Irau conquered

I still can't feel my legs.

Did my first ever serious jungle trekking at Irau, Cameron over the weekend. Drove there after work on Friday and reached there about 1am after a grueling 5 hours drive. The roads were pitch dark and winding downhill. Not that I was driving, but it was pretty exhausting. Got stalled at one point where our cars couldn't get pass a damaged road. It was uphill and slippery and the tyres couldn't get enough grip. We had to patch up the road with rocks before we could pass.

Reached our designated area about 1am and there were already other tents there. We hastily set up our tents. The timing was just right as it rained soon after that. I easily drifted off to sleep from exhaustion. A dreamless slumber.



Wake up call started about seven. By that time, there were already lots of movement and laughter around us. Got out from my warm comforter and hurried to find more warm clothes. The cold pierced through my bone.


Breakfast preparation. Hot drinks never tasted this heavenly.

We brought lettuces, cheese and ham for our breakfast. I totally forgot about some forest taboos where it's not advisable to have pork there and we decided to play along. Had some peanut butter sandwiches and some cup noodles. Then other guys started frying their luncheon meat. Screw the taboo. The ham sandwich tasted damn good.


Foot count.

After breakfast, we packed up the tents and started to gear up. Packed up our lunch, energy bars and fluids. And we were set. We were pumped up and spirits were soaring. We started off at exactly 0800 hours.



Everything seemed alright at first. This wasn't too bad, I thought to myself. Trekked uphill and downhill, taking pictures and goofing about. The terrain there was totally natural where we had strategically locate roots and rocks to grab and step on. At that time, the word fun still played about my mind. I was loving it. I was still loving it.


Me at the start of the journey. Happy, overflowing spirit, and clean.


View from some clearing.


Bamboo entrance


Ryan, the organizer and also my colleague, with the first signboard. Another 1.95km to go. 1.95 km. Bah. That's all?




Climb climb climb

At 1030 hours, the mood started to change. Less talking, more pit stops. The large group splitted and there were now only 7 of us in the team. Water supply started to go low. Knees started to go wobbly, hands started to ache. Hardly photographed anymore. The surroundings started to look the same. I started to groan whenever I look at a steep hill.


Dragon scarabs. Bettles that feed on flesh. There was a point where we had to fight our way through their nest and barely made it out alive. Lost 3 friends there. Must go on...


First summit - False peak

1130 hours, we reached the first summit, False Peak. Such an ironic name. The last stretch to reach this summit was more of will power. I didn't believe Ryan anymore when he said that we were reaching soon.

"You said we were reaching soon an hour ago!"

"Don't worry. We are reaching soon."

"Rite."

Had a break up there where we munched on energy bars and bananas. Water supply started to drop dangerously low. Luckily Ryan sponsored me a bottle of 100 Plus for the rest of the journey. The summit there wasn't too impressive. Just a small clearing with some boulders to sit on and rubbish dump there. There are just so many uneducated people out there.

Rested about fifteen minutes and we decided not to wait for the other team. Some of the girls decided to back off at this point. I was pretty tired but I had to push on. The Irau trip wouldn't be an Irau trip without reaching Irau.


White monkey pot (directly translated from Periuk Kera)


The entrance to Irau. Let's go.


More jungle scenes


More monkey pots


A boulder stretch

There was one stretch where we had to scale up slippery rocks. It was pretty challenging here where we had to scan for tree roots to pull ourselves up. With my draining strength, I started to regret coming to this trip.



Till I reached this area. The area was lushly carpetted with moss and for a moment I forgot all my exhaustion. For a moment, I thought I saw Smeagol taking his afternoon nap on one of the moss carpeted boulders.


More moss. The pictures here are crap compared to the real thing.


Irau conquered

1230 hours. Mission accomplished. I conquered Irau.



But I was totally disappointed with the summit. I was greeted by even more rubbish compared to False Peak. Fuck those people. It was such a turn off. After all my gruelling effort, this was what I get? It's like having sex and not having an orgasm. I rested there for a while, ate my ham sandwich and started to go trek back.

I forgot the fact that if it took me 4 hours to get to the summit, it would take me at least another 4 hours to get back. The only difference now would be my breaking legs and arms, dangerously low water supply and dying spirit. I didn't have a choice. I had to trek back.

The trek back to False Hope, I mean False Peak, was hell. I was breaking. Physically and mentally. Now there were only three of us. I slowed down a lot and I asked the rest to go ahead as I was really pulling them back. Soon they were out of sight. I didn't even bother going downhill slowly anymore. I just slided down as much as I could. Quite a number of people overtook me. I couldn't recall how many times I stopped to rest. I ran out of water. I finished my last energy bar. I unconciously pushed on.

I reached the first signboard which says another 400 meters to the camp site. Must go on, I screamed inside. I started moving. I didn't stop at all. I mustered all the spirit I had to drag my totally drained body. 1650 hours. I saw someone coming out. I led out a sigh of relief. I must be near the camp site.

Me: Hehe. So, how much further is the camp site?

Guy: I'm not sure. Should be quite near I guess.

Me: It's already 4.30. Don't you think it's a bit too late to depart now?

Guy: Depart? I'm just reached here from Irau. You are the one heading to Irau. Aren't you?

I was fucking heading back to Irau. I was so sure I was taking the correct path back. I was so sure that I wasn't sure who to trust. I stood there stunned for a while. I decided to follow the guy. Thank god I did. I was just ten minutes away from the camp site. Must have been the pork I took. I wonder what would have happened if that guy didn't show up.

I stepped into the camp site. There were lots of people camping there now. A bunch of uncles cheered and clapped when they saw me. I was totally covered with mud. None of the hikers looked that bad. I didn't care. The jungle felt like a dream. My whole body was shaking. I didn't care. I made it out. 1700 hours. I was in the jungle for 8.5 hours.


I sent these pants to the laundry and they threw it back at my face

We had dinner and I slept like a log that night. We all slept like a log that night.

Some of the pictures we took the next day:


Lone tree


Picture of people taking pictures 1


Some group picture


She tried taking my picture but I took hers first


Tea plantations. I never get sick of these sceneries.


Had breakfast up at the Boh factory. The cakes this time were bad. Didn't even finish them.


Flower 1


Flower 2


Flower 3

I still can't feel my legs.