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
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
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
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..
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
Below are some pictures for your enjoyment:
Started off with a short path of wooden platform right after the entrance for tourist.
Is this where Alice went into? The entrance to the wonderland? =P
That's all folks! Such a long post! Lol..