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| Cameron Centrum Mall |
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| Riding through the bowels of Kampung Rajah (unnamed road) |
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| Greenhouses |
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| Riding through the farms |
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| Gorgeous! |
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| Lots of potholes! |
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| Making our way to rejoin Route 185 |
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| Making our way to rejoin Route 185 |
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| The lasts of the greenhouses before our final departure from Kampung Rajah |
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| We made it out!!! |
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| A few km after rejoined Route 185, we made a stop for bananas and sweet corn |
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| Fresh vegetables |
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| ...and then we stopped for banana and corn!!! Jagung susu can be eaten raw and tastes superbly sweet. |
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| ...and then we stopped for durians!!! After this photo was taken, then only did Claudine realized the protective glass to her phone camera had cracked. |
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| The famous hillslope signage, popular with all cyclists coming to Cameron Highlands |
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| Keldai Betina at the entrance of the tunnel |
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| Jac approaching the exit of the tunnel |
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| The tunnel can be quite a squeeze ! |
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| Right after the tunnel, views of the Titiwangsa range |
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| Banjaran Cafe |
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| Blurry view of the road across the valley and uphill access road to Kinta Valley Farm |
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| Joyce and her rescuers |
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| RM50 for cattle class !!! |
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| Right after Imperium @ Pulai Memorial Park |
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| Feeling victorious at Cendol Chor |
If you take a look at the map of Cameron Highlands, Route 59 is split into 2 at Brinchang town. The left fork near Hotel Titiwangsa takes you all the way to Lojing, Gua Musang and Simpang Pulai. This one way traffic flow diversion, is meant to ease congestion in the town center.
As the left fork takes you away from the epicentre of the town, the right fork, again a one way traffic flow but in reversed, guides vehicles from Brinchang's Police Station, into town and all the way downhill to Tapah. Instead of taking the left fork as we did yesterday, we pushed our bikes, counter traffic, all the way to Hong Kong Hotel and Restaurant for our breakfast this morning.
Listening to John's ravings over his Sarawak kolok noodle drowned in pork skin curry and long beans had convinced Claudine to try and indeed it was a good as promoted. This man is a natural born salesman!
After breakfast, we continued pushing our bikes, counter traffic, uphill and all the way to Cameron Centrum Mall . Once there, we began our climb all over again like we did yesterday during our Gunung Brinchang challenge.
At Singgah Selera, we made the same regrouping stop. Again, our sweat glands went into overdrive and again we disrobed !!!
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| Note the mists over the road |
Once we reached Copthorne Hotel, the downhill descent began and very soon, VT and Claudine found themselves riding alone together with no sights of anyone! Not trying to chase anyone, they made many stops on their own to cool down the disc brakes on their bikes.
Assuming the team would have stopped to capture Guan Di Miao temple, nestled at the hilltop and overlooking Route 59 in Tringkap... Nobody was in sight!
Thinking they will spot the team at Sungai Telom's water gates as the gushing sound of the river was hard to ignore... No one was waiting!
Hoping to see some familiar faces at Taman Omni Cassia in Kampung Raja... Again, none!
Riding past Kampung Raja's small industries, they slowed down hoping to see the team waiting... They were disappointed to see no one!
Once past the small industries, they came upon Taman Matahari Cerah. Craning their necks as they rolled past the housing estate with some shoplots fronting the main road, they saw nobody with bicycles.
They only managed to regroup with the team at Restoran Yat Yee, at the junction to Kampung Raja's market. Out came a series of lectures from Claudine on safety and team work. She stressed on the need to cool down the brakes and to regroup.
As her incessant rambling stoked the fire, Jac spoke up. She wanted to know who is leading the ride. Meanwhile, everyone had fallen silent to avoid a confrontation but Mr Liew was brave to speak up, asking for peace!
After our break, everyone filed out meekly to resume our ride. As we were just pusing off, Mr Lim lost his balance! He suffered some light bruises which was attended to by the girls.
Soon, he was riding again and was made to follow everyone on the steep climb, through the bowels of Kampung Raja. We were literally riding right through the farmlands, many a times surrounded by greenhouses.
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| Vegetables grown on soil |
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| Hydroponic method |
It was the right choice to bypass Blue Valley. Instead, we saw different methods of farming...from the conventional soil method to hydroponic method. Sometimes, the smell of fertilizers used can be overwhelmingly bad!
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| What an expensive tour!!! S21 replaces S20 with broken protective glass. Thankfully, the repair was done later for at a mere cost of RM100 |
Talking about bad, the roads were pretty bad, filled with potholes. During one of those bumps, the protective glass on Claudine's phone camera broke.
After the hillside signage welcoming everyone to Cameron Highlands, we crossed the border into Perak. The downhill glide continues to the tunnel cum hillslope retaining wall.
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| Here comes Mr Lim and Joyce |
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| Here comes John. Note the packet of corn dangling |
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| Moments before the corn fell to the ground |
At the entrance of the tunnel, Claudine stopped to take photos. John sped past her. Midway in the tunnel, he stopped.
Looking ahead, Claudine panicked over the poor visibility. Looking back, a few vehicles were screaming down the hill! She acted quickly, flagging her hand and pointing towards the tunnel. Her signal seemed to work as the vehicles, all slowed down.
When assured that there were no more vehicles, Claudine moved forward to find John helplessly trying to figure how to transport the heavy bag of corn he had bought for his girls. The hook at the handlebar had snapped.
Soon, Claudine found herself riding with the corn in her pannier. After all, she still had room and a further delay in the tunnel can be dangerous.
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| Majestic mountain ranges behind |
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| Gorgeous views |
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| Route 185 |
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| While Tapah to Brinchang is a continuous but gradual climb, Simpang Pulai to Brinchang has its ups and downs plus a lot more traffic! |
Not far from the tunnel, the gang had regrouped at an open field which gives a high vantage point of the Titiwangsa mountain ranges. It seems the land has been cleared for future development, possibly a roadside cafe or souvenier shop.
Later, our stop at Kafe Banjaran comes with scenic views of the road across the valley. Whilst everyone seemed to be having a good time, down below, not far from where we stood, landslides and cliff management sent a cold shiver down Claudine's spine. No wonder, Kafe Banjaran appeared abandoned and a new bypass built.
We were all pushing off from Kafe Banjaran with some of us already starting our descents when Joyce popped her tyres. Mindy and Chooi who were with her quickly flagged a 4WD for her rescue. The tube was best not replaced as she had a side wall tear.
Joyce got back to Mornington Hotel within an hour and RM50 poorer! Despite her hero's refusal to accept the money, Joyce had insisted and only too grateful for the help. After all, she got back at 1 pm while it was still a decent lunch hour!
There are a few orang Asli settlements along Route 185, once we crossed into Perak. The first sights of attap dwellings can be seen a few hundred meters before the Gunung Suku trailhead. Further downhill, orang asli stalls selling bottled honey sparsely lined the road between Pos Atap Baru and Pos Slim.
At one of the unmanned stalls, a few hundred meters after Pos Atap Baru, Mr Liew took the opportunity to nap while we waited for Mindy and Chooi who were delayed in sorting out Joyce's transport arrangements. After regrouping, Mindy herself had a puncture near the honey sellers, not far from Kampung Jangkak. While the front riders had stopped on a bridge to enjoy the views of the ravine, we only realized trouble was brewing behind when the rest of the team failed to arrive for the second time!
At midday, there was no where else to go but to wait by the end of the bridge where a few trees offered some sparse shelter from the sun. By then, we had 27 km more to go.
R&R Pos Sungai Raya was almost deserted except for a Kedai runcit. We were hungry but the thought of eating gardenia buns made us decide to roll further downhill.
Surau Kampung Keramat was also very quiet except for a few boys loitering around on their motorcycles. Grateful for toilets, we relieved our bursting bladders!
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| Approaching our regrouping point at the entrance to Pulai Memorial |
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| Further down, the road becomes unpleasant passing by dusty quarries |
The gradient was steep coming to Imperium @ Pulai Memorial Park. We found ourselves speeding very fast downhill and braking very hard.
Coincidentally, this area is accident prone with the worst in 2010, when a tour bus overturned. 22 passengers died on the spot while another 5 passengers succumbed to serious injuries at the hospital.
At Cendol Chor, we had a late lunch of assam laksa and cendol before making our final push to Mornington Hotel, our stay for the night. The fish broth was so delicious, we drank it up like soup. The cendol also helps to kill the fire from the cili padi.
John returned home the same afternoon, nursing a flu he contracted while in the Highlands. His RTK test returned negative but it will soon be the scare of a lifetime for the rest the group when some of our test results returned positive by the end of the tour!
Still ignorant, we celebrated our Cameron Highlands success over dinner at Hooray Restaurant! There were indeed many shouts of Hooray as we cheered over good food, great ride and good team support!
Photo Credits :
Mindy
Jac
