Gunung Nuang Part 1

" Every time I return to you, I am cleansed;
    Only to be fouled, by the taint of city lights.
        How I wish, to linger in your sanctity, forever and ever. "

- Hajime: Returning to You

Last Sunday (15th July), I was called by my friend TeeHu to tackle 'Gunung Nuang'. Our team was supposed to consist of 5 climbers - me, TeeHu, Tiong and 2 'temporary player' AhMuk and CharGuo. Aigh, dun say already lah, at the day of climbing, only ended up with me and Tiong. All the other 3... went to 'KLIA' =P

Before the day of climbing, my friend TeeHu say got company business need to travel to Johor; then AhMuk sms'ed me at 2 a.m. and say he can't make it to the trip. Wahliu, I straight away tired diao (累掉). Then on the day of climbing, when I driving heading to MRR2, Tiong called me and say CharGuo overslept and won't make it. Kan! at that time I'm ready to U-turn back to my house and 'gaogao-jű' liao, but I thought wtf, just meet up with Tiong in Cheras first.

In the end, me and Tiong decided to go ahead. He got into my trusty ol Saga and we sped off to face-off with Gunung Nuang.

Gunung Naung Facts
Gunung Nuang is located in Hulu Langat and it's 1490 meters above sea level. Now Gunung Tahan is 2187 meters, so that makes Nuang roughly 70% of Tahan's height. Though Nuang is no where close to Tahan when it comes to difficulty level( Compare a 7/8 day trip in the Malaysian jungles of Tahan to the 1/2 day trip of Nuang).

There are actually 3 routes up to the Nuang summit. This time, we took the Kuala Pangsoon route. To reach the Kuala Pangsoon route, take the Cheras Highway heading to Kajang. After exiting the Cheras toll (Anyway, thanks, Samy Velu for raising the toll prices. Now my wallet is so much lighter. ), take the FIRST exit to the left with the sign "Hulu Langat" or something. Keep on driving until you reach the traffic lights (You will see the police station to your right hand side). Turn left at the traffic lights. After this just keep follow the road.

Along the road there are stalls that sell food, so if you forgot to pack, just stop by one of the shops and buy a packet of 'nasi lemak'. Now, keep on going until you reach the 'end' where you will enter a place with some TNB buildings. Find a small path to your left and keep follow the rugged path. You will reach the base soon.

There are plenty of car park there so find a sweet spot for your car. After registering with the warden there ( RM1 per person ) and gearing up, you can start to tackle Gunung Nuang.

Rough map of Nuang (Not to scale).

Gunung Nuang can be divided into a few major sections:
1. Entrance/Parking
2. "The long gruesome walk"
3. Rest point
4. Dam
5. "Lolo" camp
6. "Hut" camp
7. Mid-mountain push
8. Mid-mountain campsite - "Pacat" camp
9. Summit push
10. The "fake summit"
11. "Nuang" summit

Gunung Nuang section details
1. Entrance/Parking
Where you park your car. There are NO stalls here, so buy your foods/drinks early. Gear up, lock up your car, and get ready for the offence. Be mentally prepared for the long gruesome walk.

2. "The long gruesome walk"
For poor guys like me who cannot afford a 4 wheeler, we just gotta walk through this stretch of road. Imho, this section is equally challenging as the actual hike, especially for 'newbies'. In this section, you will encounter muddy roads, rocky roads, grassy roads and all types of roads you can find.

It gets even worse when returning to the parking AFTER the summit hike. Tired legs makes this stretch of road x10 more difficult. It took me and Tiong the same amount of time to walk this road as to reach the summit. Meaning it took us 5 friggin hours just on this road; and our summit push 'only' took 5 hours.

3. Rest point
Ahhh, so dam glad to see the 'pondok' after the gruesome walk. Here, you can take a rest. There is a staircase nearby the pondok that leads to the stream below. After refreshing, time to get into the 'actual' hike!

Follow the path into the forest cross a small stream and follow along the huge pipe.

4. Dam
After sometime trekking, you will climb a fleet of steep stairs to reach the Dam. Cross the stream to continue with the path.

5. "Lolo" camp
After a while, you will reach the Lolo camp site. Since me and Tiong are tackling the summit within the day, we skipped resting here and went straight on.

6. "Hut" camp
After crossing another small stream, you will reach the Hut camps. There were some people camped up there during our trip. Here is the last easily accesible water point before the summit. So fill those empty bottles!

7. Mid-mountain push

After crossing yet another stream, pass the Hut camps, the mountain push begins! This stretch of hike is rather 'mundane' in a sense that it's all up and up. The scenary is so so imho.

8. Mid-mountain campsite - "Pacat" camp

The guy 'asking for fishballs' is my trekking buddy that day - Tiong. The couple who set up tent there are frequent climbers of Gunung Nuang (Just kidding ah, please dun sue me, I takde duit =P).

After pushing yourself physically and mentally (Hehe, many thoughts will race through your mind during these times =p), you will reach a clearing known as Pacat camp. Me and Tiong took our rest here. Due to we have picked up the rhytm, we skipped lunch and just mingle around with the campers and climbers here.

9. Summit push

After 'kepoh-ing' at Pacat camp, we pushed on to the summit trail. There are many sights along this trail, such as fallen trees which block your way, interesting plants and insects. If it ain't coz we are here for one day, I would've stopped every 5 minutes to shoot some photos. Alas, there's not enough time. Trust me, you won't want to find yourself in the jungle during nightfall... alone!

Nearing the summit, the weather starts to gets cold, and you will notice mist around you. It's kind of an eerie feeling but, you will be too occupied by your fatigue and frustrations anyway. =P

10. The "fake summit"
People call this the 'fake' summit because it's a connecting summmit along the way to the Nuang summit. Here, you can walk up to the fake summit for a view. Unfortunately, it was very misty the say we went, so I weren't able to get a good view. =(

11. "Nuang" summit

Yay! After trudging through some muddy (damp) and rocky trail, we finally reached the Nuang summit. Dropped my bag and ploped down on the floor. Fuh! Feels grreeeaaattt to rest my feet!

Staring into the sky, albeit tired but yeah man, this moment is priceless.

There is a small pondok at the summit... made of metal... and a metallic pole sticking on top of it. We were wondering, what happens if lighting strikes. Yikes.

Even at this height, the mist is pretty thick and the weather is cold! Especially when the wind blows. Brrr! I was hopin the mist would clear up so I can take some shots of the mountain view... but the weather not nice. Sigh.

The descent
We rested for around 45 minutes on the summit and met with some other climbers who took another route. After eating the nasi lemak and 'celebrating' our half-succesful climb with 100-Plus, we started the descent. Why I say half-succesful? Tat's because a succesful climb is when you have completed BOTH ascent AND descent. You never know what could happen during the descent! Touch wood, touch wood (Luckily in the jungle all around also wood... =_=").

Well, since the weather is looking gloomy, me and Tiong was like:" dam better not rain, please, at least after we reach car park only rain lah...". But dunno why, it rained anyway. Right after we started out descent. Lol. Shuey ah.

The rain made the descent a lot harder! Slippery and muddy slopes meant that we need to be careful with our steps. I landed on my butt several times, and made a few 'surfing' stance to balance myself from falling.

A good climb
Leeches! Dam, when I was taking my bath at the car park area, found out a few leeches on my body. A particular one is quite near my, ahem, sensitive part... lucky got rid of it fast fast.

It was already 7 p.m. when we finally drove off from Nuang. While driving, I thought to myself: Actually, this morning I was quite reluctant on climbing, since some of my friends weren't able to show up. And I was quite worried of my physical condition as long time no exercise.

But, in the end, I was glad that I did the climb. It felt great! Getting close to nature, the greenary, the natural rivers and mountains. It was rejuvenating. The climb was worth while, and, just like any other climb, I was able to know a little bit more about myself.

( ﾟДﾟ )!