TNF 100 Singapore Eco Ambassadors

The Singapore TNF 100 came back this year on 11 October and we are back too! This time with more members, more litter pickers and more trash bags. Last year there were 8 of us. This year we increased our headcount to 14 although we believed that after last year clean up, there should only be trash from last year till now and so lesser for us to pick. Unfortunately that did not appear to be the case.

Not in photo - Terence, Osbert and Esther

This year we decided on a new tactic. We split up into 4 groups and each group  started from a different area. The idea is to walk shorter distance for everybody and yet still be as comprehensive. Unfortunately we miscalculated the distance and the efforts it took to walk and pick trash and reached back to MacRitchie Reservoir after 7 pm by which time almost everybody else had gone off. Nevertheless, we had a great time together although we do wish that our job would really be redundant and there will be no trash to pick. Sadly though, this was not the case.

Photo by Jancy

All in, we picked up 20 bags of trash each filled with drink bottles, food packaging, soles, shoes, clothing, paper, plastic bags and toys even!

Photo by Mel

Among these items were about close to 350 + gel packets. It is quite sad to see that despite the hype about how trail runners love nature, there is still a large number of them who think nothing of dumping their empty gel sachets on the ground. 

Photo by AC

Other surprising items include 2 underwears along the Green Corridors.

We can figured out probably the reason why these people took off their underwear and disposed of them here but the next item found along the Beluakar Trail have us scratching our head.

Photo by Jancy

Err what did the runner ran in after throwing this away?

We also found numerous shoes' sole. Most of them appears to be road shoes which mean most runners are not wearing trail shoes and has to suffer the consequences of it. 

Photo by Jancy

I don't know whether we will be invited back next year though I really hope our job is made redundant if everybody do not litter in the forest and trails but I know it is a dream. More likely, as the number of people taking to the trails increases, we will see more trash and not less and then maybe we will no longer be able to do it once a year but has to increase the frequency. 

Anybody who is keen to join in future clean up, can drop me a message via my FB or email me at ckohst2@yahoo.com.sg.

Sometimes we need to smell the flowers

I go to MacRitchie Reservoir pretty often. Most times to run. Very rarely for any other things. During a run, it is pretty difficult to spot anything except maybe the monkeys or occasional monitor lizards. Some people have spotted snakes but while I seen them, this was not during a run but a hike.

Recently I went with a group of students for a hike to the Tree Top Walk. And because we were not running, we spotted so many things that I never noticed in my run.

Like this patch of beautiful Tiger Orchids just outside the ranger station. Now I stopped at the Ranger Station on almost every run for the past 6 years and I swear I never knew there was a big clump of Tiger Orchids growing just outside it. 

Then there is this little mushroom on the floor. It was covered by the fallen leaves and a Nparks officer showed it to us. Apparently it can eject a puff of powder if disturbed hence it is called the powder puff mushroom.

And everybody who been to MacRitchie is familiar with the long tailed macaques or monkeys as we called them. Unfortunately most of the sightings are either of them around the Amenities Centre scrounging for human food or chasing visitors for more human food. But how often have we seen them in their natural habitat in the trees or eating fruits like what we saw when we on the tree top trail?

Last but not least, how many people have seen a flying fox in MacRitchie? This one we saw was so near I could almost touch it.

Isn't these sightings good enough reasons for us to slow down and smell the flowers and look at the rich wildlife that abounds in MacRitchie.

Journey to Mt Kinabalu - The Descent

What goes up must come down. And so do we. After climbing for 14 hours over 2 days, we were finally ready to descend to Timpohon Gate. We had a shower in the freezing cold water of Laban Rata, a light breakfast and off we went.

Our target was to reach Timpohon Gate by 3 pm. The distance from Laban Rata was only 6 km yet it felt like 60km. It never amazed me that 500 metres seem so long in the jungle. 

The first part of the downward climb was on the uneven rock surfaces and so progress was much slower. And we stopped to allow the climbers coming behind us to overtake. Its is so amazing to see these young people jumping down so easily without any fear. For us old fogeys with our aching knees and joints, every jolt felt like somebody using a hammer to hit us.

Photo by Alicia Koh

But thankfully, the rocky part was only about 2 km long and soon we were on the main Timpohon trail. And as we descended, we were thankful that Tony had chosen for us to summit via Mersilau because there was really no view at all throughout the Timpohon trail. It was just a single trail with lots of steps sandwiched between 2 side of jungle. In fact it looked just like our Bukit Timah trail! 

Photo by Alicia

There was a small little waterfall but that was about it. 

Less than 200 metres from the waterfall was the end of our climb. The Timpohon Gate. And it really is a gate!

Photo by Alicia

From Timpohon Gate we were transported by shuttle service to the Sabah Park HQ where we had our lunch before transport back to our hotel in Kinabalu town. And with that, we ended our 2 days 1 night journey to Mt Kinabalu. Did we bite off more that we could chew? I don't think so. Other than the altitude, I think this is a fairly easy climb. No technical climbing skill is required and what is needed is just lot of energy, determination, a pair of good shoes and anyone can reach the peak.

Journey to Mt Kinabalu - Low's Peak

We woke up at about 1 am. Or rather we were ready to go at 1 am. Light out at Laban Rata was  8.30 pm incredibly early but aside from the fact that there was nothing else to do and we had to start early to catch the sunrise at the summit, sleep seems the only sensible thing to do. But I dare said most of us didn't sleep well. Perhaps it was the excitement that we were going to reach the highest peak in South East Asia in a few hours time or the splitting headache that everybody seems to be having, none of us slept well. So at 1 am, everybody was up and raring to go. After a light breakfast where we were advised not to eat too much, we finally set off at about 2.30 am.

Led by the guides, the various group moved off. I reckoned we were among the first few groups. As usual, we started off a tad way too fast. We kept mostly to our group formation as per yesterday - with Vincent and the 3 kids in front, myself and 4 others in the middle pack and a last group. One of our member was still having problem with his stomach and was taking it easy in the last group.

It was pitched dark and all of us had our headlamps on. Still we couldn't really see far away. Just the few person immediately in front of us. And with the high altitude, we got tired pretty fast and before long, groups behind us started overtaking us. Interestingly, most of them were Caucasians rather than Asian. Perhaps the Asians were not in too big a rush to get to the summit?  

It was up and up and up all the way. But there were also a lot of stretches where we were walking on wide open area. We knew it was open area. There was a super long rope that we had to hold on to for most part of the climb. At certain stretches, there were vertical climb, horizontal climb but in the darkness we just walked like zombies following the rope.

These was what our eyes were seeing along almost the entire route. The little white specks are not stars or blemish but lights from other climbers behind us. The rope is there but totally not visible unless you are near enough to see it.

This is the same photo but digitally enhanced to bring out whatever little light there is. The rope is now visible in the foreground. Now the lights of the trail of climbers behind us and the city in the background is visible.

At 3800 metres, all of us were feeling the effect of the high altitude and we were stopping every few steps to breathe in hard. The climb itself was in my opinion fairly manageable. It was the breathing that was sapping away our energy. Thank goodness none of us in the middle group puked though we sure felt like it with almost everybody having some form of nausea. The Princess who was in the first group and dropped back. She was getting the altitude sickness real bad and stopping to sit down every 5 to 6 steps. But thankfully none of us threw up. That was not the case though with our last group members. 2 of the ladies threw up after passing the checkpoint at Sayat Sayat and the guy with the stomach problem was going too slowly and the guide forced them to turn them. So for the 3 of them, it was game over as they turned back without reaching the summit.

For the rest of us, we plodded on and managed to reach the summit well before 6 am - the sun rise time. And we were rewarded with a gorgeous view of the sun rise.

After the mad rush to take the almost mandatory photos at Low's Peak, the highest point of Mt Kinabalu at 4095m, we were ready for our descent to Laban Rata. By now the sun was fully up and we could now see what we could not when we were ascending and what beautiful scape it was too!

And we could also see the way that we took to climb up including the very important rope that led us all the way to the summit.

This was where we came up from. Scary to think that we climbed up from the horizon in the dark and now had to descend the same way.

Did we really went past all these?

This was the notorious Horizontal Climb. Our guide had described to us that we were walking on a ridge which was 6 inches to 1 feet wide in darkness and we had to hold on to the rope at all cost. It sounds scary enough but in the darkness we felt no fear since we couldn't see where the side was or was not. Now that it was bright, it didn't look and feel that scary. The angle of the cliff was fairly gentle and the so called narrow trail was actually quite wide in some parts so it wasn't that bad.

But of course it was always easier going down especially since it was now very much brighter. We made good time and we reached Laban Rata around 9 am well in time for breakfast and a quick wash up before we continue our final journey down to the bottom.

Journey to Mt Kinabalu - Laban Rata

Most people who goes to Mt Kinabalu goes up via the Timpohon Gate trail. Our friend, Tony arranged for us to climb via the Mersilau Trail. He said it was more scenic and it was just 2km longer. 2km didn't sound like much considering that almost all of us are runners. So we happily agreed. We stayed at the Mersilau Nature Center the night before and after another oily breakfast and weight in of our luggage by the guide/porter, we set off to Laban Rata, the midway rest point.

The guide weighing our bags. Anything above 7kg we have to pay RM10 per kg of excess

Each of us was carrying our own pack with just the basic necessity for today climb. We had about 1.5 litres of water each, lunch(sandwhich and an apple) from the restaurant; our own snacks, some had hot drinks; a windbreaker or jacket and headlamp. This weights on average about 3 kg. Some of us had additional gear like camera, first aid kits but the main bulk of the surplus items were put in another bag for the 3 guides/porter to carry up to Laban Rata on our behalf. Each bag we passed them was not to exceed 7 kg and as there were 14 of us and 3 of them, each of them had to carry around 30 kg each. And yet they were so much faster than us!

We started off just after 9 am. Our target was to reach Laban Rata by 6 pm. On paper, it was just 8 km of walking. Sounded like a piece of cake and something we could do easily with 2 hours of brisk walking. But this was on an ascending trail at altitude starting from 2km and climbing to eventually 3272km. Of course being greenhorn, we didn't know what was in stored for us.

As usual, we started off fast. And within a few metres of climbing those everlasting steps, we were all panting and breathing heavily and  the calves were screaming. And we haven't even hit 500 metres! But pretty soon all pain was forgotten when we came to the first break in the forest canopy and this was the scene behind us.

And as promised by Tony, the route was really more scenic than the Timpohon trail which we were able to compare when we descended via it the next date.

Back on the Mesilau trail, there was 2 waterfall, a suspension bridge and more breathtaking sky view of the mountain range.

Photo by Jancy

Photo by Jancy

Most of the view were stunning and breathtaking and none more so than this next picture from a ridge which also serves as a helipad,

After 6 km of climbing up and up with just a small section which went downhill, we finally reached the junction of the Mersilau and Timpohon trail. From here it was just another 2 km to Laban Rata, the resthouse where we have to stay overnight to tackle the next stretch of the climb.

This stretch also sees the end of the countless steps similar to those in our Bukit Timah Nature Reservs except of course that there are many many more of them.

 Unfortunately, in its place was large uneven granite and other rocks which really cause us to stretch our legs long long to climb up and down countless time. This was really a rocky time and the 2 km took us a fair bit of time to negotiate.

The constant stopping to take photographs of the giant pitcher plants and other plants helps to take our mind off the difficult terrain and eventually after almost close to 7 hours of walking, trekking and climbing, 12 of us reached our first destination, the Laban Rata Resthouse!

The Mt Kinabalu summit behind Laban Rata resthouse. That is our ultimate target.

We were awed when we realised that there is no road up to this resthouse and  all the food supplies have to be carried up by porters via the Timpohon trail. Even the staff there hike up and down this trail to and from work and to think that back here in Singapore we complain about a 10 minutes walk to the MRT station!

This is the group photo of what remained of us. 14 of us started out from Mersilau but one of us dropped out barely after crossing the suspension bridge due to a  bad case of diarrhoea. Another lady was a bit further behind and reached about 6 pm whilst the rest of us reach just before 4pm. The other 4 had reached way earlier and were already happily changed and resting inside the rest house!

Maybe it was the nice weather, or the many breath taking view but I didn't think that this portion was that tough. Sure we huff and puff but that was to be expected given that we were moving at attitude of about 2000 metres something that we were not accustomed to back here in Singapore. But of course the next day will be more challenging!

Smell the Roses

No more races for the rest of the year or at least nothing signed up yet. So taking things easy now. Running is down to about 30km average a week most of which are slow relaxing run. On top of that, devoting more time to hiking. And it has been a very different experience going into the trails as a hiker and not a runner. There are no roses to smell but so many things to see, things that one do not usually notice or be able to spot if running. Like the following:

A cicada. Not easy to spot this noisy creatures which can camouflage itself. And I found out that the ruckus we hear in the forest can be made by just 1 of this critter!

A tiny little Reed snake. Actually it was already dead when we spotted it. Somebody must have stepped on it. Poor it. Anyway, we picked it up and put it on a branch. At least it can die in glory!

 Another snake. A bronzeback. This one very much alive and way bigger. And it was looking at us. lol

And last but not least, a colugo. This is the first time I seen another specie of mammal other than the monkey, squirrel and wild boar in our forest. 

Its good to take time to relax. Good for the leg, the knee and go smell the roses in whatever remain of our forest before they disappear completely. Hopefully in the coming weeks, will get to see more of our forest dwellers.