BM hill: Reached the top

So finally after a break of almost three weeks, I've resumed my exercise regime at the Bukit Mertajam hill. And yesterday afternoon as I drove into the park at the foothills, the first thing I noticed was that the new archway at the entrance had been completed. Mmm, okay, I thought to myself, not bad at all.

I decided to go up the way of the dam. Occasionally, I do use this track. It's a well-worn hill path that skirts the left edge of the whole park and while it goes to the top of the hill, which is about 430 metres above sea level, I've always emerged after about a 40-minute leisurely climb to join the tarmac road.

But yesterday at the spur of the moment, I decided to follow another fellow hiker and climb all the way up to the top. I haven't done it before but then, there is always a first time for everything. It was a slow climb, that was for sure, because I didn't know what to expect. The way was certainly tougher than anything I had encountered before on this hill. At certain parts, it was almost an 80-degree climb and I had to support or pull myself up with the tree trunks. Nevertheless, there was never any danger along the way. Just had to take it easy and pace myself for the whole journey.

The climb ended at the transmission towers and I took almost an hour to reach there. The effort was not too bad except that during the latter part of the climb, there was just nobody else using this path beside the other hiker and I. The earth track, though well worn, was devoid of other people, even on a busy Sunday afternoon.

As a footnote, I should just mention that the most boring part of the climb was the descent. The condition of my knees being the way they are, I could not risk going down the same way as I went up. So it had to be a long monotonous walk down the tarmac road. Fifty minutes of dull monotony.

No pictures taken of this climb, however. I left my regular cameras at home as I had not anticipated climbing this way when I left home. And the in-built camera on the mobile has started to give me problems. It just won't snap any picture any more. Darn!