Alexander's Blog: August 2014

Since form 5, I've always wanted to camp in the wilderness with friends or family (no teachers or organiser, just us). So after so many years, I'd finally decided to do something about it. I started of with some research on camping, like the place to camp and also for the stuff to prepare. Finally, one picture got my attention, it was a picture of a mossy forest taken at Mount Irau. It's not like any other mountain you can find in Malaysia. By looking at the pictures below, it looks like those pictures taken from some fantasy movie like The Lord of The Rings. And this mountain is actually the 15th highest mountain in Malaysia (2110 metres/6922 feet).

So I'd decided to camp in Mount Irau and the main reasons are:
- It's beautiful and unique, not like any other tropical rain forest.
- It's quite hidden, not many people know about this place.
- It's cooling, not hot and dry.

After asking my dad and brother to join me, we started packing on Thursday. Below are the stuff that we packed:

Equipment
• Knifes & parang
• Tape
• Two 1.5 L bottles of water each person
• Medicine & first aid kit
• Compass
• Lighter
• Whistle
• Torch + Headlamp
• Cordage
• Sulphur
• Toilet paper
• Face towel
• Toiletries
• Powerbank
• 2 Tents
• Sleeping bag
• Plastic bags

Attire
• Rain coat
• Gloves
• Bandana
• Jacket
• 1 set of clothes (to be kept in car)
• 2 sets of clothes
• Flip-flop
• Socks
• Face mask (to keep air warm)

Food
• Milo
• Marshmallow
• Biscuits
• Maggie
• Potatoes + Cheese + Ingredients
• Aluminium foil
• Stove + 2 canisters
• Cups, plates & utensils
• Pot
• Red bean + Sardine + Salmon
• Bread

A lot eh? I think we over-packed a little, especially the amount of food. Haha. Well, it was our first time camping by ourselves~ Haha. After putting everything into 3 huge bags, I weighted them. It was around 14 kg each. We were quite worried about the weight, because we had to hike (and climb) for around 4 hrs up to the peak with our bags, but we proceed on with our plan anyway. =P

I tried to check the weather forecast and found out that there was gonna be a thunderstorm in Cameron Highland on both days, but nothing could stop us! Haha.

2nd August 2014
We woke up early in the morning and left our house at 6.15 am. Drove all the way to Cameron and had our breakfast there before we started our hike. After our breakfast, we went straight to the entrance (4°31'27.2"N 101°22'54.7"E). The whole place was covered with thick mist. Looked like it was gonna rain anytime soon, but we still went on with our plan.

Arrived at the Entrance

Below is a list of time recorded for every visible checkpoint from the starting point to the peak of Mount Irau:
11.30 am: Entrance.
12.10 pm: First marker.
1.20 pm: Second marker.
1.42 pm: Mini Irau.
3.23 pm: Peak of Mount Irau.

First Marker (picture kinda blurry)

Second Marker (from left: bro, I, & dad)

Mini Irau

We stopped at a few locations to rest and also to take some pictures, but not long (about 1-2 mins). Throughout the whole trail, all the trees were covered with moss. It was really beautiful. A very different feeling indeed. Besides, there were bees too. So we had to be really careful when the bees were buzzing around us. There were some barricades (strings tied from tree to tree) at certain areas by hiker/ranger to prevent anyone from entering the area because the beehive was there. On the way up, we bumped into a few hikers, and one of them got stung by bees for about seven times, but she was fine, still very active and able to talk a lot. Haha.

Peak of Mount Irau

Once we reached the peak, we felt so relieved. We quickly dropped our 14 kg bags and rested for a few minutes before setting up the tents. We had a small meal after that with hot milo. Not long after our meal, rain started pouring down. So we had to hide inside the tents for hours. It was quite boring sitting and lying in the tent alone (my dad and bro were in the other tent), seriously there was nothing I could do inside the tent besides listening to songs.

Food! Haha..

At around 8.30 pm, the rain still hadn't stopped, and suddenly, we heard some noises outside. So we went out with our headlamps and raincoats to see what was making the sound. To our surprise, we saw a 'musang' (civet) trying to steal our bag of rubbish. However, we managed to retrieve it back after chasing it away. Then we decided to set up the camp fire despite the rain and started preparing our dinner, but the rain stopped after some time. Trust me, no matter how simple the food is, it will taste better there. Haha.

Dinner!

Baked Potatoes with Cheese~

After the awesome dinner, we went to sleep. We thought that we will be able to sleep throughout the whole night due to the long hours of hike, but we were wrong. It was too cold to sleep up there! I wore two layers of shirts, a thick jacket, two track bottoms, and a pair of socks, but I still couldn't sleep. My feet and hands were freezing. I didn't sleep well the whole night and kept hoping for the sun to rise. Haha. Oh, I heard some noises outside when I was trying to sleep too. Popped my head out with the headlamp but couldn't see anything. The whole place was covered with mist. So I went back to sleep. Haha. During the whole night, we could hear the sound of the wind gushing through the trees, just like the sound of waves crashing on the beach.

3rd of August 2014
Due to the difficulty in sleeping, we woke up even before the sunrise. The first thing I did is to turn on the portable stove, not to cook, but to warm myself up. Haha.

After we had our breakfast and packed our stuff, we hiked all the back to our starting point and we took around the same amount of time as the first day.

Packing Up

Overall, this was a wonderful trip. Really thank God for the nice weather while we were hiking and also for our safety (and also our car, it was parked at the entrance with no guards). It was a really unique experience that everyone should try at least once in your life. It was a really beautiful place. I really hope that this place can be preserved forever. So, my friend, please take care of the nature and leave no rubbish behind if you plan to visit this place one day. =)