Gunung Irau @ Cameron

Located near Brinchang town in Cameron Highlands, the mossy forest, Gunung Irau. Green carpets of moss dot the entire jungle, the cool, gray mist shrouds it in a veil of mystique. These combined with the soft cushion-like ground makes Irau a fantasy world come to life. But do not be fooled, this is a very difficult hike. When i first stepped on the mountain, i am already amazed. The trek starts with a wooden bridge, giving a false sense of tameness. The view from the bridge was breath taking enough, but when the bridge ends, a new world begins. The simplest way to describe it would be, it was like stepping into the pages of Lord Of The Rings.

Gollum!

As I take a few more steps, I notice one of the problems with Irau, the legendary mud. It wasnt raining but most of the ground is muddy. Very muddy. It will suck your shoe of your foot muddy. So if you want to avoid these mud traps you will have to look for roots that you can step on. I did just that and in the end i had really sore feet balancing on those roots. It took me around 3hours+ to reach baby Irau. The peak they(other hikers) say its around 2 more hours of hiking. Since it was already around 1pm I couldnt continue or risk having to hike after sundown. So i had lunch and started the hike down. Just 20mins into the hike back it started to rain! To be honest it was quite interesting hiking in the rain. Its my first time doing this and it was kinda fun. It felt really like an adventure, trekking through the jungle with rain falling around. Man vs Wild! But of course the rain really made things harder, there were more mud, everything was slippery. It took me a little more than 2hours to get back. I feel if you dont mind the mud, and you just walk right into the mudholes you can make much better time. In fact when i was hiking up i was overtaken by a lady wearing just pink slippers! Of course she was nonchalantly dipping her legs into the mudholes like it was just a spa.


All in all it was a interesting hike, but really challenging. Would I come back? hmm.. i would definitely consider. The Baby Irau peak isnt really motivating me there, just wasnt anything there. No view, just rubbish everywhere. For me its always nicer to have something at the end of the hike that was worth hiking all the way. A great view, waterfall etc. This one doesnt look to me like it has any. But the journey in the jungle itself was definitely worth experiencing.

After the hike, we were suppose to stay at something called the MNS hostel which was rm10 per pax and I've heard very rave reviews about it. Unfortunately we couldnt stay there as there was a huge traffic jam. We ended up turning around and staying at a friend's house at Batu Gajah. Would love to try staying here. They say is freaking super freezing cold at night but there's supposedly a Gunung Cantik to hike nearby. The sungai palas tea cafe was another place i'd love to visit.