At 7 a.m. we gathered at the BHP station opposite Batu Caves Giant Hypermarket to carpool to Goh Tong Jaya (“GTJ”), our destination for our hike to Gunung Bunga Buah. The 50km drive to GTJ took about 30 minutes from the Karak Toll (RM5 per car). More groups started to converge at GTJ and the actual trek only started at 9 a.m. after everyone had their morning breakfast.
The access road to the track is a wide side lane located between Restoran Kium Bee and Restoran Makan Laut Gohtong Jaya. The side lane is sandwiched between a fairly large vegetable patch on the left and Kolej Antarabangsa Genting Inti on the right. There is also ample space along the side lane to park cars.
Starting from here (alt 940m), we headed towards a dirt road which trails off to the left near the far end of the lane. After 3 minutes of walking, we had to turn right into another smaller vegetable farm which is situated at the base of a hill slope. The trail head is clearly visible on the hill slope. We took about 25 minutes to scale up the steep gradient to a disused tar road situated at 1055 m altitude (net elevation of 115m). Taking the left turn, we walked about 10 minutes before arriving at Y-junction. Here we took the left turn. Now the tar road, which was totally covered by grass and thick under growth, looked more like a trail only.
It took us about an hour to trek this stretch of leech infested tar trail road before we arrived (at 10.30 a.m.) at the start of the hill trail (1140m alt). The entrance of the hill trail is situated on the right side of the tar trail road. Here, everyone took time to “deleech” and then quickly climbed up the hill trail. Within 5 minutes of climbing, we started to descend downhill for 10 minutes to 1065m elevation before ascending again. At 11.30 a.m. after 45 minutes of climbing we hit the false peak (ala Tabur) at 1245 m altitude.
After a quick photography session, we proceeded to the summit at 11.45 a.m. The uphill trek to reach the summit, sitting at 1430m altitude, took us 45 minutes.
In summary, it took us 25 minutes to scale the initial vertical slope, 1 hour to trek the leech infested trail, 1 hour to reach the false peak and another 45 minutes to hit the summit.
Tips: Bring water 1.5 litre, poncho and energy food
Anti leech strategy (for both ground and bush leeches)
(a) Wear shoes treated with tobacco/salt water;
(b) Wear socks presoaked in tobacco/salt water;
(c) Wear long sleeve shirts & pants presoaked in tobacco/salt water; and
(d) Tuck long pants into the socks.
For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/4355.
