Gunung Datuk – Group Training Before Mont Kota Kinabalu

Gunung Datuk

This was the very last hike together before our attempt for Mont Kinabalu in 10 days, making this a quite memorable hike with a relatively large group of friends. This will be my 5th trip to Mont Kinabalu, this time being accompanied with the largest group of hiking buddies (21 fellow hikers). This hike also served as a venue to get to know each other as some of us still remained unacquainted. There were full-marathoners, ironman triathletes, crossfit athletes, gym buffs, mountaineers, nutritionists and many other participants within this group.

All of us decided to gather at Nilai Rest stop along Seremban Highway and continued to the destination as a convoy. We reached our destination at a quite decent pace with lots of time to spare. Took a group picture at the start of the hike and continued our way up. The hike can be described as a typical progression of speed and fitness, in which the group was broken up into 3 moving groups – the fast leading pack, the-take-it-easy-love-to-take-pictures group and the sweeper-team. Some of the fastest who were literally sprinting up, reached up at the summit in less than an hour, while the rest reached after 75 to 90 minutes.

The last portion towards the summit, which obviously the most interesting part of the climb was the part where all of us decided to take a break and chill for a bit. Well known for its strong gushing wind around this point, we did not notice any of its presence this morning. Soft breeze of wind, grazed through our skin and sweat soaked shirts, also gave some momentum to the bees around us to navigate, hunting the “juiciest” victim for their sweat. Fear not, these bees are harmless and were only interested with the remnants and mineral deposits left on our shirts. Unless provoked, they do not bite and just there to provide a complimentary playful aerial performance on top of the great view.

Photos were taken. Selfies, wefies and all the other “fies” were unceremoniously shot at the the summit. Everybody was high in spirit, accompanied with a relaxing view together with all of our team members. The limits of all our devices were tested to the limit in order to capture all of the breathtaking experiences and visuals one can get up here. Chocolate bars and self-made energy concoctions were consumed and shared amongst all of us before we decided to call it a day and start to make our way down.

The descent was much faster, obviously, but one with a mixture of feelings – more relaxed but a rather sad one considering that the adventure is about to end. Slowly, our group was broken into smaller groups, depending on their speed and how much our knees could take the impact going down. Eventually all of us reached down, took a quick shower and changed into a new set of clothes, ready for our well deserved lunch before going home.