Day 4: The End

30/5/2011

Distance 13.5 km, 5 hrs 50 mins, 2795 calories burnt, and level of difficulty: moderate but tiring

The last day of trekking. Sleeping in Camp 3 wasn’t without drama. The first thing we observed about the camp was the presence of sulphur powder laid around the edges of the camp. There was only one thing that came into our mind – it was probably to ward off snakes!

The other one was the presence of leeches on the floor which managed to crawl up into the camp from the loose wooden flooring. But worst of all was the story told by our two trekkers who stayed behind in the camp the night before that they heard children running and playing in the middle of the night!

The day break was a welcoming sight. The night seemed to be too long especially if the mind was restless to try getting a proper sleep.

Three of us made a dash to reach Camp 1 and later to base camp. That took nearly 6 hours. The sight of civilisation, the sound of mobile ring tones, the irisistable taste of 100-plus, all were indescribable after such a torturous journey. The leech attacks on this part of the trip were quite ferocious. A number of us got bitten and swamped with the crawling creatures at many unimaginable places. Alas the trekking was finally over.

We clocked a total of 51 km and nearly 26 hours of trekking over many undulating and challenging routes. We have done something that was almost impossible to imagine for city folks like us.

The awards were blistered legs, countless bitten marks, sore bump, torn pants, wet and soiled clothes, but compensated by elevated pride and a few kilos less weight.

We stayed at the newly built chalets, each costing RM220 per night. Next door sits the impressive restaurant and the reception centre. The hot shower and air-condition rooms were such a contrast to the places we slept for the last 3 nights.