Torturous Hiking

When the dawn began to break in the salubrious Saturday morning, I hopped onto the bus to take part in a mountain hiking trip. We hit the road up the path as we passed by several cascading waterfalls with the deluge of water collapsing on the massive boulders, sending dribbles of water to fly assunder. There were people swimming in the icy cold water but we marched on as we ventured deeper into the forest. The sunlight was penetrating through the canopy of gigantic trees that stood rooted to the ground. I took a deep breath inhaling the fresh air, as the thunderous roar of the waterfalls and rapid stream can still be heard in the distance.

Then there were more trees...

more water...

And the path became steeper and more perilous...

I panted breathlessly.

I stretched my right leg up and "piak!"my short pants tore. Had to climb with my legs closed as I wasn't wearing an underwear before I finally decided to seize a chance to stop and wear the long pants I bought surreptitiously.

It was after 5 hours of rigorous climbing that we managed to reach the campsite. And the journey is just halfway done. We took a rest and had our simple dinner before we continued the treacherous trip at 1 am the next day to reach the summit and see the sunrise.

This took us another 6 hours to reach the top, and I cried a tear of joy but as fate would have it, the sun was obstructed by the haze and I found the peak of the mountain plain and ugly. We could see nothing but haze from the top, although the cold ambience was refreshing.

At that time, I was terribly exhausted. My legs were sore, my toenails were painful, and I was drenched in sweat and dirt, but I had no choice but to descend from the mountain with the group after only one or two hours of resting.

I didn't know how did I muster the strength to climb down the mountain. It was easier to climb down but it was also damaging to the legs expecially the kneecaps as we had to pratically jump down step by step. The cold and blustery morning came to life with bees and ants coming out but I felt as if I paid for the trip to be tortured in HELL.

We had hiked for around 20 hours in total within two days and all this while I had to carry my heavy bag and some other stuff like the tent and rubbish along the journey.

As we descended the mountain we saw a troop of (cute and hunky) soldiers climbing up the mountain and the ranger said they had to reach the summit within 2 hours from the camp site as they carry a gun and rocks in their bag. I have another friend who was in the scouts and he climbed another mountain with was so much higher than mine for 3 days.So from another perspective, the suffering I endured was not as great as them, but I survived this ordeal with a sorethroat and a fever and limping legs. Every step I took I was in my mind moaning "Ouch! Ouch! Ouch..!".

It's wednesday now and I got a bit better but I am still sick and uncomfortable. I wanted to get a new experience by joining this hiking trip but apparently I wasn't fit enought for this and it was so much more physically demanding than the national service that I attended.

(Pics in the next post)