Our adventure to Gunung Murud started with an initial prolonged 3 hours bumpy ride on the muddy logging trail from Buduk Nur, Ba’ Kelalan (Elevation: 925m) to Lepo Bunga (1685m). Due to the continuous rain the night before, we started late at 9 a.m. hoping that the logging trail would be drier for vehicles to pass. Nonetheless, our 4WD stalled a couple of times enroute to Lepo Bunga.
After 40 minutes of ascent from Lepo Bunga, which included climbing up several step logs (ladders) we arrived at a small clearing (2030m). From here, it was supposed to be an easy gentle walk along the plank walkway which runs approximately 3 km. The wet weather had made the walk tedious because the planks were slippery and some, rotten. We took about 80 mins to complete the plank walk which ends at the foothill (2153m) of Batu Linanit. The Church camp is located right behind the hill. One has the option of taking a 20 min trek around the hill or scale up and down the Batu Linanit hill to reach the Church Camp. We opted to scale up Batu Linanit (2211m) hill with the hope of getting a great view of the Batu Lawi and others. Unfortunately, it started to rain and we were forced to make a quick exit downhill to the Church camp (2072m). We took 30 minutes to trek uphill and 35 minutes downhill.
The following morning, we trekked in the rain for 4 hours to reach the Rock Garden (Batu Kebun) and another 30 mins to reach the Summit (2423m) at 12.55 p.m. The trail initially descended downhill to 1915m before ascending to 2285m at Rock Garden. The trail was muddy and filled with pools of water trapped by rotting roots. The scenery to the Batu Kebun was stunning with bonsai trees interspersed with huge boulders and colourful shrubs.
After a quick meal, we started our return trek at 1.45p.m. The river which we had trekked up earlier had swollen and the river boulders were no longer visible for us to trek on as they were covered by gushing water. Here our 3 guides cum porters (Kading, Jimmy and Paulous), displayed extraordinary agility in helping us to navigate across and down the riverbank. We hurried our way back and managed to reach Church Camp at 4.40 p.m. cutting down the time taken to 3 hours. The following day, we made another trip up Batu Linanit hill given a clear morning before descending down to Lepo Bunga. The trail was so fresh and alive from the rain the night before. Today we get to take photographs of wild flowers and Nepenthes. From Lepo Bunga we trekked 45 minutes down the logging trail to meet up with our late 4WD (because it had earlier stuck in mud for 3 hours).
Tips: Wear Kampong Adidas and avoid using walking stick because it takes a lot of energy to pull up the stick from the soggy ground after each step: thereby slowing down the pace.
For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/1361.
