Gunung Panti
Height: 513 metres (1683 feet)
Difficulty: Moderate gradual steepness
Duration: Average 2 hours up
Entrance Point: 1.807624, 103.845533
Gunung Pulai
Height: 654 metres (2146 feet)
Difficulty: Very steep tar road
Duration: Average 1 hour 15 minutes up
Entrance Point: 1.590288, 103.518094
Gunung Panti
On Sunday morning, two of us went to Gunung Panti which is nearby Kota Tinggi and is about 1 hour's drive from Johor Bahru. The entrance to Gunung Panti is situated about 100 metres away from Kota Rainforest Resort. It is a small untarred road and because we're driving normal car, we can only go in about halfway into the road. We walk the other half which is about 400 metres into the real entrance.
We looked around for the entrance as the trail is not really clear. Fortunately there is this one dog that we met at the car park which seems eager to guide us to the trail. There is a small river crossing and the trail afterwards is more obvious. Along the way the dog (which eventually we named her as 'Panti') was really active, running around through the forest. We just continue to follow the markings and sometimes the dog if there's no obvious trails.
Generally the forest along the way can be described as quite pleasant. At some places, the trail is quite wide and some places are narrow. One thing though is there are spider webs literally everywhere. No leeches to be found though although we saw only one at the peak and the leech is running away from us. Talk about the best leech in the world. The path is ascending moderately for most of the parts and the trail is not that muddy. Panti was eager to show her agileness, and tried running up the slopes. Eventually she was so tired and need to rest down. She was panting so heavily, which I swear sounds like wild boar. So we made a container from leaves and gave her some water.
When nearing the peak, there is a rock climbing section where all the funs are. Basically it's steep rocks all the way the the peak and with ropes for support. Generally it's not too hard to climb up but the risks are there. Since Panti the dog can't climb up the rocks, we gave her some biscuits and water as rewards for guiding us till this stage. Then we continued on to the top.
The peak has a nice little garden, with moss growing on trunks and roots. There are several big flat areas which are suitable for campsites. There are views here but just slightly blocked by some trees. Upon checking my GPS, I found out that there might be another trail going up from the other side of the mountain. Could be interesting but not enough time for today. So we just took a rest for a while before going down.
Descending is even more scarier than ascending at the rocky faces, so we stepped carefully. Surprisingly Panti is still waiting for us there. Incredibly loyal dog she is, hehe. Going downhill should be easier for us and the dog. At some point, Panti saw something on the trees, but we cannot figure out what she saw. Anyway this time Panti didn't really ran off a lot, literally guiding us the whole time.
When reaching the starting point, we got lost for a while, and predictably Panti is back to save the day. Quite a surprise that there's only two of us hiking up Gunung Panti that day. We met back with the others somewhere along the road, cleaned up, gave the dog some more foods before we depart back to Johor Bahru for lunch.
Gunung Pulai
Gunung Pulai is roughly about 30-40 minutes drive from Johor Bahru. This particular mountain located at Hutan Lipur Gunung Pulai is actually quite popular with visitors. Basically the trail is tarred all the way till the restricted telecommunication towers area. There is an alternative jungle trail but it is not frequented by hikers, so we didn't bother to hike through it.
Once at the car park, it's just a short distance away to the entrance which is blocked by a gate to prevent public cars from going in. The trail or tar road can be summed up in a word. Steep. I swear it could be steeper than Bukit Sapu Tangan at Taman Botani Shah Alam at some parts. However we still saw quite a number of people attempting to walk up. Going up on tar road is seriously more difficult than going up the jungle trail. We saw some lovely polka-dotted butterflies and squirrel also.
There's marking on the floor for every 500 metres to show how far we've walked. Total distance is 5km from the entrance to the peak, so it's not really that short also. Imagine Gunung Nuang with tarred road and consistently steep all the way. Wearing Kampung Adidas didn't help the situation too. Anyway walking on steep tar road is really super good for our muscle training especially on the hip areas. There is a viewpoint about 4km into the trail, but it was a bit cloudy that time. Eventually we managed to reach peak in about 1 hour 15minutes.
Descending down was equally torturous, what not trying to brake with the front toes, ouch! It is still faster then going up though. Everyone are just going down as the sky is growing dark. Along the way down, we encountered a scorpion and it was the first time I saw scorpion. I just quickly took some pictures and continue on until the gate. Another mountain accomplished, another great weekend hiking. Eventually that night I just realized I've minor torn skins due to the harsh descending. No pain no gain.
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