Gunung Angsi – Boxing Day (Christmas Edition) + Video

Gunung Angsi

The morning started pretty normal, the usual long drive to the destination and the usual shoe-changing rituals before the start of the hike at the car park area. Paid the compulsory fees and off we went through a relatively long flat track, through a river and a long connected system of piping. The one thing I’m particularly keen of this mountain is the fact that it allows everybody to warm up comfortably with its easy and flat terrain at the beginning, but gets steep all the way up as one nears the summit. A way of mother nature telling everybody to take it easy and prepare yourself for the obstacles ahead. A nice change of pace indeed.

Along this hike, there would be a small hill, which requires one to climb using a series of rope prepared by the mountain’s rangers. Quite technical for some, it requires a reasonable amount of upper body strength to get yourself up to the top to resume your journey to the summit. Advance slowly as a fall from the top or any part of the climb is not going to be pretty. The hike before and after this technical portion of climb was steep and long. Perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise for this part to take over at this point of journey – less legs and more arms. All of us got up eventually, regrouped and made our final push to the summit.

Typically, the summit would be around the corner once the sun managed to get through and big towering trees were no longer in close sight. Heavy bushes and overgrown plants decorated the path towards the summit, a very convenient place for a plethora of plants to grow and flourish with the abundant of sunlight. Oblivious to the existence of thorny vines and excessive portruding branches, we soldiered through this short stretch to reach our final destination. All of us but one reached the summit – rested, rehydrated and replenished our energy levels.

We didn’t stay too long at the summit knowing that one of our buddy was still down there somewhere. So we made our way down after a series of picture taking activities. Using a Casio Exilim to record single handedly (literally), I decided to record our descent from this point onwards. Managed to record footages worth 3 1/2 hours long before the battery ran out. Quality was average but essentially I managed to capture the experience and memories while on this hike.

Not so long after the descent from the summit, we managed to regroup with our hiking member. He was sited down at a corner in front of a tree, with one leg stretched out. As our curiosity heightened for the reason behind such a position he was in, all of us gathered around him instantly, worried that injury could be one of the possible reason.

A quick assessment showed that a forest dweller with a strong taste of blood has attached itself on one of his leg and feasting comfortably. A charitable individual he was, the little leech was already big and fat after what I could only described as the best meal a leech could have. We assisted in the removal of the leech an rested for quite a bit before continuing our journey back to our cars.

Some fallen trees proved to be strategically well placed benches for us to rest and wait for the rest to catch up. The journey beyond this point was pretty straightforward, all the way down, to the rivers and back to civilization.

Enough of pictures, please find a video below covering the descent of Gunung Angsi – approximately 70-80 percent of the journey before the battery died on me.

Warning – This video has been digitally stabilized, but may still be a little bit shaky. May cause motion sickness, nausea or vomiting.