Do you love exploring new trekking destinations? If your answer is yes, then the Trek Committee is the committee for you. We are currently in our 2nd year and the committee comprises of 16 adventure lovers.
We started the academic year with a sub-committee trip to Lata Berembun. Next, we explored Gunung Panti where our trek mentor, Ren Jian taught us various knots and lashes that are essential for a safe trek. To further enhance our skills, we attended the basic 1st aid course organized by the Singapore Red Cross Society.
However, it is not all about skills acquisition. We embarked on our recce trips to Chiling Waterfall, in Selangor and Gunung Lambak, in Johor, led by Weng Hao & Lionel respectively. The journey to Chiling Waterfall was especially tough as the path is unmarked and we had to make our own markings with the white tape we brought. It was later reported in a trekking forum that the park rangers have now marked out the path clearly with white tape, we had a good laugh! Gunung Lambak was also a challenging trek as the trails were badly eroded. Our next trekking destination was Pulau Tioman and it was led by Kian Pang. We did snorkeling and woke up at 4am the next morning to do our first ever night trek. It was pretty exhilarating as we could hear a lot of ruffles from the bushes yet could not make out what animals was it.
Finally, it was time to prepare for our trek of the year – Gunung Tahan, led by Weng Hao and Chuan Hui. For the local trainings, we did stairs climbing in SRC and loads endurance at Bukit Timah hill. Next, we went Gunung Belumut for our overseas training where we trekked up and down within 9 hours. It was definitely physically and mentally demanding for us but the fish spa at the river definitely did take away all our tiredness. Then, we went Mt Ophir. Unfortunately, we could not reach the summit due to a heavy rain. Nevertheless, it still gave us a taste of what to expect in Gunung Tahan.
On 30th June 2009, 13 of us left Singapore for Gunung Tahan. It was a 7D6N trek. We crossed countless rivers, trekked up countless knolls with our minimum 20kg bags and even endured numerous leech and sandfly bites. We slept in wet tents for 6 nights, trekked in the same damp clothing for days, all in exchange for the spectacular view from the 2187m summit. It was definitely breathtaking and worth every step we took up the mountain!
We could not bring these treks to the NTU population as they were conducted during the holidays. However, no worries as we will bring it to you as soon as possible!
