21 January 2010

Tanah Rata - Cameron Highlands

This morning we took a tour through the surroundings of the 'Camerons'. Th start at a temple, Sin poh Temple, then we went to the Rose gardens. A nice area, with lots of flowers and very nice views. After that of to the Butterfly Garden. At first I thought the guide took us to the wrong place or something like that, as they showed us nothing but insects, spiders, snakes, cameleons, leguana's etc .... some of 'm very scary .... But then we walked into an area with lots of pretty butterfly's.
Right after that the guide took us to a Strawberry farm. Nothing special, but the strawberries tasted excellent!!! Then of to the honeybee farm. That was a little bit boring. Just a garden with many 'bee-houses', but that's it. Last but not least for a tealover like I am, we took of to the tea plantage. That was amazing. Especially the views. A little bit hard to describe, but when I'm home I will download a picture from it.
As this was the last site of the tour I hopped of a went on on my own. There was a trail I wanted to hike and the start was pretty close to the tea plantage. The weather still looked fine at that time. I was facing a hike up from abou 5 close to 6km. Very steep, but right in between the teaplants. After about 2km it started to rain a little. That didn't take long as before I knew it was like someone opened up the tap above. I was completely wet!!! Still the scenery was great, so I kept on walking, like I had another choice. Then at the top of the mountain I had to decend as well. The way was pretty good, as in was a paved road..... but down ..... right through the jungle. Slippery, soft ground.... The trail wasn't a tough one for endurance, but is was quite a challenge to find the spots I could step on without having my shoes and feet get suck into the ground. But even with that in my mind ..... it was awesome. The rain had stopped and I was completely alone in the jungle, sounds of raindrops falling from the leaves, birds and other sounds of nature, just lovely. I don't know how the trail down took me .... but according to the signs it was 3km. From the moment I started untill I was in the center of Brinchang it took me 3 hours. I found it surprisingly fast as the guide told me it would at least take me 2 hours to get to the top, and on the map it showed 2 hours for the trail as well .... Well never mind, as the rain was gone now, I decided to walk my way back to Tanah Rata completely. 5km in addition to what I have walked ... so in 40 minutes I was back ... I don't think it was 5km ... or I have walked very fast.
Well at least I had some training again :-)

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