Mount Irau & Mount Brinchang Expedition

Day 1 17/7/2009

Gathered at MMU campus at 10.00pm. Initially, 8 persons gave name to join but only 5, i.e Azmir, Bob, Faizol, Shafiq and I, turned up. None of us had climbed Mt Brinchang and Irau before. We only had some ideas on how to trek the mountains by reading from various blogs of those who had climbed the mountain before..but we're still blur. I called Jabatan Hutan Cameron Highlands earlier but was told that Mt Irau was closed since the track was terribly destroyed. I was very frustrated but still positive that the track will not be closed and carry on with the plan.

So, 5 is just nice....just need 1 car. We departed at around 11.00pm but we stopped by at Azmir's shop (http://www.xtreme-gear.blogspot.com/) to get some camping equipments.

Stopped at Seremban R&R for some late dinner and proceed to Tapah R&R. At first, we decided to spend the night there but, since the time is still very early and the weather was very nice, we decided to proceed to Shafiq's house at Brinchang, Cameron Highland. The journey climbing up Cameron Highland from Tapah was very smooth with only a few heavy vehicles to be overtaken. We reached Shafiq's house nearly 5.30pm. After Subuh prayer...sleep until 9.00 am.

Day 2 18/7/2009

Woke up at 9.00am. The weather was freezing...some of us took bath but some.....!!! Nearly 10.00am we took our breakfast at Brinchang Medan Selera. Since last night, we've discussed the route that we're going to take to Mt Irau. At first, we decided to trek from Brinchang Town using Path 1 (next to army camp and JBA at Brinchang Town) to the peak of Mt. Brinchang and climb down a bit and proceed to Mt. Irau. Another option is to drive up from Brinchang to the peak of Mt.Brinchang and take the route to Mt. Irau just before reaching the Mt. Brinchang's peak (this is presumably a shorter route). Luckily, Bob, who is a more experienced climber, advised us not to underestimate the mountain and we decided to take the second option.

After finishing our breakfast, we drove straight away to find the road to Mt. Brinchang. The road is a few hundred metres from Butterfly farm. It is the same road that leads us to Sg. Palas tea farm. About 5 km climb and before reaching the Mt Brinchang peak, we can see the starting point to Mt Irau on our right. We parked our car there and did some preparations before climbing. After reciting some prayers, we started climbing up the stairs for an estimated 3 hours climb to the peak.

The road leading to Sg. Palas tea centre and Mt. Brinchang


On the way up to the peak of Mt. Brinchang..you'll see this place on your right. This is the starting point to trek Mt Irau

The view along the way was so magnificent even during the early part of our climb. The trees covered with mosses remind us of the Lord of the Rings movies and we felt like walking through a world of fantasy.

Lord of the Ring-ish view

Another LOTR-ish view along the way

The trekking was not as easy as expected. Eventhough the weather was superb that day, but still we need to take extra cautious on every step that we take. Some part of the trek was very muddy. If we mistakenly stepped on it, we'll be sinked right up to our knee. Fortunately, I wore my Rm7.00 Bowling rubber shoe which is of much help to me along the journey. It is advised not to wear sandal on this type of the trek since it will be very much slippery. A lot of times we have to step on or hanging to slippery roots to climb. We spent quite some times taking photos along this serene and beautiful trek.

Mine was the cleanest one...

Along the way there'll be signboards showing the distance to the peak...but 1.55km there will take us nearly 2 hour to finish...sometimes we feel that the signboard was wrong or.. somebody might have intentionally removed the signboard to confuse others. Anyway, we kept on moving until we reached Anak Irau (I guess) where a group of climbers from Kuala Langat was resting. From Anak Irau, we must continue climbing for about an hour to reach the peak, but be careful to select the correct trek. Our group had nearly chosen a wrong trek, thanks to Bob and the Kuala Langat group who had shown us the correct route.

One of the signboard..

At Anak Irau with Kuala Langat group

We reached the peak at about 2.00pm. We cooked our lunch (maggi, mushroom soup and teh O) and spent about 2 hours there taking pictures and resting. At around 3.40pm we started our journey down the mountain and it took us about 2 1/2 hour to reach the base. We clean up ourselves and proceed to Mt. Brinchang for about half an hour to to take photos. We drove back to Shafiq's house.

Finally, we made it to the peak

At Mt. Brinchang peak

At night, we had our dinner at Nur Kasih Raihan Restaurant and had some durians just next to Brinchang's Petronas.

Day 3 19/7/2009

We woke up at 9.00am and prepare ourselves and proceed to Tanah Rata for breakfast. Then, we proceed to Strawberry farm at Tmn Sedia and Kea Farm for some shoppings.

After shopping, we proceed to Sg Palas tea farm for some refreshments up there but was disappointed since there were too many people up there. Took some photos and proceed our journey back to Melaka via Simpang Pulai.

At Sg. Palas Tea Farm

Conclusion:

As a whole the trip was very successful. The weather was unexpectedly great. All of us were very excited and satisfied. However, I think I have underestimated Mt Irau since we did not bring enough water up there thinking that it's going to be a simple and smooth trekking. For your info, there's no water supply along the way. Furthermore, the trek was quite challenging compared to Datuk or Ledang...so, some mental and physical preparations are definitely needed. The only thing that didn't make us so tired is the breezing temperature. If it is as hot as at Mt Datuk, definitely we'll be flat. I also wonder the difficulty that we'll have to face if it rained that day.

Lessons learnt:
1. Don't wear sandal for slippery trek like Irau.
2. Never underestimate the mountain.