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| My ~2 hour hike, as captured by Google Fit running on my venerable Xiaomi |
Been busy at work in the past couple of weeks, so once again, my blogging momentum hits yet another speedbump. Doesn't mean I spend ALL available time while awake at the office though. On this fine Sunday morning, I and my colleague, L, decided to go for a hike through the famous Bukit Beruang (aka Bear Hill).
We met up at the start of the trail (GPS co-ordinates : 2.242120,102.280092), which was in the housing estate of Taman Dahlia. Depending on your normal routine, 8am may be either early or late. Either way, there were already many people there, as there was a distinct lack of parking near the foot of the hill. Ended up parking some 200 meters or so away (at least I get an effective brisk walk as a warm-up exercise).
I've been up and down the asphalt road all the way up to the Telekom station on many occasions, but there was more to Bukit Beruang than just the "easy trail". Today, we planned to go "offroad" through the forest trail would take us through a round to the other side of the hill (effectively, to Taman Muzaffar Shah, Air Keroh) and back to our starting point.
As this was my 2nd time through, I knew roughly what to expect. Traveling light without a backpack, I just had my wallet, handphone and camera. Several parts of the trail required the use of your hands to hold on to the support ropes and make-shift rails, I only carried what could fit into my pockets. Bringing along more gear would be an overkill, IMHO. So no DSLR or even mirrorless - just my Olympus TG4 (my ruggedized solution for the outdoors).
Don't get me wrong, even though the hillside trail was relatively easy, compared to, say, Gunung Datuk, one should not be over confident and underestimate the effort. Going after rain (where the ground gets wet, muddy and slippery) or late evening where light and visibility falls is not recommended. Good shoes are a must - a pair of running shoes with good soles will do.
Well, fortunately, it was a bright sunny morning, and there were plenty of trees that provided cover. With L leading the way, we took the offroad path to the left of the asphalt trail up to the Telekom station. From there on, we took off to the right side of the Telekom station and followed the mountain bike trail all the way down to Taman Muzaffar Shah. We took a walk through the housing estate and re-entered the hiking trail at the side of the the water tower. Eventually, going all the way round and ending up back at the Telekom station. At that point in time, we decided not to over-exert (as this was already a step above our usual daily routine, and the next day was a working day), so we took the asphalt road back down to the foot of the hill. We spent around 2 hours there, and according to my phone we traversed around 4.9km. Mind you, this is from my phone which spent most of the time in my pocket, so understandably, accuracy with a dedicated GPS tracker would be much better.
There were many fellow hikers there that morning, so we were never alone by ourselves for longer than 5 minutes. Still, for safety reasons, one should always come with at least one other person, and exit before it gets dark. The trail was not too difficult, though elderly folks and shorter kids may find it hard to reach and hold on to the ropes and side rails at a few points. For some strange reason, there were no mosquitoes (not sure if it was because it was morning).
As our hiking plan was rather ad hoc, it was just me and L today. Hope we could round up more colleagues of similar interest for the next hiking adventure! Any one of you reading this, please step forward and approach me. :)
If you ask me, I highly recommend you give it a try. All you need is to be in general good shape (otherwise, you may want to build yourself up at Bukit Serindit first).
We met up at the start of the trail (GPS co-ordinates : 2.242120,102.280092), which was in the housing estate of Taman Dahlia. Depending on your normal routine, 8am may be either early or late. Either way, there were already many people there, as there was a distinct lack of parking near the foot of the hill. Ended up parking some 200 meters or so away (at least I get an effective brisk walk as a warm-up exercise).
I've been up and down the asphalt road all the way up to the Telekom station on many occasions, but there was more to Bukit Beruang than just the "easy trail". Today, we planned to go "offroad" through the forest trail would take us through a round to the other side of the hill (effectively, to Taman Muzaffar Shah, Air Keroh) and back to our starting point.
As this was my 2nd time through, I knew roughly what to expect. Traveling light without a backpack, I just had my wallet, handphone and camera. Several parts of the trail required the use of your hands to hold on to the support ropes and make-shift rails, I only carried what could fit into my pockets. Bringing along more gear would be an overkill, IMHO. So no DSLR or even mirrorless - just my Olympus TG4 (my ruggedized solution for the outdoors).
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| A helpful signboard with emergency contact numbers and a trail map. |
Don't get me wrong, even though the hillside trail was relatively easy, compared to, say, Gunung Datuk, one should not be over confident and underestimate the effort. Going after rain (where the ground gets wet, muddy and slippery) or late evening where light and visibility falls is not recommended. Good shoes are a must - a pair of running shoes with good soles will do.
Well, fortunately, it was a bright sunny morning, and there were plenty of trees that provided cover. With L leading the way, we took the offroad path to the left of the asphalt trail up to the Telekom station. From there on, we took off to the right side of the Telekom station and followed the mountain bike trail all the way down to Taman Muzaffar Shah. We took a walk through the housing estate and re-entered the hiking trail at the side of the the water tower. Eventually, going all the way round and ending up back at the Telekom station. At that point in time, we decided not to over-exert (as this was already a step above our usual daily routine, and the next day was a working day), so we took the asphalt road back down to the foot of the hill. We spent around 2 hours there, and according to my phone we traversed around 4.9km. Mind you, this is from my phone which spent most of the time in my pocket, so understandably, accuracy with a dedicated GPS tracker would be much better.
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| Zoom up of the Bukit Beruang Trail Map |
There were many fellow hikers there that morning, so we were never alone by ourselves for longer than 5 minutes. Still, for safety reasons, one should always come with at least one other person, and exit before it gets dark. The trail was not too difficult, though elderly folks and shorter kids may find it hard to reach and hold on to the ropes and side rails at a few points. For some strange reason, there were no mosquitoes (not sure if it was because it was morning).
As our hiking plan was rather ad hoc, it was just me and L today. Hope we could round up more colleagues of similar interest for the next hiking adventure! Any one of you reading this, please step forward and approach me. :)
If you ask me, I highly recommend you give it a try. All you need is to be in general good shape (otherwise, you may want to build yourself up at Bukit Serindit first).
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