Chapter 18 : Gunung Berembun - The one that is to be continued...

Was it on my birthday last year? I think it was. My girl gang and I, together with our guide, set a goal to summit Gunung Berembun. If you remember reading my updates then, we turned back and didn't summit.
Since I couldn't sleep, I thought it would be nice to tell you what happened. We left KL early in the morning, headed to N9 where Mount Berembun stood tall and proud at 1014 meters.

I was nervous because we had a lot of rain in November. Most mountains were closing very soon too. We started with our usual stretching exercises and prayers, and off we went. The hike was okay. Nothing unusual. The weather was fine.

The track was a long one, and we got to our first stop, the waterfall. Had our breakfast. I could hear thunder. It was getting a little bit cloudy too but it passed. I had a small birthday celebration as Siti brought a cake all the way up for me. (Love you babe)

Didn't feel anything unusual here. Kyro, our guide, did mention that if we saw anything out of the ordinary, try not to say anything. If we see anyone we do not know, either just dont engage or can give a salam. By that time, we had been out with him a couple of times, and he had never warned us like that.

After nasi lemak and some rest, we continued our hike to the next checkpoint. At that time, my heart felt heavier than my body. I could hear thunder, but seeing my girlfriends' faces, I thought it's not nice to ask them to abandon the hike just because I don't feel too good.
We continued our hike and got to a landslide area. 

The trail was damaged and slippery from the rain the night before. I looked to the right, and the damaged track was in the no-fall zone. I asked Kyro if it rains later, do you think we can come back, he mulled over the situation and said, "tu la tuh".... I guess he was worried too for us, being inexperienced hikers and all.
I looked at Siti, Zila, and Zana and said to them, "guys, I think we should not continue." In unison, they said, "ok. Safety first." It broke my heart to pieces because I felt like I was letting them down. But they didn't make me feel bad about it.

We began our descent, and while we were going down, I heard a deep growl. The growl that only tigers or panthers and the like would make. It got nearer and nearer. I turned around and asked, "dengar tak?" My girls said "yes". Ok, I was not imagining things. I saw our guide walk a little bit faster, and his hand was reaching for his machete. He asked us to walk faster and closer to him. Then we heard a rumbling sound, like when a predator was ready to attack. I closed my eyes. 

My guard were up but at the same time i didnt stop.
I recited everything I could recall and just sped up. We were all very quiet. I asked the group again, 'no more?' to which they answered, 'yeah no more'

Zilla at times started singing her 90s karaoke to break the silence. Alhamdulillah, we were protected. Nothing happened, and we got to the trailhead safe and sound.

As we got to our car, the rain started pouring. Albeit a short rain, we were glad we made it out unscathed. We went for a late lunch, and Zana told us what she saw when we were at the river crossing. She saw something... or someone, flew over. She didn't say anything until we were out of there.

We made our way back to KL. And then I started googling Mount Berembun. Ohhh. Had I done a deeper dig before we set foot there, I probably never would have asked for my birthday hike to be Mount Berembun. 

I get that every place we go to is not our place. We were always very careful to always be respectful.

Well, I still wonder to this day, what was the sound we heard that day. A real panther? There have been panthers sighted there from what I read. And was it trying to attack us? And if it did, what made it stop?



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