Gopeng - Cameroon Highland Trek

Since the last 12 years I had adopted a new hobby of jungle trekking and mountain climbing.Ever since I had climbed many peaks and trekked numerous trails. I derived lots of satisfaction from this hobby as it brings me closer to nature and I had develop a robust health. There is nothing more peaceful and relaxing than to walk along mountain trails, listening to the sound of winds and enjoying the sight of beautiful peaks, valleys, fauna and flora.When I camp at night in the jungle, I listen to the music of the nocturnal creatures and fade away into oblivion into the darkness of the jungle. In the morning, the air was so fresh and crispy, that I feel like staying put for whole day in my camp.

One outing that I well remember was the Gopeng -Cameroon Highland trekking that took two days through undulating terrain. I started from Sungai Itek from the orang asli plantation trekking along a path until I reached the secong orang asli kampung not far from the mining dam that was built in 1930s. I slept in a vacant orang asli house and as I was already tired from the long journey, I slept very early that night. The orang asli woke up very early, so did I and getting ready for a full day trekking along Sungai Kampar. I shouldnot say the trek was tough, but it was an ardous trek with many hills to climb and shallow river to negotiate. The beauty of Sungai Kampar and the pureness of its water provided relieve from pain and aches.

After almost ten hours of walk , I reached Kampung Tengah, an abandoned orang asli kampung in the midlle of nowhere between Gopeng and Cameroon, with about 7 run down bertam houses ,all left vacant except for two. There were only two people staying in the kampung, an old lady with his midle aged son, for the rest had moved away.

That night I was given a hut , but with its made of bertam and floor of split bamboo, cold night air got into the hut and I was shivering in my sleeping bag. In the middle of the night I was awakened by a dog who got into the hut as the hut was the home to the dog. The next morning after a breakfast of ubikayu,I continued the next leg of my climb.

This time it was all going uphill right from the start. As the landscape got more hilly, the vegetation changed and the view got more scenic. The trek was quite treacherous as the ground was rocky and loose.At some places it became very difficult to get a firm hold on the stony ground. I tripped and stumbled many times despite moving at a slow steps.The final climb was the most difficult sheer slope with nothing strong enough to hold to and it took almost two hours of hard labour to negotiate this stretch.Upon overcoming this slope, the panaromic view before my eye was God's gift.Miles after miles I saw rolling hills and mountain peaks cut by deep valleys with riot of colours. The jungle was green and the sky blue. I spent two hours enjoying the view before moving the Orand Asli Village and walked another hour in the Baharat Tea plantation before hitting the main road Tanah Rata.