stopped when we reached the middle road campsite, giving us opportunities to pack our tent.
The descent from the muddy slope at the starting point (ending point as well) was quite a big feat. The grip of my worn trekking shoes was as effective as flip flop, so I slipped down at the speed of gravity, slowed only by some trees trunks and plants along the way. Luckily i landed safely.
The rain resumed when we did our cleaning at a stream behind the hills. So we were all soaking wet. It was a nice experience of misty cool forest, rain, mountain and moony night.
