Mount Belumut Trek

During our previous Mount KK trainings, one of us suggested that we make a trip to climb one of the lower mountains in Malaysia as part of the training. We finally went for the trip last Sunday. Starting off from Marsiling MRT at about 6.15 am, we boarded our chartered van, cleared customs, which was very smooth and was soon on our way. Breakfast stop was shortly after. We settled for nasi lemak and prata (kosong, egg, banana). Some of them enjoyed the banana prata while most of us preferred the kosong (without egg). After stuffing ourselves, and packing 6 packs of fried noodle/bee hoon, we proceeded towards Kluang. Our destination was Mount Belumut, a mountain standing at about 1004 m tall. We were told that the mountain would be an easy climb, taking us about 3 hours to go up and 2 hours to come down. We found out much later that the estimate was not very correct. HA.We arrived at the foot of Belumut at about 10.10 am, registered ourselves at the HQ, and started our trek. The initial park of the track was up some gentle slopes and well marked path. Apparently there is only one track all the way up and down. The track is quite similar to Bukit Timah Hill and was very wet, presumbaly due to the rain the day before. The weather was not so good too and perhaps that was why we saw armies of ants moving fast to avoid the impending weather too.
We saw many toadstools (or mushrooms?) too in all shapes and sizes. The one that you see here looks very much like a flower. There were even many toadstools smaller than 5-cent coins, and some others as huge as a pizza that looked quite tempting. About an hour and a half into the trek, it started to rain. During such treks, there is no shelter. Some of us kept ourselves dry by donning rain coats while some braved the rain. We met many other trekkers along the way and told us that we should reach the half way point soon. We pushed on and at about 12.15 pm, decided to stop and have some food. Some of us were hungry and starting eating the fried bee hoon while some feasted on the many fruits (apple, jambu, cherries) that Lip brought along. 15 minutes was all we spent resting and we pushed on. The rest of the journey seemed to get tougher, with the track filled with many tree roots closed to each other, making walking a little difficult. We finally reached the midpoint which the locals called it "gigi" meaning teeth, as there is a rock formation there that looks like the lower part of the teeth. Some other people call it a crown. We took many pictures there as we rested.

The clock was ticking. The trek was getting a little more tiring and after almost 4 hours, we were only at the three-quarter mark! HA. Our van was supposed to pick us up at 3 pm but at 2.30 pm we were still on the way up towards the summit. Edwin then called the driver to wait for us at 6 pm instead.

We came to a large rock and whoa, how are we going to clear that? According to one of us who had been there before, they climbed up the rock! I scrutinised the rock and felt that there was no way we could do it. I then spotted a small path leading to the side of the path and decided to check it out. It was an easy way up to the rock, to the relieve of everyone. While on the rock, we turned our backs and looked out to the scenery down below. This was the first time during the trek where we were not covered by the vegetation and could get a clear view of the town below and of many other mountains in the background.

The last part of the trek was the toughest and in fact in the end we only managed to reach the fake summit (an open clearing that was at about 965 m). We stopped there for some food and drinks before proceeding down the mountain. We decided not to go to the summit because it was getting very late.

While going down hill sounds easy, it was almost as difficult as going up due to the numerous tree roots along the track. The path was also slippery due to the rain and we had to be very careful with our every step. A few of us slipped and fell a few times but no one was seriously injured. We finally made it down to the foot of the mountain at about 7.30 pm, making the whole journey a total of over 9 hours! HA. We did a quick wash up and left the place at about 8 pm. By the time we returned to Singapore, it was already 11 plus pm because there was a long queue at the 2nd Link. We had a quick dinner at a coffee shop, and all returned home very very tired.

Personally I think this trek is not as interesting as the one I did recently at Ophir. While the Belumut track is almost equally challenging and gruelling, Ophir provides different terrain and obstacles that make the track more fun. So given a choice, I won't mind trekking Ophir again as compared to Belumut. But who knows.....I might as this time I never made it to the real summit!