Abu Nu'man: At the Zenith of Mount Grandfather (Dato')

The actual name of the location is Gunung Dato', situated within the district of Rembau. Hehehe...I was just being sarcastic for no reason. On 13th of March 2010, I was given the opportunity by Allah to hike Gunung Dato' together with a number of teenagers, IPT students and Jamaah Islah Malaysia (JIM) members of Negri Sembilan branch. All together, there were 47 of them including myself. This outdoor activity was organized by Kelab Remaja JIM (KRJ) of Negri Sembilan branch specially for the school vacation which started this week.

Tak bersyukur gak tak tau la den nak kobar camno laie

We flagged off from Pusat Pendidikan As-Saidiyyah, Senawang around 8.00 am and reached the foot of the mountain at 9.00 am. The last time I hiked was way back in November 2005 at Gunung Angsi, Kuala Pilah. I was still a bachelor at that time and of course far way fitter than I am now. Before we started hiking, we were briefed by the forestry officer about the dos and donts while hiking. After that, we did some stretching lead by our guider. I don't know why but I was so excited to hike Gunung Dato'. May be because of my father's wonderful experience hiking Gunung Dato' back in the 80's which was told to me since I was still in primary school. He told me that Gunung Dato' is one of the most difficult mountain to climb. At some stretch, the slope of the mountain could reach 80°-90°. In fact, he found a tiger paw print which was still wet.

Aik...camno den leh tosoda (tersedar) kek sini plak ni?

After some light stretching, we started our journey to the peak at 10.00 am, which was a bit derailed from the actual plan. After 5 minutes, one female participant got her leg injured. A few minutes after that, a male participant stopped due to exhaustion. He told me he feels like collapsing. That’s surely not a good sign. I had to accompany him before we continued our journey. The rest of the participants have already left us miles away. He insisted to continue hiking instead of returning to base camp. After some time, he managed to get the rhythm and beat me to the top.

Tapak kaki Hang Tuah

As for myself, Gunung Dato’ is one of the most challenging mountains to climb. The slope is so steep that I can hardly breathe while hiking. I rested no less than 5 times before I reached the peak. The height of Gunung Dato’ is approximately 800 meters and around 2000 meters above the sea level. It took me 2 hours to reach the peak of Gunung Dato’. The view was so exquisite and I could see a number of small towns within the Malacca state.

"Azuraaaaaaaaaaaa" (kono sobut samo macam Jamal Abdillah)

After spending an hour appreciating wonders created by the Almighty, I headed back to the base camp. It took me almost 1 hour and 20 minutes to reach the base camp. Initially I thought going down was easy, but it was totally contradict. Since the route is so steep, going down the mountain requires extra effort to maintain our body balancing from rolling down. An UMP (Universiti Malaysia Pahang) student got her knee dislocated while on the way down. Jabatan Pertahanan Awam (JPA) medical assistants had to rush up to get her down by using stretcher. It took them almost 4 hours to get her to the base camp.

Agak eh ni lah kerajaan langit yg disobut Ayah Pin tu...hohoho

As soon as I reached the base camp, I sat for 5 minutes. I was so exhausted that I couldn't even stand up. It took me a while before I could stand up and get my lunch meal. After having my lunch, I went straight home as I have to help my parents preparing Nawfal's aqiqah ceremony after the Isyak prayer.