Nearly a year ago, on 25th March 2005, I conducted my first trek to Gunung Panti for Team Spreo. Since then, through my website and word of mouth, I have managed to make a lot a new friends who signed up for my local nature treks.

One such friend is none other than Patrick Ng. Back in August 2005, he asked me to lead some of his colleagues to do the Woodcutter’s Trail. Sometime in January 2006, he asked me to lead a Gunung Lambak Crossover for 19 of his colleagues, their friends, and family. Needless to say, I was ecstatic to have this opportunity to do a Lambak crossover as I have never done it before! As usual, I met up with my participants at Marsiling MRT before setting off at 8:00AM in 2 mini-vans.

The average age of the motley crew was an amazingly youthful 46.9 years but if you exclude the outliers of Leng Haw and myself who are in our 30s, then the bunch gets younger still, all of 48.6 years old! :P

Dear reader, you may be wondering where I am going with all these figures juggling. Well, this was the fittest bunch of people I have trekked with. Everyone summited this 500m nearly-mountain with killer slopes in 1.5 hours and the fastest bunch did it in just under an hour. When I first attempted this trek, my group took nearly 2 hours. Yes, we took our time as we did not want to fizzle out but looking back, we should have been more ambitious!

I have actually met Mr. Tay, his wife Amy, and Mr. Sim on separate occasions while training at Bukit Timah. They actually meet up to train at Bukit Timah rather regularly so their performance should come as no surprise. Still, when I hit the Big Five Oh (!), will I be as fit as them? Hmm, I must remember to use Gunung Lambak to assess my fitness level in 17 years’ time.

The ascent of Lambak is characterised by those steep slopes that are somewhat slippery due to erosion. The soil is either sandy or flaky and the best way up is to use all your four limbs at times. Numerous helpful ropes are tied and suspended but if you observe carefully, the trail that follows the ropes tend to be rather worn out and hence harder to climb.

Besides the ropes, there are enough exposed tree roots to grab hold of to hoist oneself up. A walking stick helps but personally, it can become a hassle when you need to use both hands and the stick is hanging loose and interfering with your movement. Difficulties notwithstanding, we summited before 1:00PM and after a quick lunch break of yogurt bars, fruits, and Milo drink, they were raring to go again!

The journey the second peak of Lambak was much easier though there was a short stretch of killer slope. Really short. Gunung Lambak is a geographical saddle and it makes it rather interesting for trekkers since you get to climb 2 peaks for a trip of one! (”p)

By 2:30PM, all of us reached the second peak and before that, some of the more gungho folks have already made their way down. Fortunately for us, the trail was clear and even when they seem to diverge, you can still get down to the foot. This location is a favourite recreational spot for local residents and as we made our way down, we saw lots of people making their way up. So even if you are not sure of the way, you only need to ask the locals who are rather friendly.

After we made our way down, the folks proceeded to freshen up at the resort’s bathing facilities. I went about shooting pictures and after some painstaking wait, I managed to snag a really close-up shot of a red dragonfly. It was the Lord of the Pond and it flew about majestically to secure its territory.

We left for leisure and reached Kluang Town around 5:00PM. The folks milled about in the area as there were some bargains to be had. I was with Patrick and Edmund most of the time and the latter actually bought a pair of trekking gloves and some mobile phone accessory.

Whenever I am in Kluang Town, I try to have my dinner at Cin Cin Restaurant. They are famous for their Pipa Roasted Duck and Fruit Plate Fish. This time round, we had a different type of fish and it was basically steamed fish with a special chilli bean paste sauce on top. It was great!

Another nice thing about the place is that they are willing to accommodate any special requests. For this trek, we had a vegetarian with us and she had special fried rice with a bowl of tofu soup. Ask Yook Leng if her meal was good. :P

The great thing about leading treks is the sense of joy, bonding, and well-being that I see in my participants. This is especially true for this trek for most of the gang are from the same organisation so they actually know one another pretty well. The 2-hour long journey back to Singapore was made so much more pleasant as the folks joked and bantered about almost anything under the sun. I will certainly look forward to bringing this bunch to another accessible trekking location in the future. Thank you to one and all!

Allen Tan
Team Spreo