Gunung Ledang ( Mt Ophir) Johore Highest Mountain July 24 2016 Sunday

    Mt Ophir ( 1276m)  or Gunung Ledang 
climb had been brewing in me for quite some time. Then there was a group of people heading towards Tangkak with 2D1N stay at Ledang Resort and the plan was hatched.  How nice! Piggy back on this outing we are going for a same day climb and descent.

   After reading blogs and internet resources of this mountain .. terms like KFC ( Killer fitness centre) and images of ladders and more ladders ,and the rope climb on steep slope stuck firmly in my head. A same day plan was finalised. 

G Ledang location - not far from Johore-Malacca boundary. 6 hours bus away from Singapore. 

What about the weather forecast..... I recall the mountain forecast i used for my KK climb. Here is the date we have chosen and viola - Good weather sandwiched between thunder storm. Sunday is good on am and pm. And i expect we will exit forest late afternoon.   ( actual : early morning we had heavy start-stop-start-stop shower in Ledang Resort around 5-6am but sunshine all the way to afternoon when it started to drizzle ) 

 GPS tracks.transversing the contours. Trek started from bottom straight up and loop to the top left to get to the summit. . Continue the loop right will take u down and descend straight down. I left the portable gps at my backpack. should have use it to mark every CP#.. 

Elevation chart to show the steepness of the ascend and descent. We trekked a total of 14.7 km up and down

The red trunk tree stood out starkly from the others. It had flaking barks.  It remind me of the Australian eucalyptus species. 

Large boulders some as tall as 3-man-height strewn along the trail. A similar sight as in the waterfall trail near Gunung Ledang Resort. (  Bukit Timah also had similar large boulder ). Are they left behind by remote ICEAge ?

View from the top of the lush forested covered slopes and the low clouds. 

Taman Bonsai - where the trees are dwarfed and wind-swept branches twisted 

Looking back from the Red stone. We left our bags there and have to climb down the ladder walk over there to retrieve, Note the white ropes were tied round a stone outcrop there.

Summit at CS7 with a heavy vandalised marker post.   ... we didnt walk to  CS8 at the tower end. 

Climbed up this pipe ladder you reach another flat area.

Another view with more rock outcrop

Tower shrouded in clouds and a short while later all clouds were dissipated. - see below

Purple little flower shaped like a balsam

Mushrooms sprang  from fallen rotten logs

Aluminium non rusty ladder make ascend much quicker and safer provided of course the ladders are anchored properly.

Ladder is not too bad just naik lah

I WANT my KFC... of a different kind - Killer Fitness Centre

This beetle rowed into a ball when I disturbed it. It slowly unwinding...

Unknown Berries.

A round stone sitting on top  a bigger bolder. 

The RED square tag marked the route to continue the ascend

THere are 774 steps i was told.. but our normal staircase training at Toa Payoh 40 storey routine (x6-x8) greatly exceeded this. So no sweat. At least at the beginning stage.

Cameron Highlands - around Tanah Rata Jul 11-13 2016

   CAMERON HIGHLANDS Tanah Rata ( Trails #4, #10, Bukit Jasar) Cloudy all the nights so milky way photography was out instead we got familiar with this Tanah Rata during our 3 nights stay.   [  this blog is still under construction..]


  Check out Bintang Pudu Hotel near Pudu LRT on Monday morning.and went Tasek Selatan to board the bus @ TBS to Tanah Rata via the old route up. It was winding roads but not as bad as I thought.  Along the road were familiar road side stalls selling  'smelly bean' or Petai  hanging on strings, little piles of durian here and there and rattan - ware from other states? I never see any vehicles pulled up and buy so poor business huh?

Bamboo Orchard 

   For a change this time we stayed at Tanah Rata instead of going towards north Brinchang. We had climbed Mt Brinchang some years back and had loved the pasar Malam there. Night temperature here further south goes down to 18.6 degree at 4.03am.  Much cooler than my 24 degree ac setting at home.

Temperature 18.6 c 

  First night we stayed at Matan di Hotel but switched to the famous Father's Guess House but only one night available. We meet Jasen who was our guide in 2014 Gunung Brinchang trekking. On subsequent night we stayed at KRS pine nearby. On the first day we just wander around the small town with its indian eateries from the Clinic end passing the Marrybrown chicken ( KFC equivalent) towards MayBank.

WE had chicken rice here.

Trail #10 Starting here in someone's Garden. 

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Me on top of Bukit Jasar (Pahang 1696m) literally! The rectangular cement block marks the location.

 There are several trails available for walking.  We singled out  #4 and #10.  Detail route map can be found posted on Father's Guess house noticeboard. 

Trail # 10 

Tabur Hill West July 10 2016

Tabur Hill West 445m ( Crystal Hill -Limestone)  - 10 Jul '16

Steep climb for a short distance. 72 degree incline

Entrance to West Bukit Tabur.  

Track # along the West Tabur trails and the corresponding  GPS locations. Unfortunately there are no labels for the photos to index which locations.  

Early morning view of the mist at forest canopy and the unmistaken peaks profile from Tabur

Low clouds / mists didn't hide the round contour of the reservoir's finger edge.

Garden Gloves needed

I knew Cress ( extreme right) from Mersing Milkyway group and join his Group for the Tabur Climb

You can trace the jagged peaks trailing the background high peak into the distance.  This quartz ridge is the longest in the world. ( 14 Km x 50 m wide and 400m high)

Terrain map showing the almost straight quartz wall 

KL Twin towers above the city smog layer

On the left hand side of the ridge you can find the bodies of water.

On the right hand side of the ridge ... 

You have to climb over rocks to get there.

On firm ground

False Ru or Baeckea frutescens ( thanks Joseph Lai for the ID) found here. At certain places of the ridge I have to bent down to avoid the branches.  These are NOT coniferous as widely reported

At wetter season there will be more carpeting from these moses 

A white seam of the whiter color quartz crystall can be found here