Mt Benom

2 years ago, when I was resting at the beautiful valley of Mt. Rajah, Hai Poh told me that there is another mountain which located not far away from Bentong. That was the first time I heard about Mt. Benom – a mountain that very difficult to hike, no view, no scenery and the only thing worth to see is giant nepenthes. Hai Poh even use the word “ugly” to describe it. I never want to hike Mt Benom. However, I still turned up for the trip this time with the mindset of “training for Fansipan”. To my surprise, Mt. Benom is not as bad as I thought. Well, at least it’s better than Mt. Inas.
Two 4WD brought us to the starting point of the trek. Berembun Waterfall is located not far away from the starting point. I had been to the waterfall twice but this time will just focus at Mt. Benom. There are two routes, one is from the waterfall which is longer and we took the other route which bypass the waterfall and directly led us to jungle. The red ginger flowers catch our eyes. This was the 1st surprise that Mt Benom gave me. We took quite sometime to photograph these beautiful flowers before proceed our journey. It’s almost 10.30am when we finally set off for the hike.
15 minutes later, we came to a riverside. After crossing the river, we start to climb up the steep trail. The trek was as difficult as expected but not as wild as I thought. This was the 2nd surprise. The trek is obvious and not much fern blocking the way. Only after 1 hour trekking, Hai Poh stung by bee at his nose. He was allergy to bee sting and his face and legs were swollen immediately. He trekked slowly, took break when he felt dizzy. After a while, his legs started to cramp. Evie, Tack and Peng Meng helped to carry some of his belongings to reduce the load of his backpack. I kept on hearing he mumbled to himself “ 争气一点 ”. Although not feeling well, he still able to proceed the journey.

Lai, Tack, Foong Kiew and I reached the campsite (1761m) at 4.30pm. We were busy posing and taking photos without realize that the weather was changed. Rain started to pour and getting heavily. We quickly set up the tents and stayed inside until the rain stopped. After the rain stopped, Evie and Ren prepared for our dinner. The rest of us are either helped them or just sat and wait for the dinner to get ready.

The next day morning (9.40am), all of us carried the light backpack which loaded with food and water, then set off for the ascent to summit. We have to traverse 32 peaks and valleys before we reach summit and retrace the route back to this campsite on the same day. It’s 64 times ascending and descending altogether!!! It’s tough and challenging for me. We reached the 2nd peak after 1 hour trekking. The view here is nice and the giant pitches can be seen everywhere. We stopped for more than half and hour to take pictures and rest. Ren decided not to continue the ascent. So, he separated from the group and went back to campsite. The rest of us continue the journey in rain. After went through a subtle of ascent and descent, we finally arrived at Mt. Benom peak at 3.30pm.

There is a flat ground at the peak where we can admire the scenery. This is the 3rd surprise. Kok Ming and Hai Poh told us that this flat campsite wasn’t exist 3 years ago. It’s almost an hour later when we started to retrace the route to the campsite. This time, we seldom stop for rest and hoping that we will able to reach before sunset. However, I really very tired and can only trek slowly. By 7.30pm, I had to put on my headlamp and trek in the dark. I walked together with Kok Ming and Evie. At last, we back to the campsite around 8.15pm, feeling exhausted.

The 3rd day, the descent began around 10am. On the steep trail, I slide down instead of trek down. :p The 4WD picked us up at the foot of mountain and drove us back to Sg. Klau. The trip ended with the late lunch at Bentong. Mt. Benom, the 10th highest mountain in Peninsular Malaysia is not the peak that thrills hikers, but somehow she still has special charm and it’s a really good place for training.

p/s: Evie said Mt. Benom is difficult than Mt Fansipan. Hmm….how true is it? I will be able to tell after September. ;)