Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Bukit Repin via Janda Baik





Bukit Repin situated at Janda Baik, Pahang. As far as I know there are 2 mountains via Janda Baik i.e Gunung Nuang and Bukit Repin.

Bukit Repin is actually a mountain category as it stand 1,300 meters (according to my Suunto ambit 2)

What to Expect on Climbing Bukit Repin
- The distance is approximately 4.29km
- flat and easy walk few kilometers at the beginning and steep climb last few kilometers towards the peak
- will be passing through rubber plantation, orang asli settlement and 4 to 5 river crossings
- the trail is clear, but be careful to follow correct path as there are many trails leading elsewhere
- I will try to give the best guide for others not to get lost
- be mindful of leeches especially towards the summit – get ready for a few bites (a mossy guards spray or leech socks would help)

the ascending/descending and distance

Accommodation
There are plenty of homestay and small hut to be rented out as Janda Baik is known as a get-away destinations.

Transportation
There will be no public transport to here. You may need to use own transport.

Temperature
Between 25 to 28 degree in the morning. Nothing to be alarmed.

Eating Place
There will be plenty of Malay restaurant at the road side up to the small town of Janda Baik – few kilometres from the trail head.
 I suggest you get your food on or before here.
Breakfast and lunch are no problems but dinner may be very limited choice.
Another point to have your meals is at Genting Sempah rest area – more than 10km away.

Getting there
There are 2 ways of conquering Bukit Repin, first thru Kemensah (zoo negara, KL) and another is thru Janda Baik.
Since this is our first time and we decided to enter thru Janda Baik.
We park here (gps coordinate : 3.305605, 101.875539)


About 100 meters we reached the entrance which is a river crossing. There will be no direction to Bukit Repin at our starting location
No signboard and no trail marker.

Phone Signal
There will be few points of having phone signal but I’m pretty sure that a strong signal is presence at the peak.

Navigation Assistance
My old trustworthy suunto ambit 2 with routes direction pre-loaded before the hike more or less helped me with this climb.
Wak Nosly (good old friend) also had his ambit 3 peak with the same route.
This assurance will prevent us from getting lost

Trail Condition
The trail was easy and flat at the beginning. Passing through rubber tree plantation, secondary jungle and orang asli settlement.
(2 houses only). The trail is clear with tyre tracks and we believe it is being used for mobility for the orang asli.

There will be proper trail markers leading to the summit when you get more deeper in the jungle.

At a later stage of the trail, it will become steeper and hard climb. The trail is slippery. It took us hours to reach the peak.

Summit
The summit is somehow a small area surrounded by trees. The ground is dark in colour and covered by fallen leaves.
There is one section on the left where you can view the valley below, if it is not covered by fog.

If you look carefully, you may find trail markers leading to another section of the mountain – ‘Pondok’ and eventually heading towards Kemensah.
I heard the distance is 3 kilometres to Pondok itself.

I hope that somebody will re-open the trail route to Pondok – Kemensah, it will be more nearer to KL.

Going Back
Heading down from the summit was a very straight forward. Just use back the same trail.
I would suggest to use extra caution as the trail is very slippery and you may fall down.
Use a proper trail shoes, glove-to hang on to something and a slow pace ascending – it will reduce the risk of injuring yourselves.

We reached down around 2 hours plus.

Recommendation
Bukit Repin maybe considered a leisure hike as in comparison, it is more or less climbing Bukit Kutu.
Its manageable and doable. Of course, hikers with low fitness level may find it a bit difficult and may take longer time to reach the top. Don’t give up.

Always hike with a buddy, recommended more than 3 persons ya.

Walk through

Around the parking area



 We will be heading towards this road






Heading to the Entrance

We reached this house, around 100 meters from parking. Just go straight 

At the back of the house, there is a fork road. Please turn on your right. 

The green fence on the right is the house fence  

We reached our first river crossing. This is the entrance

Rubber plantation 

just go straight 

2nd river crossing 

Tyre tracks and banana plantation 

Orang asli settlement 



The fork trail, close up - please turn left 

the fork trail from a distance 


another fork trail - take your left


This is on our way back

the popular tree 


distance and time taken 


 Time of the day

 At the other side of the peak


On our way back



We started descending at 11.20am. Reached the parking around 1.30pm

Western Food Lunch



We saw this western outlet called Nero Bianco Deli

Wak with his new fondly feline friend